Complex Adoption And Assisted Reproductive Technology

New pathways to parenthood are being traveled by growing numbers of couples and single adults, including many who face medical and social barriers to having children. From a psychological standpoint, families formed by complex adoption and assisted reproductive technology (ART) are first and foremost just that--families. Yet they also face a unique array of issues and challenges that may be clarified and resolved in the therapeutic setting. This much-needed book provides a deeper understanding of the ways that complex adoption and ART shape the life experience of children and parents, identifying important areas and methods for assessment and treatment. Combining developmental and ecological research with in-depth case material, the book establishes an integrative framework for clinical practice. The authors draw upon knowledge and skills gained from working in a variety of new family contexts. In the area of adoption, many new options have evolved that differ from traditional practices of adoption at birth. Thousands of older children in foster and institutional care in the United States and abroad are awaiting permanent placements. Open adoption, kinship adoption, and transracial adoption are also transforming family life, as is the use of ART, which raises significant issues of family identity and family process. The book explores such key themes as the significance of early experience, the capacity to recover from exposure to trauma, the impact of heredity and the difference that environment can make, and the centrality of primary attachment relationships. Also discussed are the impact of bias and other issues affecting families of difference, including lesbian and gay families. Concluding chapters consider promising future directions for training and research. This is an important resource for social workers, family therapists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals working with children and families, as well as researchers and students in these fields. It will serve as a text in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

The controversies in adoption have extended across a spectrum of policy and practice issues, and although the issues have become clear, resolution has not been achieved nor has consensus developed regarding a framework on which to improve the quality of adoption policy and practice. This book is the fourth in a series to use an ethics-based framework for analyzing and resolving these complex challenges in adoption while avoiding the divisiveness that has heretofore impeded their resolution. This book raises the question of whether assisted reproduction (including sperm donation, egg donation, and embryo transfer), which may result in a child who is not genetically related to one or both parents, creates a situation that is analogous to adoption. The book examines whether the knowledge acquired in the field of adoption should be applied in the area of assisted reproduction and whether issues in adoption, such as identity, access to background information, and search, are equally applicable in the context of reproductive technology. The chapters are: (1) "Infertility, Assisted Reproduction, and Adoption"; (2) "The Meaning of Parenthood in Assisted Reproduction and Adoption"; (3) "The Parties Served through Adoption and Assisted Reproduction"; (4) "Anonymity and Information Access"; (5) "Market Forces in Adoption and Assisted Reproduction"; (6) "Embryo Donation and Adoption"; and (7) "The Law of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction." The concluding chapter notes that the limited research in assisted reproduction has made it difficult to determine the relative risks and benefits of a number of aspects of current practice and that identifying the key issues can serve as a first step toward full discussion of the challenges faced by professionals in adoption and assisted reproduction. (Contains 181 references.) (KB)

This volume explores the ethics of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically assisted reproduction. For many people, these methods are separate and distinct: they can choose either adoption or assisted reproduction. But for others, these options blend together. For example, in some jurisdictions, the path of assisted reproduction for same-sex couples is complicated by the need for the partner who is not genetically related to the resulting child to adopt this child if she wants to become the child's legal parent. The essays in this volume critically examine moral choices to pursue adoption, assisted reproduction, or both, and highlight the social norms that can distort decision-making. Among these norms are those that favour people having biologically related children ('bionormativity') or that privilege a traditional understanding of family as a heterosexual unit with one or more children where both parents are the genetic, biological, legal, and social parents of these children. As a whole, the book looks at how adoption and assisted reproduction are morally distinct from one another, but also emphasizes how the two are morally similar. Choosing one, the other, or both of these approaches to family-making can be complex in some respects, but ought to be simple in others, provided that one's main goal is to become a parent.

This book examines the representation of infertility, assisted reproduction, miscarriage, adoption and surrogacy in a wide range of media, including blogs, vlogs, social media posts and factual programming. In so doing, it illustrates how pregnancy loss, involuntary childlessness and non-traditional mothering are being depicted across the media landscape. Whilst the topic of motherhood has emerged as a significant area of academic debate, narratives of unsuccessful or unconventional mothering have remained largely absent, even at a time when there is a growing conversation about infertility online. Timely, pertinent and original, the book demonstrates the importance of a broader and more informed cultural discussion about fertility and family building.

During the past few years, reproductive technology and surrogacy have emerged in a number of European countries as issues of debate. There has been a steady increase in the use of reproductive technology in the Nordic countries, as well as an increase in the use of cross-border medical treatment in order to achieve pregnancy. At the same time, a number of ethical issues have been raised concerning the rights of the participants, including the children. In the fall of 2013, the Nordic Committee on Bioethics organised a conference in Reykjavik that focused on the current situation in the Nordic countries and on the global aspects of reproductive technology and surrogacy, including the market that is emerging in this field. This conference summary highlights the main ethical issues facing researchers, policymakers and practitioners who deal with these issues.

The strength of this collection of essays is its careful consideration, from a variety of perspectives within the Catholic tradition, of the practice of embryo adoption. It approaches the question in an open and reasonable way by allowing proponents of diverse positions within the tradition. This method both sheds a great deal of light on the particular question and at the same time introduces the reader to the relevant general principles that guide Catholic moral thought.

Around three quarters of people who turn to adoption do so because of infertility and those working in this field need information, guidance and support to assist them in the process of adoption to support the adopters and to deal with any issues that may result from infertility. Adopting after Infertility is an accessible and informative interdisciplinary book that addresses the issues that professionals working with adopters and the adopters themselves face when going through the adoption process and the impact of infertility on their experiences. The book includes chapters on the effects of infertility, why people may choose adoption and the assessment and preparation process. It also covers what an Adoption Panel needs to know about the prospective parents, the experiences of those coming to adoption from minority communities or when living with health conditions and post-adoption support needs. Personal accounts by people who have experienced adopting after infertility are included throughout the book. This book will be essential reading for professionals and academics from a range of disciplines including social work, psychology, health, mental health and counselling. It will also be invaluable to students studying for post-qualifying awards.

Millions of children have been born in the United States with the help of cutting-edge reproductive technologies, much to the delight of their parents. But alarmingly, scarce attention has been paid to the lax regulations that have made the U.S. a major fertility tourism destination. And without clear protections, the unique rights and needs of the children of assisted reproduction are often ignored. This book is the first to consider the voice of the child in discussions about regulating the fertility industry. The controversies are many. Donor anonymity is preventing millions of children from knowing their genetic origins. Fertility clinics are marketing genetically enhanced babies. Career women are saving their eggs for later in life. And Third World women are renting their wombs to the rich. Meanwhile, the unregulated fertility market charges forward as a multi-billion-dollar industry. This deeply-considered book offers answers to the urgent question: Who will protect our babies of technology?