New adoption book out, about a twin study?

Question

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2007/12/08/whitfield.identical.strangers.cnn

This is the link to the video. I'm very confused. Wouldn't this be illegal to sperate twins just to study them for some type of experiment? I'm pro-adoption and my adoption was because my mother could not take care of me properly, but if this case is true. It really distubes me. I mean how could a adoption agency do this or a parent. I would like peoples thoughts and opinions on this. Please be respectful.

***also note that this is just a CNN video and in no way reflects on how i feel about adoption or adoptive parents***

Answer 1

Separating multiplies was done quite a bit in yesterday years. Many times they would do it just to see if the twins, triplets. Would grow up similar, have similar habits despite not growing up together. It could be looked at as nature vs. nurture. Other times it was probably about having a child for 2 families. Many times adoptive parents would not know their child was a multiple. Some birthparents not know the multiples were being separated.    Today the separating of multiples via adoption is very rare; they always try and keep multiples together.   A while back someone posted that they were pregnant with twins but wanted to keep one baby and place the other for adoption. In that you have a birthmother who is willing to seperated twins because she cant afford 2 but wants to keep 1.

My father is a identical  twin and he is closer to his twin brother then anyone else always has been. He loved his mother, step father and sister dearly and was/is close to them but he was much closer to his twin. Its just a multiples thing and one cant really fully get it unless they are multiples themselves.

Answer 2

That's very bad.  Children shouldn't be used like lab rats to be studied.  Very disturbing and horrible.

Answer 3

I watched the video but this is the first that I have heard of it.  I would feel like someone stole from me, wow, how unfortunate for them.  I was thinking that surely the mother would not have known about it before, but she must have since she would have to sign two sets of paperwork, that is, unless she signed papers giving the agency custody and they in turn did the paperwork for the adoptive families.  I wonder if the adoptive families were ever told.  That would be a hard secret to keep, I think.

I work with many children who are no longer with their birth families and I can tell you that the biggest thing that I have learned is that gentics is huge.  You are who you are because you were created that way, and although nurture and surroundings can effect your personality (your self esteem & some of your views on the world), your DNA is absolutely huge.  I never would have been able to see this until I came to observe it myself.  Different siblings, raised in two very different homes, yet they are so much alike in SOO many ways.  

I believe that we have a creator and were therefore, created with a plan and a purpose.  I will definately read up more on this.  I would be so upset and want to know what they researched.  I think that you could get so obsessed that you could miss out on enjoying your own life and newfound sibling relations....thankfully they seem to be doing well.  It seems that their situation could create some wounds, that only God could heal.

Answer 4

but you know there were a lot of unguided adoption agencies in the us in the past..so it could have happened...i think its wrong to separate any siblings but for it to be a twin i think its even more so..i too am an adoptee...where i stand on the issue i have no idea..i just know mine didnt work..

Answer 5

huh...that is really weird.  I could not put my child into that...kids aren't lab rats!

my older brothers joey and eddie are identical twins...it would have been so weird if they had been separated.

Answer 6

As a twin I find this deeply disturbing on so many levels.

My sister and I have a very special bond that is very different from a traditional sister relationship.  It is more profound than any other relationship because we shared a womb, IMO.

I would think it is illegal, but it may not have been 30-40 years ago.

Answer 7

There were about 12 sets of twins unknowingly taking part in this 'study' even the adoptive parents weren't told.  All from the same agency.

The adoptive parents had no part in it - it was the agency and the 'phycology expert' LOL who perpetrated this crime against humanity and got away with it!

Apparently the 'study' is sealed away so nobody can see it - not even the subjects of the 'study'

This happened not so  long ago.  Adoption 'professionals' continue to get away with all kinds of outrageous stuff and nobody really cares

Answer 8

The people doing the study "believed" (or convinced themselves) that twins were better off if they grew up separately. Several studies have already been done in the past about twins separated at birth by adoption.  The study itself is not new. Neither was separating twins, which was also done in years past. The 'shocking' thing about this story is that the researchers admitted purposely separating twins to do a study.      

