Child adoption from other countries. Is it right?

Question

Do you think taking a child from their culture is wrong? Im doing a oratory on this and i need some opinions. Also if anyone knows a website that talks about this that would be great!

Answer 1

It is only right if and only if there are absolutely no adoptive homes in the country of origin.  I do not care how much material wealth a person has, they cannot make up for the whole loss of a culture.  

Some cultures however, have a stigma about adoption and children in those countries obviously benefit from being able to be adopted internationally, because no one can disagree that a home (any home as long as it is not abusive/harmful) is better than aging out of an orphanage.

How I feel about adoption is this:

A child should stay with his/her biological parents, if however that is not available than

A child should stay with biological relatives, if that is not available than

A child should be adopted by people of his/her race in their country of origin, if that is not available than

A child should be adopted by people not of their race in their country of origin, if that is not available than

A child should be adopted by people of his/her race outside of the country of origin and if that is not available, than LAST

A child should be adopted by people of a different race outside of the country of origin.

Answer 2

I don't think this is a question that can be answered as "right" or "wrong."

Obviously, it would be the best for the child to be raised in his original family if possible. If it is not possible, it would be next best for a child to be raised by another family in the same country/culture. When that is also not possible, then I think international adoption is a valid option. (So I guess that would make it "wrong" as a first option, but "right" as a later option.)

In our adoptions, I feel confident that family adoption and in-country adoption were attempted before the children were offered to us (attempts were detailed by the orphanage in our court appearance), so I think international adoption was the best of the remaining options.

International adoptive parents also have additional responsibilities of making sure the child has some access to his original culture and/or supporting him/her as he/she deals with additional loss of language and culture. If the prospective adoptive parents are unwilling to take on those additional responsibilities then maybe it would be "wrong" for them to adopt, but I don't think it's across-the-board wrong.

Answer 3

I do not think it is wrong... especially when its the natural mother who is placing her child into adoption where she knows it is most likely that her child will go to a home in another country.  

In fact, it may even be the hopes of the natural mother from a Central American country that their child goes to some place like the USA because so many want to come here themselves.

Answer 4

I won't give my opinion, I'll just give some facts for you to use in your oratory (though you could probably guess my opinion from the facts I give you)

-There are 500,000 foster kids in the U.S.

-There are 700,000 orphans in Russia, who will be turned out on the streets at age 16. Many become prostitutes.

-There are 4.1 million orphans (meaning not in a foster home, in an orphanage) in Ethiopia. Two year olds roam the streets. Many suffer from malnutrition and starvation.

-In many countries (such as Liberia) there is political unrest; children die regularly. There really isn't a 'culture' of any sort that they are being taken from.

-My family sponsored a boy from Kenya. He had one elderly grandfather. No parents, aunts, uncles or cousins; just one grandfather. Aside from that, he had no family to care for him; most of these kids are orphans in the truest sense of the word.

Even with those statistics, it must be realised that there are some crooked adoption agencies that operate underhandedly. If you do adopt overseas, then make sure you look into the agency you choose THOROUGHLY!