Essay/Term paper: Biological rights

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sociology Term Papers

Biological Rights


What is a parent? A parent is someone who will love and nurture a child, and help mold it into the best that child can be. At least that is what society would like to believe. If someone adopts a child, does that make him or her any less of a parent? Is it not possible that they will love that child more then its biological parent could? Unfortunately, once adoption is final some biological parents try to fight for their child back. This can only bring confusion into the child"s life period. Tearing a child away from the parents it knows, is a cruel, unhealthy and immoral act.
Every state has their own set of laws concerning adoption. The one part that each state varies the most is the "Waiting Period". The "Waiting Period" begins when both sets of parents sign papers signifying the beginning of the adoption. "Typically, the waiting period ends six months after the child is placed in the home. The temporary decree is replaced by a final one. The most important feature of this decree is that it is final. The biological parents now have no legal relationship to the child."{Bolles 94} Some biological parents, however, just do not understand that. They fight to get their child back, that they so willingly gave up. They don"t care about the feelings of the child, only their personal needs that they feel the need to satisfy. "Children are compared to property rather then a person".{Bolles 36} These children, who live with the adoptive parents, who are now in a safe, sound home, should not have to be in a tense atmosphere.
Once a child is nurtured for by a pair of parents, the parents which care for the child, a family is set. "Nature is not nearly as important as nurture for who does the child love?"{Ruskai 45} The parents that love them in return and give them happiness or the parents that made them, but then ran away cowardly? It is not fair for the child to be born into this world already facing problems. The child can grow up to have severe issues. The best interests of child are totally being ignored, here. "It is in the best interest of the child to stay with the parents they best know and love".{Nickman 62} No one ever thinks of the child. "The child could forever be stricken with the memory that it was once taken away from their friends, their already begun lives,……everything".{Nickman 42}
There has been one, too many cases in which birthparents fought drastically to get their children back. Two cases such as the "Baby Jessica" story and "The case of Baby Lenore", caused much hype around the world. In both cases, the birthparents took the adoptive parents to court to regain custody of their biological children. In the "Baby Jessica" story, the biological parents won after they sued the state supreme court for custody of Jessica. Baby Jessica, who is now 8, suffered emotional damage, mental scars which will never disappear with just a band-aid. In "The case of Baby Lenore", the adoptive parents won after a long legal battle. Baby Lenore, who is now 29, is happy that she is still with her adoptive parents. For, she loves them much more then she can ever love her biological parents.
If the biological parents wanted the child so badly, and if they claim to love the child so much, then why did they put the child up for adoption in the first place? Why put the child through so much torment? Once you put your child up for adoption, it is final. There are so many good men and woman out there waiting to adopt children because whatever their reason is, they can not have children of their own. "People adopt children for exactly the reasons they choose to have children biologically- they want a family; they want a child; they want a way to express and give love".{Nickman 77} Why should they be denied that? Or cut short of that when they already have adopted but their child is being snatched away by their biological parents. There is no reason to destroy a baby"s life before it has really begun by having it caught in a midst of controversy between two sets of parents.