The objects of the Uniform Adoption Act of 1994 cover promotion of the integrity and finality of adoptions in the US in the best interests of the child and prevention trafficking in minors in the guise of adoption. The Act also enjoins respect to the choice of the natural and adoptive parents regarding the degree of openness or confidentiality in the adoption process as to the identities.
However, in order to accommodate a cross section of viewpoints, this Act contains many compromises on various issues under the adoption laws.
The Act has been criticized on the ground that it shuts out from the adopted child information regarding the natural parents, by sealing adoption related official records for 99 years. Moreover, the Act also ignores the rights and sentiments of an unwed father regarding his child.
Further, the Act allows a natural mother to give her child in adoption without the consent of the birth father, where she merely declares that the whereabouts or identity of the biological father in unknown. This provision is likely to be abused to bypass the father.
Another area of criticism is that this Act cuts short the time within which the natural parents can withdraw their consent to adoption from the birth of the child to merely 8 days, in contrast to longer periods under various state laws.
Another grievance is that non identifying information on parentage, which may be shared even in closed adoptions, has not been defined under the Act.
(More:http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/archives/ulc/fnact99/1990s/uaa94.htm)
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