Why Does the USA Have the Highest Adoption Rates in the World?

Question

whatever happened to valuing family? It appears that separation of mother and babe is treated as casually as cutting an earthworm in two?

Answer 1

Wow MamaKate, I have the willies just reading your list! You TELL it, sister!

Wish I could take that walk with you and talk about it all.

Answer 2

I fail to see the correlation.  Americans do value family  that is why they have the highest adoption rate. They crave and want a family so desperately that they adopt. In many parts of the world adoption is still a tabo topic and item.  India for instance  generally people don't adopt you just accept your status of not being able to have kids.  They do like china though and drop their girls off to orphanages because they don't want to pay a dowry if they are poor.   Also your wife not being able to have kids is a legit reason for divorce in that country.

Also America  (despite the declining dollar) is one of the richest nations in the world and no matter where you live adoption is expensive.  

Also there is a perception difference. Most people do not see adoption as separating a mother and babe.  They see it as giving a child a home  (good implied) that they would not have had.   When i told most people that i was going to adopt they say . WOW your heart is so big. You are such a good person for doing that.  Then when i say from foster care it is even greater. I get wow i could never do that.  PAP/AP genuinely  feel that they are doing a great thing it is a win win in most of our eyes. We get the family we have always wanted and a child gets a home.  There is a (and yes even I will say it)  selfishness or arrogance that our home most be better than where they came from or would of gone.

I have learned a few things from hanging out on this board and i know most of you have different perceptions.  I have even changed my views on many things because of info on this board but i still feel that adoption, infant, international, or foster care are good things.  I know there are women who really don't want their kids and they should not be encouraged to parent.   I think that options in adoption is a good thing and not everyone is cut out to adopt from foster care.  

Finally even with the red tape in the US system it is relativly  easy to adopt.  Expensive but easy.  They same can't be said for other systems in the world.

Edit

I will agree that adoption the way it WAS partice was a horrible  thing. i aslo agree that it stil lhappens but in much smaller numbers.  I think the way it is parcticed today  is much more ethical

Answer 3

Can I ask where you get the statistics that the U.S. has the highest rate of adoptions?  When calculating the statistics of other countries, is it including both domestic and international adoptions for that country?  Also, consider that in some other countries there may be many unofficial adoptions that take place that aren't counted in the statistics.

I understand your point that the U.S. has very high adoption rates, and for the most advantaged country in the world  to have such high adoption rates definitely says something about the adoption industry and adoption practices.  I'm just curious as to the specifics of your statistics.  I'd like to know adoption statistics for different countries.  That would be interesting.

Answer 4

Because women are convinced that they can't be a good parent unless, they have money and a husband. You know the old "whats best for the child c**p".

Answer 5

Where does it say USA has the highest Adoption Rates in the world for infants?  I thought China and Russia were higher in infants being given up or abandoned and I thought Africa was highest in "orphaned" infants.  

I also do not think it is treated "casually", a birth mother has 9 months to think about her decision and adopted parents usually have years to dicuss whether or not adoption is the path to follow.  I do think "parenting" is treated casually, that everyone thinks they can be a good parent mom/dad and as we see in the Foster Care system this is not true.  Just imagine if these "parents" would of realized they were not ready to parent or be a mom/dad and allowed their child to be adopted as a baby instead of suffering years of abuse/neglect/trama until finally rights were terminated.  Usually it is so late for these child that mentally and physically they are left unstable and unable to be adopted.

Answer 6

This is due to the lack of morals and self control in the US.  Although, I believe that these women must have had some reason why they could not raise the child and that having the child be adopted and raised by a family that loves it is the best possible outcome of the pregnancy.

Answer 7

You have alot of birth mother's living off the system. And then you have a few that are really dum that doesn't know there is birth control out there that would prevent this. Look in not saying that I'm for abortion but I bet if a man could take birth cintrol instead of the woman then there would be alot of less US children born. Now you still would have a few that are worthless and wouldn't want to spend the money for the birth control.

   There is no family values in the US. It's easy now days to get a divorce then to get married and if your divorce then it's no big deal.

