While I have been listening to everyone’s
student presentations this week, I have had a chance to reflect on how
complicated adoption really is. Though I
have realized this earlier this semester, the presentations have made me
realize that if adoption would to ever be an option for expanding my family, I
would have to think long and hard about doing it. There are so many different dimensions of
what could go wrong. Before this class,
I never thought of adoption as something that could challenge a person’s soul
or identity, but clearly by listening to all the different ethical dilemmas
this week, adoption is something that does.
But overall, I think as a class we have clearly learned a lot about
adoption and ethics and can truly think about both subjects on a more complex
and intellectual level.
I think the biggest thing that I am going to
walk away with from this class is that adoption isn’t as principled and uplifting
as the general population may think. It is
a long process that takes a lot of time, energy, money, and can test a person’s
morals and values. Throughout the
semester we have listened to and read a lot of stories about adoption and in
every story there was an element of moral and/or ethical compromise. As a whole, this class has help me realize that
even though there is a good outcome in whatever you are doing, you are going to
have to analysis yourself as a person and decide what you think is good or bad. It is you and only you that have to live up
to the decisions you make and it is you and only you that makes those
choices. I truly admire the people that
decide to adopt because they take on so many unknowns when they commit to the
process and embark on a journey that test their moral compass, coming out of it
a different person with a better realization of who they are.
Lisa R.
Paula K.'s GRADED REPLY #12 -- 5/5/13
ReplyDeleteLisa, I agree with many of your points. Before beginning this course, I had a very narrow view of adoption. I had no idea that so many different ethical dilemmas in behind a practice that is such a small part of our society (although it is growing increasingly more popular). As adoption is growing in popularity, or as Pertman suggests, the Adoption Revolution is underway, more and more families will need to deal with the complexities of adoption. Families will have to face complex relationships with their adoptee’s birthparents (if the adoption is open), will need to incorporate the child’s culture into daily family life, and will need to work through their children’s identity struggles, whether or not it is a transracial adoption. As you mentioned, so many things can go wrong when families decide to adopt, especially if the child has a history of abuse or an attachment disorder. Other children in the family can be at risk for the adoptee abusing or harming them. Families can end up torn apart by adoptions gone wrong. Still, so many things can go right. If the child goes to a loving home where the parents can provide for him, he is almost certainly better off there than languishing at an orphanage.
Paula K.