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The problem with international adoption
The problem with international adoption
Benefits of international adoption essay example
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The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to other countries to attempt to rescue foreigners in need. International adoption in the United States must be abolished, since it is detrimental to prospective parents and their potential children.
Injustices surrounding international adoption often results in a harmful impact on the children involved. Hollingsworth examines the harmful implications that are associated with international adoption:
The adoption of children from other countries by U.S. families presents the risk that these
children will be deprived of an opportunity to know and have access to their birth families-
an infringement on the basic rights of these children compared with more advantaged
children in their country of origin or in the United States. (48:209)
International adoption can result in a lost connection to a child’s culture. This loss of culture confuses the child who is now forced to grow up in an American society that is so different than what they are used to. Children, who can be domest...
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...at is only seeking to profit, instead of to unite children with families who care. For young children “to be removed from one’s family of origin or be killed or forever ostracized is not a choice that should be imposed on the world’s children” (Hollingsworth 48:209). Just because the faces of the neglected youth of America are not flashed across the television screen or plastered on posters, does not mean they do not exist. The ignored youth of America need people to care for them as if they were born into their family. Hollingsworth expresses his realization that “children’s rights to be raised in a safe healthy environment by their biological families and in their cultures of origin are primary and should be equally available to all children”(48:209) especially those in the United States, where the protection of the youth is crucial.
Marcus Garvey once said, “A [person] without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” (Brainy Quote 1). In cross-cultural adoption, many of the children growing up in White families or any other race different from theirs almost always never learn about their cultural background and native language. They grow up without an understanding or connection to their native culture. In Only Drunks and Children tell the Truth, Drew Hayden Taylor focuses on Janice, a woman who knows nothing about her indigenous lan...
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
In 2002, 51,000 children were adopted through the foster care system. The federal government tracks the number of adoptions from the United States foster care system, and all of its international adoptions. It’s estimated that around 120,000 children are adopted by U.S citizens each year. Half of these children are adopted by individuals not related to t...
Adoption is a process where by a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the biological parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Adoption has changed considerably over the centuries with its focus shifting from adult adoption and inheritance issues toward children and family creation; its structure moving from recognition of continuity between the adopted and kin toward allowing relationships of lessened intensity. In modern times, adoption is a primary vehicle serving the needs of homeless, neglected, abused and runaway children (Wikipedia, “Adoption”).
Adoption is in place to balance, to nurture and create a structural environment of safety in which the child can thrive and develop into a productive individual contributing to society. Also, it allows older children to abandon old maladaptive behaviors and make their first steps toward the construction of new behaviors influenced by their new environment. In years past, parents who adopted a child as an infant often debated whether to tell him or her about the adoption. Many children grew up not knowing they were adopted, and the birth mother’s identity was kept secret from those who did know (Ashford, LeCroy and Lortie 249). This paper provides facts on widely acceptance option of open adoption rather than the traditional practice of closed adoption. Adoption separates real biological family members, removing the adopter heritage whether the adoption is open or closed. Open adoption can lead to problems, but there are proven facts that open adoption is the best option for all parties working together in the best interest of the children.
In the United States there are approximately 397,000 children in out-of home care, within the last year there was about 640,000 children which spent at least some time in out-of-home care. More than 58,000 children living in foster care have had their biological parental rights permanently terminated (Children’s Rights, 2014). Due to the rising number of children in foster care and the growing concerns of the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 was signed into law. On November 19, 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, to improve the safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and to support families (Child Welfare League of America). The Adoption and Safe Families Act also promotes adoption by offering incentive payments for States. During the FY of 1999-2003 the payment to states which had exceeded the average number of adoptions received $20 million (Child Welfare League of America). The ASFA improved the existing federal child welfare law to require that the child’s health and safety be a “paramount” concern in any efforts made by the state to preserve or reunify the child’s family, and to provide new assurances that children in foster care are safe (Shuman, 2004).
