[Adoption and/or reproductive medicine]

Adoption and medically assisted reproduction are alternative options for childless parents to fulfill their wish for having a child. In both situations, there is a necessity for the future parents to mourn the loss of their imagined child, which could have been conceived without a third party (adoption agency or medically assisted reproduction). Adoption always represents for the child a loss of emotional ties with birthparents and the development of new attachments with adoptive parents. Adoption can be considered as a lifetime process of the members involved in the adoption triangle, that is birth parents, adoptive parents and the child. The article discusses the loss of emotional bonds from primary caretakers as a psychological trauma and addresses mourning difficulties in adoptees. Problems with the development of new attachments with adoptive parents such as loyalty conflicts and the revelation of the adoption are described. Family romance fantasy in adoption and aspects of family dynamics as well as the specific difficulties adoptive parents encounter are explored.