I know plenty about it, being adopted myself, and it’s much much harder than just popping out a sprog. In terms of forms and such, not physical pain, obviously! If all else were equal this would be my preference. It’s the obvious solution to most of the arguments. Unfortunately it takes about 2 years to get to the point of being on the list, and there are a whole lot of things that can screw you over that don’t seem to get social services called for “real” parents. I’d like to see parenting rules brought closer to adoption rules and vice versa.