Adoption Cannot Be Reformed

Abstract

Five years ago, co-author Ashley Albert surrendered her parental rights to her two youngest children to the State of Washington. She shares her story of ostensibly "voluntary" surrender, which was anything but voluntary. This Article goes on to address the practice of permanently severing the legal bonds between a parent and a child, then the State's "replacement" of those bonds with new ones via formalized adoption. It informs readers of the historical background behind modern adoption, argues that adoption must be addressed separately from the family regulation system, and describes the specific harms caused by adoption today.