Adoption In America
...for children" Joyce Maguire Pavao
Adoption is more than giving a child a home. Adoption is about creating a family. People adopt children for all sorts of reasons: suffering infertility, being a single parent and wanting children, and having sympathy towards orphaned children just to name a few. Adoption is a huge part of American society, and has always been important to America's culture.
Little do people know that people we hear about everyday are adopted. There are hundreds of famous people that have been adopted when young: Faith Hill, Jesse Jackson, Nancy Regan, President Gerald Ford, Sarah McLachlan, Tim McGraw, and Scott Hamilton, whom are all still alive. John Lennon, Malcolm X, Nat King Cole, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dave Thomas have all been adopted as well, however they are all deceased (Adoption Celebrities).
Adoption in America has been around since the 1850. It all started with what is called The Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act. The act says that a family can adopt into their own home a child of choice. If the parents of the child are still alive, then they must give legal consent to the pair that wants to adopt the child. If the parents are not alive, then the state must give consent. The act also says that if the child is of 14 years of
age or older, then it is his or her decision to whether they want to be adopted or not (Herman, Helen).
The first adoption agencies started between the years of 1910 and the 1930s. The very first agency was called the Free Synagogue Child Adoption Committee, which was founded by Louise Wise. The second was called the Spence Alumni Society, founded by Clara Spence. Others were the Alice Chapin Nursery and Cradle founded by Alice Chapin and Florence Walrath (Herman Helen).
As the turn of the century came, adoption became more and more popular, and the adoption rates soared....
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