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open adoption
noun
: an adoption that involves contact between biological and adoptive parents and sometimes between biological parents and the adopted child
Examples of open adoption in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
An open adoption allows the biological parents continued rights to visit or get information about the child.
—Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 16 Feb. 2024
Florence Fisher, an adoptee who spent decades searching for her birth parents and then spent another half century fighting to open adoption records for millions of others, died on Oct. 1 in Brooklyn.
—Clay Risen, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2023
Fearing that her future newborn will be taken from her and become trapped in the system, Gia considers the offer of a sympathetic social worker named Carmen (Erika Alexander) for an open adoption, in which Gia, as birth mother, would be a part of her child’s life.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 July 2023
There is the youngest generation, some of whom have open adoptions and have always known their birth parents, posting on adoptee TikTok.
—Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2023
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Word History
First Known Use
1973, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near open adoption
Cite this Entry
“Open adoption.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/open%20adoption. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.
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