Sir, - The subject of adoption was raised again in the Pat Kenny Show on RTE on March 20th. As representatives of those working in the field, we were disappointed that the value of adoption assessments were not acknowledged on the programme.
Voluntary adoption agencies and health boards have been given the legal responsibility to provide the best possible adoption service. The users of our service are birth parents who are trying to make the best decision for their child, couples who wish to have a family by adoption, and the infant who becomes an adopted person. Couples entering adoptive parenthood need to be able to cope with the additional tasks which this entails. Adopted children need to be brought up with a knowledge of their origins. This can be greatly helped by the openness which now exists in adoption practice and in society as a whole.
There is often an ongoing exchange of information through our agencies between adoptive families and birth parents in which adopted children can become involved. There is also now the possibility of open adoption where children can continue to have contact with their birth parents after they are adopted. Inter-country adoption has the added tasks of helping children deal with the repercussions of having been removed from another culture and the possible long-term effects of having spent time in institutional care.
Our role is not just to assess the suitability of couples but to help them look at the many complex issues involved in adoption so that they are empowered to make informed choices. We regret that the importance of our work and our responsibility to every child for whom adoption is being considered appears to have been undermined in much of the recent debates in the media. -Yours, etc., Hazel Douglas, Anne Beirne, Una Coakley,
PR Committee, Council of Irish Adoption Agencies, South Anne Street, Dublin 2.