Over the past 40 years, American citizens have developed a new passion for international adoptions, resulting these adoption rates to double, for more than 265,000 children have been adopted abroad during that two score time period. That is about half a million children. What about the children in left in foster care in the United States? What are the true stories behind the adoptions of these foreign kids? Things aren’t always as clean as they sound, and I am here to prove why international adoption should be banned across the United States.
The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence promises each American equal opportunity and pursuit of happiness. According to research, around 400,000 to 600,000 children are put into foster care each year, yet couples have ignored this fact and adopted overseas, estimated to be 17,230 abroad adoptions per year in the U.S. This means that there are 17,000 more children without real homes than there should be, and that is an extremely big number. This absolutely does not demonstrate equal opportunity. Around half the foster children in the U.S. end up homeless, 60% end up in jail, mainly for drug use, and 23% have once attempted suicide. But due to the fact that they were deprived of love and a place to really call home, and instead given only basic necessities such as food and shelter, it is obvious that they did not get their fair share pursuit of happiness.
When people are asked whether they believe that international adoption should be banned, they usually say, Why not?, since they don’t really see the problem with it. But I have recently read a miserable story about a Korean adoptee whose parents had finally stabilized their financial issues to buy him back. But a couple of weeks before their call, a rich family from the U.S. decided to adopt him. Once the biological parents heard this, they immediately signed him and began bidding with the other family. But for some reason, the American family stubbornly kept bidding higher bids, unsympathetic to the situation and blind to the thought of adopting somebody else. Eventually, the bid became too high for the original parents, so they had to give up their son.
Granted, I understand the sudden appeal to foreign adoptees, for there are fewer chances that the biological parents will come back for their kids or try to claim them back legally. Also, favorism among Asian or black infants and toddlers adds to why American kids aren’t preferred, causing them to feel unloved and insignificant, leaving another 60% of these foster children with mental problems from this issue.
I heard that it is a common threat of adopting parents when losing an argument to their kids to begin using the threat, Imagine were you would be if we left you with your old family back in… And though this may not be significant to my topic, the idea brings tears to my eyes, and it always does to the kids whom have had this threat used on. So please, the next time Madonna buys a baby, don’t gush over it, don’t make the joke of wishing it was you, but help support the children of the world in need. If people really wanted to help, they shouldn’t take kids out of their cultures, but maybe do foundations to help save the families from giving up their children. I feel that with all the kids in need for love in the United States, the country should really care for its own problems before taking in consideration the quandaries of other nations.