Description of an open adoption
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As an adoption attorney, Stephen Ravel helps prospective parents understand what the term "open adoption" really means and gives a great overview of the adoption process from the perspective of a legal professional.
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There's no legal definition of what an open adoption is. I think what you need to think about in thinking of what an open adoption is, is what I do are called identified adoptions. And those would be considered open adoptions in that the birth mother knows the family that she's placing the child with, knows some biographical information about them, is given information about them by law under California law. But whether you have contact with the birth mother, whether you have ongoing contact after the baby is born are things subject to negotiation between you and the birth mother.
My job as a lawyer is to find out what the birth mother wants, find out what the adopting parents want and try and mesh that together into an agreement. If there is ongoing contact is to what the nature of that contact is, what all the parties are comfortable with, and then make sure that everyone agrees to that.
As an adoption attorney, Stephen Ravel helps prospective parents understand what the term "open adoption" really means and gives a great overview of the adoption process from the perspective of a legal professional.
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Stephen RavelAdoption Attorney
Stephen Ravel attended UC Berkley for his undergraduate degree and Santa Clara Law School for his law degree. Stephen has been an attorney since 1973, and has been involved with adoption law since 1984. He has handled over 1,300 adoptions since the start of his career. Stephen is married and has three children. His oldest child was adopted from Brazil at birth.
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