Why do Americans like to adopt so many Central and South American babies?

Question

My boss adopted 2 Chilean babies. Why not adopt americans

Answer 1

Savior complexes

ETA   and to eliminate the risk of the child ever having the birth parents back in their lives

Answer 2

Believe it or not...it is so much easier to adopt children from another country.  The US makes it so hard to adopt that people just go elsewhere.  I wish they would change that. I don't mind that people adopt from other countries, but our children need homes to.  I hope the US government makes some changes on that.

Answer 3

a baby is a baby is a baby.. what difference does it make where it was born?  it is a life..

there are very few American babies needing adopting - most places have waiting lists for years of couples wanting a "baby"

saddly its the older kids.. in USA, and everywhere else, who really need homes

maybe you should ask "who dont Americans adopt older kids, why only babies?"

also how many kids have you adopted?

Answer 4

Bits and pieces of the earlier answers are accurate.

We adopted a very wonderful 13 year old girl from a shabby orphanage in Colombia about 2 years ago. We hadn't been thinking of adoption - we saw a story in the local newspaper about these kids being brought to the US, to our town, looking for families. As empty-nesters, we had plenty of room, we have the financial means, and we had it within ourselves to give one of the kids a family and a new home.

The write-ups in the local paper of local foster kids invariably make them look very difficult - crack babies, ADHD, given to emotional outbursts, or inculcated with a culture that is inimical to our way of life.

We really like our colombiana daughter and we'd do it again in a second.

It was not that difficult to adopt her - lots of paperwork, but if you do just one thing per day it goes pretty quickly.

The cost was no big deal. Having raised one daughter, we already knew that the cost of raising her was going to be much higher than the initial adoption. Again - it was no big deal.

Our daughter had a choice - she chose to get on the adoption list in the first place, and she chose us when we met her [as did some other families].

If she wants to return to Colombia some day and try to find her family, she is welcome to do so. My best friend found his birth mother and was horrified, and he is totally against idea of re-union - I had to ask him to back off in expressing his forceful opinions around our daughter - it has to be her decision.

As for the myth, repeated here often, that there are just zillions of American babies available for adoption - that is total nonsense.  Social acceptance of people keeping their babies, cheap and available birth control, and cheap and available abortion are the three prime reasons why that is not so. Ask any person running an adoption agency and they will verify that the "census" of available children in the US is really quite low.

Answer 5

Ask him.

The decision to adopt is a big one and everyone does it for different reasons. Most people are also willing to talk about it and share their stories. I would bet it has nothing to do with a savior complex.

Answer 6

Because many a'parents want an infant, and most single mothers in the US choose to keep their babies now.  Rather than "settle" for an older child in foster care who really needs them, many PAPs elect to look for an infant elsewhere.

I have also heard some APs say they adopted internationally because they didn't want to "deal with" the child's first family, heritage, identity, and other silly little inconveniences like that.  How very, very sad.

Answer 7

there are less and less american BABIES available for adoption,

Answer 8

I think because it was alot easier but laws are changing and it's most likely going to get hard plus I doubt these natural parents are going to be able to afford to cross the seas to look for their children. so adopted parents have it much easier to take control.

Answer 9

This is news to me, I though EVERYONE wanted a "white" baby and would go as far as target white women for their "superior, in demand" babies...... You got me.

Answer 10

Because in many of these countries there is a stigma attacthed to single unwed mothers and because of family pressure they cannot keep their children

In the United States this is not as prevalent as in prior years,,,there are many programs to help moms parent their children.

Answer 11

There are plenty of babies available for adoption in the US. They just aren't want nearly all couples want to adopt. These babies are black, have handicaps, are addicted to drugs, are HIV+, or have serious health problems. Very few people want to adopt them. They would rather look for a healthy baby elsewhere.

Answer 12

the adoption requirements in some south american countries are much lower than the u.s.a.