LilMtnCbn
10-31-2003, 07:01 AM
Posting a few editorials that have popped up.
http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2003/102003/10312003/1142347
American system of adoption usually protects parents over children
Date published: 10/31/2003
In response to the Oct. 15 letter asking people to consider adopting
domestically because there are plenty of American children in need of a home:
There are plenty of children here in need of a good home. Most people, like us,
look at domestic adoption first. Who wants to go half way around the world and
deal with multiple bureaucracies?
Changes in our system need to be made, but families jumping through hoops
trying to adopt are not in a position to change the system nor is that
realistic.
What we were looking for was nonexistent domestically. We wanted a toddler, and
they're rarely available for adoption here. Either a mother chooses to give up
her child at birth, or a child will stay in the government system so long that
they are typically 6 or older before they become available to adopt.
Termination of parental rights is a complex process here. Our system protects
parents before children. Circumstances must become extreme before a child is
permanently removed from their home. Adoptive parents have no rights. These
aren't their children, after all.
It isn't that children domestically are "not good enough." It's the system
telling them that their birth parent has the right to correct their mistakes
before someone else has a chance to adopt them.
That's the price of freedom. In international adoption, there are no worries
that a court will return their child to birth parents; it doesn't happen.
Adoption anywhere is a long, difficult, expensive, and emotional process, and
some of us need guarantees that in the end we will get a child--not just red
tape for nothing.
Gabriella Perry
http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2003/102003/10312003/1142347
American system of adoption usually protects parents over children
Date published: 10/31/2003
In response to the Oct. 15 letter asking people to consider adopting
domestically because there are plenty of American children in need of a home:
There are plenty of children here in need of a good home. Most people, like us,
look at domestic adoption first. Who wants to go half way around the world and
deal with multiple bureaucracies?
Changes in our system need to be made, but families jumping through hoops
trying to adopt are not in a position to change the system nor is that
realistic.
What we were looking for was nonexistent domestically. We wanted a toddler, and
they're rarely available for adoption here. Either a mother chooses to give up
her child at birth, or a child will stay in the government system so long that
they are typically 6 or older before they become available to adopt.
Termination of parental rights is a complex process here. Our system protects
parents before children. Circumstances must become extreme before a child is
permanently removed from their home. Adoptive parents have no rights. These
aren't their children, after all.
It isn't that children domestically are "not good enough." It's the system
telling them that their birth parent has the right to correct their mistakes
before someone else has a chance to adopt them.
That's the price of freedom. In international adoption, there are no worries
that a court will return their child to birth parents; it doesn't happen.
Adoption anywhere is a long, difficult, expensive, and emotional process, and
some of us need guarantees that in the end we will get a child--not just red
tape for nothing.
Gabriella Perry