Interracial adoption means placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group. In the United States these terms usually refer to the placement of children of color with white adoptive parents. Interracial adoption in America are seen less as a taboo today, but as out of the norm.. Even though “the U.S. Adopts more children... domestically, than the rest of the world combined.”[ Adam Pertman, Adoption Nation (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Common Press, 2011).] It is also prevalent to mention that White Americans serve overwhelmingly as the adopting race and also exercise the most control in the adoption process.[ David Ray Papke, 'Transracial Adoption In The United States: The Reflection And Reinforcement Of Racial Hierarchy ', SSRN Journal (2013).] Their white privilege continues into
The topic of child welfare is quite a broad one. There are numerous programs and policies that have been put in place to protect children. One of these policies is that of Adoption. Adoption was put into place to provide alternate care for children who cannot live with their biological families for various reasons. One of the more controversial issues surrounding adoption is that of Transracial adoption. Transracial Adoption is the joining of racially different parents and children (Silverman, 1993).
Poverty is a cause of adoption of children today. Some of the people in the vast population of developing countries are languishing in poverty. The gap between the poor and the rich is widening with time and this has led to increase in poverty levels in various parts of the world. This is where Canadian individuals, unable to have children of their own, or wanting to make a difference in a child’s life become parents and saviors.
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a push to getting them out of a foster home and transition into a safe, loving and permanent environment. The foster care system is run the way it is because of the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
For a mother or father to learn that their adopted child, who they believed was an orphan, actually has a caring and loving family is heartbreaking. Adoptive parents feel guilty. The children yearn for their true home. The biological family feels deceived and desire for their child to return. This situation is far too familiar within intercountry adoption cases. Many children are pulled away from home, put into orphanages, and painted as helpless orphans. The actions perpetrated by adoption agencies reflects an underlying network of corruption and exploitation. This is not for the purpose of discouraging international adoption, but to shed light on the horrific practices taking place behind the scenes. Intercountry adoptions are often tangled
Many people grow up in loving families and cannot imagine not having their parents and siblings around, but each year, 18,000 or more American born babies are put up for adoption (Newlin Carney). That means at least 18,000 children face the harsh truth of maybe not having a family to grow up in. Childhood is a very important part of one’s life and helps shape who one is. These children that are eligible to be adopted just need loving parents, good homes, and stability. And who is to say the high price of adopting is not ho...
Such drastic change, some referred to as “ culture shock”, does not necessary only apply to adults, but also dependent children. Just as an adult immigrant, a child faces similar problems in his new life in this brand new environment. The challenges arise not only because of these difficulties
International adoption stunts the growth of domestic adoption in the United States. While many kids are available for adoption in the U.S, more kids are being adopted internationally. The reason for this may be because “many people choose to adopt internationally because there is a less chance that the biological parents will try to find their children later in life; whereas if adopted in America, there is a greater chance that the biological parents will search for the child” (Databasewise.n.d.pp 1-2). Not only do the adoptive parents want to be sure that the biological parents do not find their biological child, but they also want to avoid confrontations that can eventually have volatile results. Since there is a great need for domestic adoption in the United States, many American citizens believe that people should be banned from adopting children overseas (carp.1998.pp 135). For example, recent studies have shown that the USA is faced with a very serious problem. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, between “1999-2006,an average of 129,884 children are in public foster care every year waiting to be adopted” (adoption alternativ...
What is adoption? Adoption is a legal process by which permanent legal custody is transferred from the birth parent to other parents. In this case Adoption is the process of making a child your own. Adoption is usually a process from non-biological parents. There are far more people wanting to adopt babies than there are babies to be adopted, only about twenty thousand babies a year are put up to be adopted, if an adoption agency places your baby up for an adoption only the best fit family can choose to adopt your child. All adoptions involve some form of consent – an agreement by the birth parent that the child should be adopted. If there are no living birth parents or the child was abandoned, then the consent must be given by the state or country where the child is a resident. Kinship adoptions occur when the birth parents are unstable to care for a child and some member of the child’s family seeks to adopt him or her.