   Could you see a world where there are only children in foster care that are able to be adopted I don't. Most of the children like you were most likly told that there natural parents are dead it's sad but true. One day maybe 10 or 15 years down the road you are going to read where a natural brother and sister marry not knowing that they are kin and who's fault is that going to be adoption agencies, birth mothers or adopted parents but who's fault it won't be is the brother and sister.  Until this world get's right with taking care of your own and stop this chain of adoption doors always open values in the US are going to going down,down and down

Answer 8

that is a really hurtful thing to say. I don't think people treat it as a casula thing as you say. It is not fair to pass judgment on girls/women who place their babies for adoption.

Did you ever think that they do it to offer their babies a chance for a better life.

Would you think more of women who chooose to abort their babies.

Adoption is a loving thing and there are many couples out there that can't have children of their own.. and choose to adopt.

I am just so disturbed by your question... but you are entitled to think the way you do... i just think its misguided and you don't really know what you are talking about.

Answer 9

Didn't you know?  We are better than anyone else, and we can give these poor babies a wonderful life.   (Sorry about the sarcasm.  I couldn't resist.)

Answer 10

Ok, I know that there are problems with the industry and that leads to higher rates....coercion...etc...  

However, it cannot be ignored that we have the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies in the Western world.   We also have the highest rate of couples experiencing fertility problems.  You do the math.

We hear very little about how we can better PREVENT unwanted pregnancies.  Very little.  The debate in our country has become so much about abortion.  Not about PREVENTION.  Sad, because prevention of unplanned pregnancy is the issue all sides have in common.

Answer 11

Excellent question!

Here are a few, of what I gather to be, some of the reasons:

1.) There are more advertised and available services and resources catering to adoption then family preservation -expecially in the "private" sector. (Wendy's gives 50 cents of every Frosty purchased to Adoption charities,  adoption benefits and assistance from employers, I've even seen bake sales to raise money for adoption.) Google "adoption" and then Google "assistance for natural families". See how many results you get.

2.) Rampant coercion and corruption in the obtaining of babies from poor, young and unsupported women. (I have a theory that part of this lack of support comes from the distances we now have between family members and the lack of community and interpersonal relationships within communities. Yay, technology! We don't have to talk to people face to face anymore but when you need someone to help - good luck getting in touch!)

3.) Trendiness. Celebrity adoptions, glorification of adoption in the media (IE Juno, almost every Disney Movie, the Hallmark channel...), pseudo-humanitarianism.This kills me. "Gee, I really wanna help out a kid - but not his family, community or country!" If you really want to help send money, volunteer, mentor, be a CASA/GAL, be a Big Brother or Sister, show support... A child for yourself should not be a part of the deal if you "just want to help out".

(I do not mean to offend people - Madonna just make me wanna vomit! I know there are great adoptive parents out there who do it for the right reason and "get it" for what it is!)

4.) The standard Western beliefs about adoption have been propagated mostly by media, churches, adopters and the industry itself as many who have experienced it negatively suffer in silence. The shame projected on first parents and adoptees has contributed GREATLY to this issue in the past. Thankfully, people are beginning to speak out in numbers.

5.) Materiaism & lack of value and respect for genetic heritage and familial relationships - the well accepted idea that financial advantages are more important than DNA.

6.) ENTITLEMENT - Our society is one that says if you can get it - you must have deserved it. Not every one who has a Mercedes "deserves" one. Parenthood is a right - not the opportunity to parent. The sad fact is, there are people who would make great parents who are infertile and horrible parents who should have never reproduced. Life is not always fair.

7.) The idea that motherhood should only come after being "prepared". This causes many women to either lose children to adoption because they do not feel "prepared" to parent because they don't ave a great job, own a house, etc. It also is a huge cause of infertility. Our bodies are ment to have babies in specific time frame - a biological clock doesn't stop for careers, marriage, or anything else.

8.) The idea that a child requires two parents in the home. While it can be an advantage, sometime it is not. It is not a necessity.

11.) The lack of real, honest and full reproductive education and free birthcontrol available to women around the world.

10.) $1.4 BILLION. Need I say more...

It is really a little frightening to me how prevalent adoption is in our society. Did you know the approximately 2% of the total world population has falsified or no available family history? An estimated 51% of Americans are directly affected by adoption in some way? Instances of accidental incest in Westernized countries are rising? (Google it...)

OK. I have the willies now. I need to take a walk...

Thanks for asking this - it is something we as a society need to think about.

PS:

Spydermomma, I would love to walk and talk with you - and a few of the other lovely people I've met in the YA adoption section - I bet we'd get some sh*t DONE!!!  :)