Simple or full adoption ?
Concerned about the sterility of his couple and eager to have an heir to succeed him, Napoleon planned to adopt Eugène de Beauharnais, the fruit of Joséphine's first marriage. To do this, he includes adoption in the code that bears his name. Far from the adoption of children as we know it, it is an agreement between consenting adults, since a man must be 30 years old to be able to be adopted and 25 years old for a woman. Adoption is then only a question of transmission of inheritance.
It was only in the 20th century that adoption took care of children, it officially becoming possible for minors in 1923. The two world wars having caused more deaths among civilians than among soldiers, it seems logical to bring together those who have lost their parents and those who have lost their children. However, it was not until 1966, and the will of an adoptive father who became Prime Minister (Georges Pompidou), that adopted children could benefit from the same rights as biological children. The French particularity, which has fueled futile debates for a long time, is that to this status which gives fullness (full adoption) of rights and duties to adoptive families, another status is added, that of simple adoption, heir to the law Napoleonic. Since then, it has been conclusively explained that full adoption irrevocably cuts all ties between the child and his biological family, whereas these would be maintained in simple adoption. Some then imagine this rupture as total, brutal and harmful. They demonstrate an aversion to full adoption, accusing it of cutting the child off from his origins, of denying him the right to his previous existence. Among the most virulent, we hear that full adoption is a forgery or a fiction, therefore a lie for the child.
The recent debate over marriage and adoption by homosexual couples has awakened these old demons. The term fiction was even used to describe plenary adoption during the Senate Law Committee during these debates. Of course, we know that the idea of fiction is not necessarily pejorative. It indicates the capacity that the right has to establish a link by declaring adopted children born to their adoptive parents in the civil status. But legal fiction does not encompass the whole of the adoptive experience. The law, no more than biology, does not focus on the link of filiation, adoptive or not. Adoption may trouble some legal scholars who, as the name of their discipline suggests, want to stay square. But isn't it adoption itself, in its entirety, which is a fiction? To give a family, which is not related to him, to a child, that is surprising. Accepting that a child who doesn't look like them can call adults to whom he is attached “daddy” and “mommy” doesn't seem very normal. However, for thirty years in France, tens of thousands of adoptive families have been built and flourished in a society that is more curious than caring.
The aim of full adoption is to help with this, it allows the child better integration, by automatically giving him the same name as his parents, and French nationality if he is adopted abroad , ensuring complete inheritance rights. If full adoption cuts the link with the biological family, this broken link is legal, financial, concerning, still and always since Napoleon, the inheritance... but there has never been any question of an emotional link.
If a few decades ago adoptive parents may have wanted to make a clean sweep of the past, with the hope of recovering a new child, free from any history, most adoptive families now know that for adopted children the knowledge of their history, their origins can be a contributing factor in building their identity. Secrecy in childbirth under Everyone, magistrate, journalist, doctor, psychologist, man in the street, must not fantasize in the place of adoptees but know how to listen to them with attention and respect. Adoptees have no ambiguity, and their two main associations (Korean Roots and Voice of Adoptees) in collaboration with the two main adoptive family associations published a press release on January 24 calling for the defense of adoption. plenary. It would be time to refocus the debate on the child, on the adoptee, as recalled by the great principle of adoption: giving a child a family and not the opposite. Thinking about one's well-being and safety must be the primary concern of adults and especially the legislator.
(1) The Club des 5 de Dijon is a friendly think tank of adoption enthusiasts. It brings together: Chang Delaunay adopted of Korean origin Jean-Vital de Monléon Pediatrician, anthropologist, creator of the Overseas Adoption Consultation at Dijon University Hospital Jean-Philippe Pierron Philosophe, dean of the faculty of philosophy, Jean-Moulin University, Lyon -III Julien Pierron Doctor, member of the Voice of Adoptees Aubeline Vinay Teacher-researcher in psychology at the University of Burgundy.