The Opposing Viewpoints Series from Greenhaven Press is a series I have long admired as a student, citizen and prospective educator. The series contains over 90 books ranging from Abortion to Welfare Reform. The series has been in existence for 25 years but is frequently updated. Each book organizes itself around four or five main questions relating to a topic. The editors seek out both prominent and lesser-known voices on various sides to give opinions from multiple viewpoints.
So what is controversial about adoption? More than you might think. Some essays in the book directly oppose each other. The first chapter is “Should Adoption Be Encouraged?” The essays are: “Adoption Should Be Encouraged”, “Adoption Should Not Be Encouraged” [this writer believes that even if a child’s safety mandates being raised away from biological parents, the child’s name should never be changed and supervised contact must be maintained], “Adoption is an Alternative to Abortion and Single Parenting”, and “Adoption is not an Alternative to Abortion”.
In other chapters the essays are not so much diametrically opposed as different in emphasis. Chapter Two is entitled: Whose Rights Should Be Protected in the Adoption Process? Different authors argue for protecting the rights of birthmothers, birthfathers, adoptive parents, and the child. Most of these authors do not seem to be arguing against each other but only to see that a particular party is not neglected.
Chapter Three: What Types of Adoptions Should Be Encouraged? contains essays promoting and raising concerns about transracial adoption and adoption by gay and lesbian persons.
Chapter Four on Adoption Policies considers whether open adoption is best or whether “Clear Familial Boundaries” are best, whether adoption records should remain sealed or be opened, whether policies should emphasize family preservation or move more quickly to terminate parental rights and free children for adoption, and whether the internet should be used to recruit adoptive families or not.
Contributors to the book include adoptive parents, birthparents, adopted adults, social workers and law professors. There are representatives of organizations including Concerned United Birthparents, the National Council for Adoption, the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform and the Children’s Bureau, as well as writers for the conservative journal The National Review and the liberal journal The Nation.
I reviewed the 2002 paperback edition. Amazon.com is currently offering versions from 1995 on, including an inexpensive “pamphlet version” published in 1996. The newest hardcover version published in 2006 includes new essays on the same general topics as the 2002 version reviewed here, with the addition of material on embryo adoptions. For information about the versions available from Amazon, click here.
School Library Journal recommends the Opposing Viewpoints Series for seventh grade and older. As usual, I recommend parents preview the material and prepare to discuss it with their children.
Please see these related blogs:
Choosing Whether and How to Adopt Transracially–Our Decision
Why We Chose International Adoption
Great Books You Can’t Put Down