Revocation periods
Allison Kaplan Sommer links to an adoption case that’s all over the press in Israel.
If we can agree that 72 hours is too short a revocation period for a birth mom and that six months is too long for a child, how long should a revocation period be?
I don’t have an answer but I think that the child’s needs should be paramount and that too many people in power aren’t considering basic child development when they make the laws.
In Idaho there is no period of time, not even minutes. A birthparent must terninate their rights before a judge, and must wait until 72 hours after birth, but the second they sign its irrevocable. I think a problem in the US is that every state has different laws, some favor the bparents some favor the aparents (like Idaho). I think a uniform law that is fair to everyone (30 to 60 days in my opinion) is what we need. Though I have to admit, when we were looking to adopt we wouldn’t even look at states that had longer than 30 days.
Too short to need a foster home but long enough to let the birth mother recover a bit from labor before the final signing.
A week?
We want (if the birthmother agrees) to not see the baby until the waiting period is over (72 hours in our states, like Idaho above). But we wouldn’t want to force the birthmother to take a baby home or force her to put the baby in a foster home while waiting. But I feel okay about a baby waiting for us a day or two in the hospital nursery.
in many cases when the birthmother signs has nothing to do with when the adoption becomes finalized/irrevocable. i had to appear in court 48 hours after jonathan was born to orally & by signature waive my rights … but the adoption wasn’t truly finalized for another six months, despite both my appearance and the birthfather waiving his rights within that 48 hours. what was important to me was not having jonathan go into foster care as a newborn … on the other hand, there was nothing worse than having to jump right in the car from the hospital, with an episiotomy, to drive 45 minutes to the county court house to stand up and orally waive my rights. i wish it could have been enough to sign the papers from the hospital room (that part, i was allowed to do).