Adoptee Right to Annul Adoption

Always thinking outside of the box and talking about more equitable and just child welfare practices we present to our readers a concept that should be a reality–the adult adoptee’s RIGHT to annul their own adoption.

We have heard from first parents who readopted their children as adults, but as one reader eloquently stated, she should not have had to legally adopt her own child. We agree.

We have also heard from adoptees who have reunited with birthfamily as adults and no longer have a relationship with their adoptive families due to abuse, relationship conflicts, death of APs or other issues. If the legal relationship is unwanted, why should they be forced to legally belong to their adoptive families?

Not all adoptions work out, not all adoptions were needed or should have occurred in the first place, and some adoptive families are so heinous no child should have grown up in them.

Little known fact: Adoptive parents have the legal power to rescind their children’s adoptions and allow their first parents (when desired) to once again become the legal parent. This is not a disruption or dissolution, it is as if the adoption never occurred. Without permission from APs to rescind an adoption, adoptees can only be adopted yet AGAIN in order to sever legal ties as adults and reclaim legal ties to their first parent(s).

So we ask the child welfare community, why not allow adult adoptees the right to legally annul their own adoptions?

See also AMFOR’s efforts at http://www.amfor.net/stop.html

And Adopting Back in Canada: http://www.adoptingback.com/index.html