There are a lot of really well-documented reasons why international adoption is not as simple as wealthy white Americans rescuing poor brown babies from lives of terrible poverty or deprivation. International adoption can sometimes come very close to the sale of a child, particularly when children are being adopted from VERY poor nations. There have been a number of high-profile cases of adoption where the "adopted" child was not unwanted by the family - where the family had surrendered the child to an orphanage hoping that it would be temporary, until the family could get their legs back under them. Such surrenders are symptoms of a system with no welfare, no safety net.
On the other hand, I really dislike the false equivalences being drawn here between the prospects of a Russian orphan (or unwanted child) in Russia versus the U.S. Russia is not a "first world" nation. There is a lot of poverty in the parts of Russia that are not large cities close to the West. More than that, children
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There have been a number of high-profile cases of adoption where the "adopted" child was not unwanted by the family - where the family had surrendered the child to an orphanage hoping that it would be temporary, until the family could get their legs back under them
Yup. Remember that kid Madonna adopted against his family's wishes? They fought her and she won.
I think I'm remembering it correctly. I haven't looked it up, because it made me sick.
So, yeah. People constantly talk about who a child will be "better off" with, which always tends to point at whoever has more money, obviously. I vaguely remember some comedian joking that he'd be better off raised by Madonna too, but that didn't mean she should have the right to do it.
There are a lot of really well-documented reasons why international adoption is not as simple as wealthy white Americans rescuing poor brown babies from lives of terrible poverty or deprivation. International adoption can sometimes come very close to the sale of a child, particularly when children are being adopted from VERY poor nations. There have been a number of high-profile cases of adoption where the "adopted" child was not unwanted by the family - where the family had surrendered the child to an orphanage hoping that it would be temporary, until the family could get their legs back under them. Such surrenders are symptoms of a system with no welfare, no safety net.
On the other hand, I really dislike the false equivalences being drawn here between the prospects of a Russian orphan (or unwanted child) in Russia versus the U.S. Russia is not a "first world" nation. There is a lot of poverty in the parts of Russia that are not large cities close to the West. More than that, children ( ... )
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Yup. Remember that kid Madonna adopted against his family's wishes? They fought her and she won.
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So, yeah. People constantly talk about who a child will be "better off" with, which always tends to point at whoever has more money, obviously. I vaguely remember some comedian joking that he'd be better off raised by Madonna too, but that didn't mean she should have the right to do it.
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