Adoption and the Care of Orphan Children Essay Example for Free

Adoption and the Cargon of deprive Children EssayA common conception is that Muslim law forbids word senses. However, this belief misses the complexity of Moslem law, the desktop of bankers acceptance laws and practices across the world, and the overwhelming emphasis on taking c atomic number 18 of orphans and foundlings found within Moslem sources. Contemporary adoption practices ar immensely complex issues, overlapping with peasantrens rights, international and national laws, mankind psychology, economic, social, and religious concerns, and the ethics of lineage, identity, property and inheritance rights.In this position paper, the Muslim Womens Shura Council considers whether adoption smoke be possible within an Islamic framework. After examining Islamic texts and history alongside social recognition research and the international consensus on churlrens rights, the Council finds that adoption heap be acceptable under Islamic law and its principle objectives, as l ong as important ethical guidelines are followed. This statement consults the Quran, the use of the Prophet Muhammad (sunna), the objectives and principles of Islamic law (maqasid al-sharia), Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh), and social science data.The Shura Council finds that, instead of banning adoption, Islamic sources have brought various ethical restrictions to the process, condemning dissimulation and foregrounding compassion, transparency, and rightness. These restrictions closely resemble what is known directly as the practice of open adoption. Therefore, when all efforts to place deprive children with their extended family have been exhausted, open, legal, ethical adoptions can be a preferable Islamically-grounded castratenative to institutional care and other unstable arrangements.According to Islamic and universal standards of childrens rights, all children have the right to grow up in a nurturing, pleasant environment where their physiological, psychological, and inte llectual needs are met. All children have the right to know their lineage and to maintain their unique national, cultural, linguistic, and spiritual identity. All children have the right to a safe, supportive environment where their rights to dignity, nurture, and the development of their talents are well respected. The best interests of the child should be the primary consideration in all decisions relating to children, including adoption.Orphan dissimilar states and international institutions have different criteria for determining whether a child is an orphan. UNICEF classifies any child that has lost mavin parent as an orphan and estimates that approximately 143 million children are currently orphans.1 For the purposes of this document, an orphan is a nestling who is bereft of parental care due to death, disappearance, or abandonment by either the mother or the father, as well as situations where the parent voluntarily or involuntarily terminates the parental relationship. T his definition combines several(prenominal) concepts in classical Arabic, including yatim (fatherless child) and laqit (foundling).AdoptionAdoption can be defined as the legal trigger of a parent-child relationship, with all the responsibilities and privileges thereof, between a child and adults who are not his or her biological parents. Adoptions co-ordinated a child into a family as offspring and sibling, regardless of genetic ties. There are twain main categories of adoption practices, generally termed as disagreeable adoptions and open adoptions. However, in reality most adoption practices fall any(prenominal)where on a continuum between fully open and fully closed. In closed or confidential adoptions, the descent family and the foster family have no identifying information about each other.Children whitethorn not be informed that they have been choose, and they may have no way of tracing biological kin. If the child comes from a different cultural background than his o r her adoptive parents, their heritage might be marginalized or ignored. Closed adoptions, therefore, have the potential to dissolve all ties between an adoptee and her biological family. Open adoptions, which are becoming increasingly common across the world, allow for a full disclosure of identities on some(prenominal) sides. Open adoptions facilitate direct interaction between the adoptive family, the adopted child, and any birth relatives. The childs birth culture may more easily be respected and promoted by the adoptive family and incorporated into the familys daily life.However, the categories of closed and open are better understood as idealize types, as most families experience a hybrid form of adoption that comprises elements of both open and closed adoption practices. The empirical data on the risks and benefits of each type of adoption has shown mixed results, with some adopted children embracing the opportunity to contact their birth families and others experiencing co nfusion and insecurity.2 Generally, however, open adoptions are associated with better psychological and behavioral outcomes for the child.With the exception of Indonesia, Malaysia, Somalia, Tunisia, and Turkey, the laws of most Muslimmajority states do not currently permit legal adoption. Instead, laws permit a system of guardianship (kafala), which resembles foster-parenting, but is more stable. Kafala is defined as the commitment to voluntarily take care of the maintenance, of the education and of the protection of a minor, in the same way a *parent would do for a child+.5 According to Jamila Bargach, kafala is seen as primarily a gift of care and not a surrogate for lineal descent.In other words, kafala involves the obligations of guardianship and maintenance without the creation of legal ties, which would produce specific personal status legal entitlements. This type of guardianship does not sever the biological family bonds of the child or alter the descent lines for the ad opting family. Unlike foster-parenting, kafala is intended to be a permanent arrangement for a minor. Like fosterparenting and adoption, kafala is intermediate by the state, in contrast to informal or customary adoptions which take place within families or through secret agreements.Convergences between Kafala and AdoptionWhereas this statement focuses on adoption and not kafala, in some cases kafala may lead to adoption. Countries with strict application of non-international kafala, like Iran, Mauritania, and Egypt, reject any legal recognition between kafala and adoption. Citizens of these countries who reside in other countries, where adoption is the law of the land, cannot gain guardianship of a child with the objective of adopting that child in their state of residency. Other states, like Morocco, Algeria, Jordan and Pakistan, allow for placements of kafala children abroad, particularly with nationals living in overseas countries, with certain stipulations. Tunisia and Indone sia allow for a full convergence of kafala and adoption, limiting adoptions to national applicants, whether living in the province or abroad.Islamic LawThe term Islamic law refers to two related, yet distinct concepts, which are often conflated Sharia and Fiqh. Sharia literally means the way and is a transcendental ideal that embodies the justice and compassion inherent in the totality of Gods will. Fiqh, which literally means understanding, is Islamic statute and juristic law, which has developed from the eighth century onwards as a human effort to furnish the Sharia. Fiqh has been developed by Muslim legal scholars through analysis of the Quran and the example (sunna) of the Prophet Muhammad, with the endeavor of securing justice according to the context of each society, time (zaman), and place (makan).7Adoption in pre-Islamic ArabiaDuring the pre-Islamic period in Arabia, adoption (al-tabanni) into a tribe often took place for socioeconomic and patriarchal reasons. Al-tabanni is derived from the Arabic word ibn, sum son. In keeping with the patriarchal norms of the era, adoptees were usually, if not always, male.11 People adopted mainly to secure an heir and/or additional warriors for the tribe. Adoption could take place at any time in a persons life, from puerility to adulthood, even if the adoptees biological parents were alive.12 The adoptee automatically earned full rights and the responsibilities of a biological child and was disposed(p) the adoptive fathers name. Since male children were considered a source of wealth and prestige, this benefited the adoptive father.13Often adoption was undertaken in self-interest with the intention of usurping an orphans property, as the adoptive parents would end up managing an orphaned childs property. In addition, adoption was closely linked to enslavement captors held the power to strip captives of their birth identities and appropriate them into their families.14 For these reasons, pre-Islamic adoption enta iled a complete erasure of natal identity.