Could Adoption Be A True Act of Love?

LEGISLATION dictates that Social Workers are required to inform
adoptive parents about the outcome of their efforts to Adopt
children only after the 60-day mark.

World renowned Motivational Speaker Les Brown was born with his twin
brother, Wesley, in an abandoned building in Liberty City, a
low-income section of Miami, Florida.

The twins were subsequently given up for Adoption and adopted by Mamie
Brown, a 38-year-old single woman who worked as a cafeteria attendant
and domestic
assistant.

Both the Brown brothers have turned out to be constructive,
well-rounded and upstanding members of society.

And Les calls himself “Mrs. Mamie Brown’s Baby Boy” and says that “All
that I am and all that I ever hoped to be, I owe to my mother”.

Les also goes on to share the many times his mother told them he loved
them and all her other children; and also gave them true love.

And yet in-spite of this great story of Adoption, it is generally
viewed as a given to declare that child orphans grow
up with a substantial level of confusion and feelings of
inadequacies, particularly when their surroundings abound
with their counterparts, children who have biological parents,
rather than Adopted ones like themselves, expert opinion
suggests.

And they add that, as noble as the idea of adoption
might seem, it is regarded as one of the most
complicated processes of acquiring a family for the
individual or
individuals who intend to adopt and subsequently, the
potential adoptee.

Adoption experts and vulnerable children scholars confirm that
this process entails a procedure whereby an individual
assumes the parental role of another, usually a
minor, from that person’s biological or legal
parent or parents. More often than not, all rights and
responsibilities are permanently transferred, along with
filiation, from the biological
parent or parents to the adoptees.

Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for
the care of the young, experts are of the view
that, adoption is intended to effect a permanent
change in status of the parties involved. This transformation
requires societal recognition, either through legal
or religious sanction.

“Both biological parents must consent to the
child being adopted,” says Kirstine Stewart, senior
social worker at Impilo Adoption Agency & Child
Protection
Services, a Gauteng-based non-profit organization.

Stewart further states that biological parents legally have
60 days to confirm their decision while the child
is kept at a place of safety during this
time.

Legislation dictates that Social Workers are required to
inform adoptive parents about the outcome of their efforts to
adopt children only after the 60-day mark. When the
results are positive, the children are consequently placed
with the new parents within approximately three
months.

Global research further notes that, historically, some
societies have passed specific laws governing Adoption;
and where others have attempted to achieve adoption

through less formal means, notably via contracts that
specified inheritance rights and parental
responsibilities without any accompanying transfer of
filiation. For example,
the Code of Hammurabi, a well-preserved Babylonian
code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back
to about 1754 BC states: “arising in the 20th
century, modern systems of adoption tend to be
governed by comprehensive statutes and regulations.”
These legal records show that the modern form of
adoption emerged in
the United States, although these forms of this
practice appeared throughout history.

The South African Government Gazette has mandated the Child Care
Act of 1983 in which “a child may be adopted by
a married couple in a joint adoption; a person
who has
married the parent of a child can adopt the
child, with the biological parent’s consent; a
single person can adopt a child.” This is called
the adoption of a stepchild.

Furthermore, any child may be adopted provided
that he/she is under the age of 18 years and
has been abandoned or orphaned. If the child’s
parents are still alive, both parents should give
consent. Writing from the United States of America, another
non-profit organization Gift of Life, which is based in Florida,
proclaims that:

“Due consideration to cultural differences in
placements – including language and religion, however,
cross-cultural placements are not outlawed. The age of
the adoptive
parent/s will be taken into consideration. Adoption
may take place via social workers – usually at
private adoption agencies – or via non-profit
government organizations. In non-abandonment adoptions,
the birth mother has 60 days from the time of
the birth in
which she may change her mind about putting
her child up for adoption.”

Most of the adoptions in South Africa stem
from abandoned babies. In these cases it might take
up to eight months before the child can be
released from a place of safety whilst Social Workers
attempt to trace the biological parents.

Eloise Loots, executive social worker at Procare –
a national adoption agency has the view that:
”Applicants must also be realistic: if you’re
adopting at a late age, will you be able to
manage a teenager when you’re in your 70s?” Loots, who is
in her 40’s adopted her son 17 years ago.

Focusing on criminal offences, Ruth dos Santos of The
Adoption Companion, a national adoption information
service has a positive inclination towards criminal offenders, “A
person with a criminal record can adopt,
depending on the nature of their crime. For example,
a person who has a drunk-driving charge three
to five years before
adopting can be considered if there’s no repeat
offense and the Social Worker determines the
person is rehabilitated.” Dos Santos further advises
that you should first find out as much as
possible about Adoption. “Meet others who’ve adopted,
join Facebook adoption groups and ask questions,”
she says. Talking to others will also help you
to find an agency or private Social Worker.

“It’s a child-centred approach – we’re not
searching for babies for parents, we’re searching for
suitable adoptive parents for adoptable children,”
Steward reiterates.

The experts further explain that after making
the call, some agencies allow parents to visit the
child for a few days before he or she is
legally placed in their care. As revealed by
Scielo South Africa, “Others who don’t have that
system tell the new parents about the child and
the routine before you can take him or her
home.”

The Social Worker files all the documentation
with the Children’s Court in your area and the
adoptive parents go to court to sign the
application form to have the adoption order
granted. The order stipulates that the surname
of the adoptive parents
can be given to the child but this doesn’t
officially happen until Home Affairs changes the
child’s surname in the population register. The
adoption order is sent to the registrar of
adoptions in Pretoria, South Africa to be registered
and is posted
to the parents. When the adoption order is
registered, the child is officially yours – in
terms of the law it’s as if the child were
born to you. You now apply to Home Affairs
for the official name change and new birth
certificate. This could take four to 18 months.”

In an unfortunate turn of events, is the case of
GT v CT [2015] 3 ALL SA 631 (GJ).

“Two children had been legally adopted by their
stepfather while the Child Care Act was in
operation. After the implementation of the
Children’s Act 38 of 2005, however, he applied
for these adoption orders to be rescinded. The
court was faced with a
situation where the application had been brought
in contravention of the maximum two-year-period as
prescribed by the Children’s Act. Although it was
argued that non-compliance with this statutory
requirement prevented the court from adjudicating this
matter, Mokgoatlheng J focused on the best
interests of the child, considered the legality of
the adoption orders, and ultimately concluded that
the supremacy of the best interests of the
child meant that he was not precluded from
hearing the
application. In the end he ordered the rescission
of the adoption orders. The judgment cannot be
supported.”

Themba Skosana and Sandra Ferreira two academics
from the University of South Africa, who compiled
the case study, concluded that, had there been
a statutory requirement for the counseling of the
parents by the adoptions social worker facilitating
the adoptions before they were granted, the
adoption might never have happened in the first
place.

“Unfortunately at the time there was no such
requirement. The impression left by this judgment is
that there was some kind of collusion or
scheming against the stepfather when the adoptions
were granted and that the court looked for a
way to “right
this wrong”. Even if this was so and it was
true that the adoptions had been ”forged on an
unsound legal and moral foundation” and had been
”engineered by the first respondent with the
connivance of the second respondent and the
compliance of the applicant” it has no bearing on
the matter, as the mind-set of the parties,
or the driving force behind the applications, is
not relevant or a factor for the rescission
of an adoption order. The requirements for the
rescission of an adoption order are objective and
not in any way influenced by the purpose or
reason for the application,” Skosana and Ferreira
found.