An Open Adoption by Lincoln Caplan

An Open adoption by Lincoln Caplan

About the book: This is the true story of an adoption in which the birth and the adoptive parents not only met but formed a complex relationship--one that illuminates the psychological challenges and rewards of what is now called open adoption. Like many couples, Dan and Lee Stone reached the decision to adopt a child after several years of infertility, and much thought about the nature of adoption. Through a lawyer specializing in open adoption, they were brought together with a twenty year old college student who was unmarried and seven months pregnant. Peggy Bass chose the Stones to be the future parents of her child after considering the letters of several couples describing themselves and why they wanted to adopt. The Stones and Peggy Bass were thus launched on what is still considered perilous experiment by those who favor the conventional form of adoption. In fact, closed adoptions in which the identities and all the details about the birth and the adoptive parents are known only to the officials involved in the adoptions are becoming rare. But as Lincoln Caplan shows in chapters interwoven with the absorbing account of the Stone's and Peggy Bass's developing relationship the debate is intense within the adoptive world over whether and how much the birth and the adoptive couples should learn about one another. Mr Caplan explains the changing social values and assumptions about the nature of family that shape the debate, and the psychological and anthropological studies that fuel it studies which look at the impact of adoption on the child and investigate how significant a role genetic endowment plays in determining temperament and achievement. Mr Caplan's dramatic true account of the bond formed by Lee and Dan Stone and Peggy Bass, the social and psychological pressures with which they contended through the birth of Rebecca, and the surprising aftermath, provides extraordinary insights into those questions faced by every adoptive parent, birth mother, and adoptee, as well as anyone who works in the field of adoption.

My thoughts and opinion on the book: I thought this was a really good book. It really explains what open adoption is and what it is like for both the adoptive and birth parents. I will recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of adoption and open adoption.

Happy reading.