adoption

[In Ger. & Fr. adoption, fr. Lat. adoptio, po ibly contracted from adop totio (1) adoption; (2) ( gardening ) ingrafting; adopto = to choose, to select: ad = to; opto to choose.] A. Ordinary Language: I. The act of taking a stranger into one's family as a son or daughter. (See B. 1.) 1. The taking a person, a society, ., into more intimate relations than formerly existed with another person or society. 2. The taking as one's own, with or without acknowledgment, an opinion, plan, ., originating with another; also the selecting one from several courses open to a person's choice. II. The state of being adopted in any of these senses. (See example under B. 3.) B. Technically : 1. Foreign Law, Ancient and Modern: The act of taking a stranger into one's family, as a son or daughter, and constituting the person so adopted one's heir. The practice was common among the Greeks and Romans, and is still practised in some modern nations. There is no law of adoption in this country. Else IMG:content-0185.jpg:[graphic] where Adoption by matrimony is the placing the children of a former marriage on the same footing, with regard to inheritance, ., as those of the present one. Adoption by testament is the appointing a person one's heir on condition of his a uming the name, arms, . of his benefactor. (See below, Her ., "Arms of Adoption.") Adoption by hair was performed by cutting off the hair of the person adopted, and giving it to the adoptive father. Adoption by arms: The presentation of arms by a prince to a brave man. These the recipient was expected to use for the protection of his benefactor. 2. Her. Arms of Adoption: The heraldic arms received when the last representative of an expiring aristocratic family adopts a stranger to a ume his armorial bearings and inherit his estates. The recipient may obtain permi ion from Parliament to take the name of his benefactor, either appended to or substituted for his own. (Glo . of Her.) 3. Scripture and Theology: The act of admitting one into the family of God, or the state of being so admitted. The previous position of the person adopted in this manner was that of a "servant," now he is a "son," an "heir of God," and a "joint heir with Christ." "To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son."- Gal . iv 5, 7. "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and Joint heirs with Christ."- Rom , viii. 17. No one of the Thirty-nine Articles formally defines adoption; but the doctrine of the English Church and most others is identical with that of the Shorter Catechism . "What is adoption! Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God." Shorter Catechism , Q. 84. IMG:content-0186.png:[blocks in formation] 90 (b) Of things: Not native. "Intellectual weakne , whether it be indigenous or adoptire, is prejudice."-Bowring: Bentham, i. 218. 2. One who adopts another. "An adopted son cannot cite his adoptive father into court without his leave."- Ayliffe : Parergon . II. Technically : Her. Adoptive arms are those which a person enjoys not in virtue of himself having a right to them, but solely by the gift or conce ion of another. B. As substantive: A person or thing adopted.