GREENWOOD, Ind. (PRWEB) February 13, 2020
The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (formerly the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys (“AAAA”)) is a national organization dedicated to the competent and legal practice of adoption and assisted reproduction law, and advocates for the improvement of adoption laws and practices. It plays a leading role in the development of laws, policies and practices designed to benefit the lives of all members of the adoption triad and the protection of all children and their right to a family.
The current practice of allowing publicly funded adoption agencies to limit adoption opportunities to certain families denies children equal access to loving homes by restricting the resources available to potential adoptive parents and options for the placement of children in need. These limited resources in many areas around the country underscore the need for wide opportunities to place children with forever families. AAAA does not support any laws or policies that limit the rights of children to find their “forever homes” – with whomever can provide a safe and loving home.
It is timely to highlight our resolution from April 25, 2015 which states:
Joint Resolution of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys on the Protection and Security of Children through Equality in Adoption, Foster Care, and Assisted Reproductive Technology
WHEREAS, the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys is a national organization dedicated to enhancing and improving the practice of adoption law and securing the best interests of children in foster care; and
WHEREAS, the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys is a specialty division of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, dedicated to the advancement of best legal practices in the area of assisted reproductive technology law in the United States and internationally, and dedicated to the protection of the interests of all parties, including the children, involved in assisted reproductive technology matters; and
WHEREAS, the missions of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (together “the Academy”) include advancing the security of children through permanent adoption when possible, the protection of children through safe and secure foster care with appropriate permanency planning, and the recognition of intended parents as legal parents for those using modern medical technology to build families through assisted reproductive technology; and
WHEREAS, the Academy recognizes and acknowledges that its members have diverse personal opinions and beliefs, and the Academy respects the diversity of its members and does not condition membership on any particular personal belief system, and supports its members' independence in the practice of law; and
WHEREAS, the missions of the Academy are best achieved when all parents and prospective parents are treated equally, when all children have the right to be placed into and/or to grow up in loving homes, where sex, sexual orientation, race, color, age, religion, national origin, marital status, political belief, or physical handicap are not factors in determining an individual’s qualifications to parent, and the people acting in loco parentis to children are, in fact, recognized as the legal parents.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys support the protection and security of children by affirming the right of individuals and couples: to adopt children, to serve as foster parents, and to become legal parents of children born through the use of assisted reproductive technology, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, race, color, age, religion, national origin, political belief, or disability.
