Trans racial Adoption

TRANS RACIAL ADOPTION

In a well-publicized 1989 case , a black boy named Reecie West was raised from the age of two months by Dale and Jan May , a white foster couple in Cincinnati , Ohio . When Reecie was freed for adoption , the Mays applied to adopt him . However , the social service department decided to search the country for a black family instead . At the last moment , the Mays ' application was denied . The boy , age two and a half , was placed with a black couple in another state . Eight weeks later the boy was

dead , the victim of what one report called "horrific physical abuse " at the hands of his new adoptive parents . With this horrific revelation there shall be a critical look at trans-racial adoption and how it has affected thousands of children worldwide . For the purpose of this essay however , I shall argue in support of trans-racial adoption

For the purpose of this essay however , adoption is defined as a process by which children are brought together with adults who are not their biological parents to form a family . Practiced informally throughout human history , adoption in the United States has evolved into a formalized legal procedure its primary statutory purpose is to protect the welfare of children in cases where the birth parents are gone or unable to care for their offspring . Through adoption , the legal ties to a child 's birth parents are severed . Adoptees (adopted persons ) are seen in the eyes of the law as permanent members of the adoptive family with all the legal rights and privileges of biological children

In trans-racial adoptions however , children are placed with an adoptive family of another race . These adoptions may be through public and private agencies or be independent , but most trans-racial adoptions take place through the public child welfare system . In United States , The civil rights movement of the 1960s led to an increase in trans-racial adoptions involving black children and white parents . In a statistical survey conducted in 1998 , an estimated 15 percent of the 36 ,000 adoptions of foster children were trans-racial or trans-cultural adoptions

It quite unfortunate that despite the various merits of trans-racial adoptions there has been hot debates on its prohibition . Ironically however , polls show that a large majority of both black and white Americans support trans-racial adoptions . A 1991 survey of 975 adults conducted by CBS , for instance , found that 70 percent of whites favored them , along with 71 percent of blacks

Flowing form the above , a widespread public support in United States helped persuade Congress in 1994 to pass the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act which prohibits using race , culture , or ethnic identity to block or delay trans-racial foster-care placements and adoptions . In fact , the federal act was intended to shorten the length of time children spend in foster homes and orphanages by facilitating trans-racial adoptions

It is rather sad that despite the enactment of this law , today , children wait an average of two-and-a-half years to be adopted . Thousands of them can still be...