What is Adoption?
In [[English language|English]], '''''adopt''''' may mean 1) to take something up, such as an opinion ('we adopt the view that ....'), or 2) for a grown person to care for another person's child as if it was their own. This article is about the adoption of children. ==Overview== Before adoption laws existed, there was trouble when people gave their children away, and later wanted them back again. These days, children may be put in [[foster care]] for a short time, and after, the child may go back to the parents again. However, legal adoption lasts for ever. After legal adoption the adoptive [[Parent|parent(s)]] have all rights and responsibilities to the child. The biological parents have no [[Rights|legal rights]] or [[wikt:responsibility|responsibilities]] to the child at all. Legal adoptions may only be cancelled if they were not done as the law says.{{cn|date=December 2024}} ==Public opinion== [[File:Anne of Green Gables.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Actors at the [[Anne of Green Gables]] Museum on [[Prince Edward Island]], [[Canada]]. Published in 1908, the story of the orphaned Anne, and how the Cuthberts adopted her, has always been popular]]In the [[Western world|West]], till not long ago, public opinion was that people should only have children if they were married. Everything else meant shame, not only for the parents, but also for a child whose parents were not married. Many children of unmarried parents were given for adoption, and adoptive parents would make out they were biological parents and try to keep secret that their child was adopted. Today there is still secrecy about adoption. General opinion is that all adoptions are good, but even so, experts know that adoption can be trouble. Some ask questions about the family love for an adopted child.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/policy/polface.html |title=Policy and practice: many faces of adoption |work=adoptioninstitute.org |access-date=14 June 2010 |archive-date=19 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/200602190