Реферат: Adoption Nature Or Nurture Essay Research Paper

over” by that first call about Richard. Never did they expect that legal briefs and litigation

would dominate their lives for the next three years (Alexander 40).

After three and a half years of court battle, baby Richard was torn away from his

adoptiveparents where he had lived since he was four days old and returned to his

biological father, who had never seen him before (Terry A1).

Wendy and Tom Yack adopted a week old baby girl, Rachael Marie, in 1980.

After five years of trying to conceive and five years of failure, Wendy and Tom broached

the subject of adoption and began to like the idea. When Rachael was only two months old

Wendy and Tom learned of Mary Beth Hazler and Robert Grimes, Rachael’s biological

parents.

Mary Beth was seventeen years old and had broken up with her boyfriend, Grimes,

when she was three months pregnant. Grimes had more than twenty arrests as a juvenile

and had once faced charges of assaulting a police officer. After the Yacks had cared for

Rachael for over two months they were informed that Mary Beth and Grimes had

reconciled and decided they wanted their child back.

Less than four months later, Wendy and Tom were served with papers ordering

them to return Rachael to her biological parents. They were filed just twenty days before

the end of a six month waiting period required by Pennsylvania law before an adoption

becomes final (Yack 98).

In June of 1981, Rachael was placed in foster care before the court reached it’s

decision. At that time the judge had concluded that the Yacks had no rights to Rachael,

but he was still deliberating whether Mary Beth and Grimes were fit parents. Four weeks

later, the judge ordered Rachel to return to the Yacks pending a final decision.

The Yacks were overjoyed but the child who came back to their home wasn’t the

same little girl. She stared at the walls. It was as if she knew. On July 10, 1981, sixteen

month old Rachael was taken from her home by Mary Beth and Grimes forever.

Wendy stated, “I feel to this day that we were used. We were caretakers, a baby

parking lot, while the birth mother got her life in order. Tom and I were falling in love

with a baby we thought was our daughter, and Mary Beth was finishing high school and