Adoption rules in Quebec will be overhauled to allow continuing links between adopted children and their biological parents.
In presenting a draft bill yesterday to amend Quebec's Civil Code, Justice Minister Kathleen Weil said the changes will affect a large number of Quebec families.
Most of the changes have been enacted in other jurisdictions of Canada and in the United States, she added, but some proposed changes were borrowed from France.
At present, adoption in Quebec is confidential, meaning the adoptive and birth parents often don't know each other.
Weil said the draft proposal would bring into law what many Quebecers are already doing with regard to closer contact between children and biological parents.
Weil proposed a "dual parenting" option, which comes from France, in which a child would be a full member of the adoptive family but continue to have contact with the birth family. The birth parents' names could even be included on the child's birth certificate along with those of the adoptive parents.
Weil is also proposing the concept of open adoption, which means that before an adoption, the birth family and the adoptive family agree to stay in touch afterward.
This option could include the exchange of information about the child, and provides for mediation if there are disagreements between adoptive and birth parents.
Such adoptions, recognizing both sets of parents, would be optional and would be possible only when the adoption takes place in Quebec, Weil said, but a committee is looking into how the concept might apply to international adoptions.
The new rules would also apply to "mono-parental" and "homo-parental" families, Weil said.
The draft bill allows for consultation, with public hearings in January, Weil said.
The new rules would not be retroactive, and current confidentiality rules would apply to adoptions concluded before the changes take place.
"Leave the past alone," Weil said.
But the exception is that children adopted either before or after the changes would have the right to obtain information about medical family history. A court could order such information to be forwarded to medical authorities without disclosing the identity of the birth parents.
Other changes proposed yesterday by Weil would give all adoptive children the formal right to know the identity of their birth parents, unless the birth parents veto it.
Children over age 14 who are wondering if they were adopted would be able to ask Youth Protection.
Youth Protection could also contact the biological parents to determine whether they want to get in touch. But a child over age 18 would have the right to register a veto to prevent such contact.
Mona Propst, manager for adoption services at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, said yesterday there are advantages and disadvantages to bringing biological parents into the picture; she had not read the draft bill, however.
8 comments:
Really? "There are advantages and disadvantages to bringing biological parents into the picture"
Well I guess the advantage is hey...that's how you got your adopted kid, and the disadvantage, well I guess its hard to pretend a child is born in your heart when the woman whose womb the child actually grew in,is a real and tangible person!!!
Holy Christ the entitlement of these people never,ever ends!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this is a very useful and positive option.
France, where the idea comes from, also maintains plenary adoption, in which the child's legal ties to the original family are severed.
Denise et al - check out this reaction to the proposed change in law: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/adoptive-
parents-arent-second-best/article1317521/
Leckey says it "undermines the whole idea of adoption." Only if you see adoption only from the perspective of the adoptive parents and not what it is best for the child who HAS two sets of parents!
It's all about entitlement and ultimately ownership,the need to have a receipt or ammended birth certificate that proves you bought what you paid for and therefore and forever more "it" is yours and yours alone. Fuck me, I hate these people almost as much as I hate my son's adopters!!!!!
The world is starting to realize that we are human beings born with cultural, biological, historical ties and are NOT just flesh to be traded for cash.
It is a bit confusing.
Just a wild guess, but something may have got 'lost in translation' here, and the writer may have meant "dual option" rather than "dual parenting".
However, there is a reference in the Globe and Mail report to a "double family bond" which seems to make more sense. At least to me.
Adoption rules in Quebec will be overhauled to allow continuing links between adopted children and their biological parents.Thanks for blogger for sharing such a informative ideas.
http://legallaw.sosblog.com/admin.php?ctrl=posts&tab=posts&blog=1&post_id=29#form_comment
"The new rules would not be retroactive, and current confidentiality rules would apply to adoptions concluded before the changes take place".
"Leave the past alone," Weil said.
Are you kidding me? What a contradiction. How can everyone else who have been searching for years be ignored? You should be fighting for ALL adoptees not just those adopted in 2009 and after. Justice for EVERYONE. Quebec is ALWAYS behind the ball.
Post a Comment