Other adoption agencies and advocates convince themselves that babies they are better off with parents who have money, rather than their (poor) birth mothers.  Still others convince themselves that babies will have a better life in the US rather than in their country of origin.  

I am neither pro- nor anti-adoption.  I believe there are circumstances where adoption is a better option.  Or sadly, sometimes the only option.  When a child is an orphan, or has abusive parents unwilling to parent them.  All children deserve a home and a family to love.

I'm not sure it's "illegal" to separate twins. However, the twins in this story reported that separating twins is no longer done in this country.

Answer 9

There is NO logic involved when people believe that it's 'terrible' and 'awful' to separate twins or siblings, and not KNOW that an infant being separated from it's mother is more damaging.

As the mother of twins, I can tell you that their relationship to me is far more profound than to each other.

Using this 'logic', separating twins/siblings shouldn't matter at all, because the pro-adoption/anti-family lot believe that another child could be adopted to replace a that lost sibling, right?

Answer 10

This disturbs me also.  I put the blame however on the agencies and the research professionals.  It sounds as if the bio family probably didn't know the children would be separated and I don't necessarily feel that the adoptive families are at fault either.  I am a firm believer that siblings should always be kept together whenever possible.  My son has a full blood sister that was born after him that was placed in foster care.  The state didn't even notify us of her birth.  We would have loved to have brought her into our family to keep the two of them together, but they have cited "privacy rules" and will not allow my son (or his sister) the "right" to live together.  How crazy is that?  

The irony of this research study is that while everyone will appear to be against it now, the truth is that when the results are released, there will be one side that will be happy for the research.  If the research shows that DNA is what rules us, then the anti-adoption supporters will be using the results to their advantage even though the research itself was immoral.  The same goes with adoption supporters if the research shows that nurture is what makes us.  They too will be using the info to their advantage.  The sad part is that no one will remember that these children were made guinea pigs and for no reason other than to satisfy curiosity.  It is sad.

I am not against researching things to better understand human life and/or medical issues.  My son has benefited from research that has been done on certain medical disorders.  However, this study could have been done quite differently.  Instead of "choosing" random children to be adopted by different families, there were some siblings 35+ years ago who were being adopted by different families for whatever reason.  They could have just as easily "found" adults later in life who had this scenario happen (not forced upon them only for the purpose of this study) and research their information.  In that case you would be taking a bad situation and trying to find some type of "good" by researching their lives.  In this particular study, they created the "bad" to study it when it didn't need to be that way.  It's sad.

Answer 11

I saw on Oprah (I think it was her) two girls that were seperated at birth for this study. The girls, identical twins, were asked if they resent the fact that they were seperated, and they both said no. They didn't because saying that they resent being seperated is like saying that they did not live a good life, that they were not appreciative of the adoptive parents that they had. They were just grateful that they were together now.

I think it's awful, the point of their study was to see if twins would have the same talents, likes, dislikes even if they were not in the same house holds. The girls on Oprah did. I still think that it's a pretty stupid reason to seperate twins.

Answer 12

These adoptions occurred in the past before it was accepted that the separation of siblings was detrimental to their well being.  They were not separated for the purpose of the study! I also don't think that either the birth mothers or the adoptive parents had any knowledge or influence of these situations. Often the birthmothers were told their babies had died (remember in those days, women were "put under" for labor and birth). Adoptive parents just took what they got. The study did take advantage of the fact that it had been done, however, to compare nature vs nurture events. I think that if you read the study, you, as an adoptee, would appreciate what it is contributing to the knowledge in this area. Media hype aside that is. ( I personally think it was wrong to separate twins and siblings as well. )

Answer 13

I don't think it said anything, negative or positive about adoption or adoptive parents.  It is legal to separate siblings.  Whether or not it's right is another matter.  I don't think so.  The twins in the video didn't think so.  It made me want to read the book.  I don't know how, now that it's been exposed, they're getting away with not telling the involved parties.  I'd want to know who is collecting research on it now.  (The elderly man they referred to?)    All in all, it's disturbing, I agree.