Blog Post #4 (Option #2)

            In this blog post I will be talking about the guest speaker that we had from Outfront Minnesota.  I found that he did a very good job in regards to talking about some of the issues that gay and lesbians have had to face, especially in the last forty years or so.  I personally see no detrimental problems with same sex couples raising a child.  Personally, as long as the child is loved and knows it’s loved, has stability and boundaries there should be no issues with how this child will grow and develop into adulthood.  Any child, in any circumstance could end up being gay/lesbian, become a criminal, murderer, etc.  A lot of what a person becomes is instilled within them at birth, not by how they are raised.

            The one thing that made me raise an eyebrow in regards to our guest speaker was the comment that he made about adoption internationally.  He had stated that some gay or lesbian couples will adopt a child by having one of the parents individually go through the process in certain countries because the country that they plan on adopting from does not agree with gays or lesbians adopting and/or raising children.  Since this is an ethics class the first thought that came to my mind was is this type of “deception” ethically acceptable?

            I spent my long weekend on this thought and even had a discussion about it with a friend.  I still don’t have the right answer personally.  The only thing that I could agree with was that if the individuals that are adopting find it ethically acceptable, then so be it.  This question came to be in my mind because of one of the discussions we had in class where Professor Keller talked about some aspects of her adoption processes that she found personally unethical and would not agree to an adoption under certain circumstances.  This question also made me think of the countries that are agreeing to send their children to the United States and what they would think if they knew a same-sex couple was raising the child they sent to us.  In class we talk shortly about how Russia has closed adoptions to those that live in the United States.  We talked about how it could be a way to show power and/or a way to preserve the heritage of their children.  So if more countries feel this way (as I suspect they do) and are sending their children in hopes of this commitment, is lying about the type of household their child will grow up in really ethically right or is the fact that this child has a home trump that?    

Lisa R.