Children are innocent and vulnerable humans with an increased need for care and protection due to the stages of development. This is the cornerstone of child welfare. They need to be nourished and protected, and this need is most often met by the parents, or alternatively some other member of the family. But what happens when the parents are unable or unwilling to care for a child?
Child welfare can mean the need of the society to care for children who have unfit guardians. Modern adoption regulations consider the idea that the adoption process should place the child’s needs as the first priority. Since the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act was passed in 1851, laws which concern adoption increasingly seek to benefit children. Adoption has only one goal– to give a child a permanent loving home and a sense of belonging. Because we take child welfare so seriously as a society, adoption can turn into a long and arduous process. But, the process is there for a reason – the benefit of the child.
Screening is always in place to make sure the child ends up with a stable family. That is why, although it might seem counterintuitive for adoption to be complicated, all the precautions are in place for the protection of Child Welfare and their human basic needs. That mentality will remain the same in spite of ongoing modernizations of the Adoption process.
