What are some logical and emotional reasons for overseas adoption?

Jennifer L

Well, the emotional reasons for overseas adoptions are probably humanitarian ones. Children available for adoption by foreigners are generally the poorest of the poor, often living in regions torn apart by war, disease and famine. Some children in orphanges have been legally relinquished by families, others are foundlings with their parents either dead or presumed dead. It is human nature to want to help people in such dire conditions, to want to provide a home for a child who desperately needs it.

Logical reasons fall along the same lines as any adoption. A family wants to grow by means of adoption, international adoption is simply one route to that. A responsible perspective adoptive parent looks at all of the options available for adoption, researches everything thoroughly and completely before making the best decision for their family. Sometimes the best decision involves a child born in a different country.

I hope this helps some. If you are interested in more specifics, feel free to email me through my profile.

Warrior Mom

I do not claim any professional knowledge about foreign adoptions. So, take my answer as just my own opinion, and also, as limited to the knowledge I have from some reliable sources. I don't know any statistics for specific countries. I have just heard some really nightmare stories about foreign adoptions.

1) Some countries are making the baby business one of their most profitable "export" business. When this is the case, and profits are the focus, it opens the door for very unethical practices. One person on this site stated that 1 out of 100 babies in Guatemala are placed out of the country for adoption. There is something very, very wrong with a statistic like that.

2) I have a child with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). In my research on his disorder, I have read (from professionals who work with RAD children), that many of the professionals strongly discourage foreign adoption because so many of these children have RAD. The cause of RAD is severe neglect and/or abuse of an infant up to the age of 3 years old. Babies who lie in orphanage cribs for hours on end, and are not nurtured and comforted fail to go through the normal stages that develop as mother and child interact with each other. This may sound pretty simple, and easy to recover from. Let me tell you it is NOT. It's a serious disorder, that if left untreated by specially trained people, can grow another Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. I don't mean to be overly dramatic. That part is a direct quote from one of the leading professionals in the area of RAD.

Well, that's the extent of my knowledge. Based on the information that I have (which I acknowledge is limited), I could not, in good conscience, recommend foreign adoptions.

Romany

Some (but not all) prospective adoptive parents want to feel as if their child never had another family. They prefer infants (as young as possible) and prefer international adoption to prevent the child's family from either changing their minds or locating the child after adoption. They are still living in the past when children were not told they were adopted, birth certificates were amended to make it look like the child was actually born to the adoptive parents and adoption was something you didn't discuss.

Kelly

Right now I am currently looking into international adoption because I feel as if it is the best decision for my family. I have no desire to wait 10 years on the "new born, white, female, " List but for some people that is what they want so its ok. If there is a particular age range that the family would prefer it can be faster to adopt interationally.(Many people against adoption on this board will say its "wrong" to want a younger child and selfish") However People cant be asked to do or handel more than they can. And 13 year old placed with the wrong family that cant meet their needs and handel their problems ( not all older children have problems, but many have suffered abuse, neglect, etc) has nothing to gain and it is in no ones best interest to misplace children.

I was adopted and many people in my family have been internationally adopted and i truely belive it is a good thing. I loved growing up with the diversity, I am choosing to adopt internationally because of the same reason! There are children in need of parents and parents in need of children all over the world and there is no reason to restrict love to just one country.

Marie C

Some excellent reasons have been cited by other people here; I would also like to add that in most cases, children in foster homes here in the United States are at least adequately fed and clothed. In many cases, children in orphanages in third world countries have only the barest of necessities, and are not living in conditions which are conducive to good health. Many suffer significant developmental delays, because of lack of stimulation. I adopted a baby from China in 1996 who weighed 11 pounds at 8 months old, who could not roll over or sit up or babble. It was amazing to see this tiny, frail infant transform into a chubby, smiling baby who embraced life with both hands.

Most of us who adopt internationally do it for the same reason as people adopt domestically....we want to be parents. But there is a certain satisfaction in giving a child living in horrific conditions a loving home with good nutrition and health care.

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