Adoption is a boon to birth parents, their children, and to adoptive parents. In many cases, all three parties involved in the process plus secondary parties like relatives and society at large, benefit by an easy adoptive process. As more and more couples turn to adoption as a solution to an inability to bear children or as an alternative to natural childbirth, raising a number of ethical questions. On the one hand, adoption is inherently amoral: an unwanted child needs a home and a willing, competent family or individual is able to provide the necessary love and care. However, beneath that rests a host of issues, including the right of the birth mother or father to contact the child; the right of the adoptive parent(s) to glean genetic or other information about the biological parents; and the right of the child to know about his or her birth parents. In...
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