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Wildgrl asked in Pregnancy & ParentingAdoption · 9 years ago

Is international adoption by default more attractive then domestic adoption?

If yes, Why? What qualities or added-value do international children have that domestic children lack?

If the COST for either private-domestic or private-international adoption were equal, would that change the answers to the above question?

Update:

I have no plans of adoption. None - Zip, Nadda.

By "attractive", I simply mean that it appears some adoptive parents are drawn to international over domestic adoption, and I'm trying to understand why. I do know that costs of domestic v. international can be significantly different. So by removing the cost factor - what other compelling reasons to adopt internationally over domestic?

3 Answers

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  • 9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Hi Wildgrl,

    From the child's perspective, international adoption is not attractive at all. They have to give up everyone & everything they ever knew to be shipped halfway across the world to a foreign environment where everything is strange - the people, the language, the food, the smells, everything. No child should have to do that just to have their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, etc. met. Add to that all the unethical practices that go on in international adoption and that alone should turn any moral person away from it. (That, and the $30-40,000 price tag per child!) The real way to help families & communities in far away cultures is to send aid there to help them, or to personally go there & help with humanitarian work, not take away their children.

    I'm going to recommend the American children in foster care be helped by other Americans in their own local areas for the same reason - it is less traumatic for the children. And adoption is really about helping children, not adults, right? If cost is an issue for you, you will be pleased to know there is virtually no cost associated with adopting from foster care.

    If you are thinking of adopting a newborn, once again, we are crossing into unethical territory. Babies rarely if ever really need new families. It's an entire business built upon recruiting vulnerable, expectant mothers & their newborns, and then buying & selling them at huge prices similar to those with international adoption.

    To know which is right for you, don't just consult your bank account. Consult your conscience too. Think of which is better for children. Consider also you will need to answer to that child throughout their childhood & adulthood about why you did what you did with respect to their natural families. Thank you for asking. Hope this information is helpful for you.

    julie j

    reunited adult adoptee

    ETA - (after your edit) More reasons some AP's are drawn to international adoption:

    They can pretend they are the child's only family because it's far less likely any relatives will be found for the child, or that they will ever be reunited as adults. Also, international adoption is almost always a "closed adoption" and many AP's do not really want the inconvenience of interacting with their adoptee's other family.

    Since white children are rarely available for adoption in the U.S., some AP's go to Russian countries specifically to get white children that will blend in better with the adoptive family. The next choice is adopting from Asian countries. Then brown-skinned children from South America. For some reason, children of African descent are chosen last, unless they are actually from Africa, which AP's tend to prefer over adopting the African children already here in U.S. foster care. I have no idea why, unless they think it's more trendy & exotic.

    The Angelina-wanna-b AP's who try to collect assorted children from all over the world - They want to stand out, even if the child would prefer not to. The AP's like all the attention of being seen as a savior. Other people will constantly stroke their egos by telling them what wonderful people they are for adopting whenever they take their little adoptlings out in public.

    As you can see, these additional reasons have little to do with what is actually best for the child, and everything to do with adopters who want to make it all about themselves.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    ok, properly i'm not a international adoptive determine nor am I interior the concepts-set of turning into one... yet we do plan on adopting the international over interior the subsequent 5 years. My significant clarification for adopting the international over is the wait time. i don't care concerning the age yet my better half desires to undertake slightly one or a minimum of under 3. Adopting a toddler of that age regionally (Canad) takes an prolonged time - you could anticipate years to also have a bio determine inspect your profile. With international adoptions, you could oftentimes have a toddler abode interior of a 365 days of beginning the approach. the different reason is in all possibility a stupid one, yet i've got heard too many horror thoughts of start mum and dad coming back and attempting to take their little ones back. This occurred in my mum and dad' city some years in the past even after the two sisters lived for 8 years with this new kin. The organic and organic mum and dad won. (How is that interior the terrific interest of the toddlers?!) besides, those won't be solid motives, yet they are MY motives for adopting the international over.

  • 9 years ago

    It's much more expensive to adopt out of country, and certainly so internationally.

    I'm not sure what the 'attractiveness' is.

    If I adopt, I'll be doing it in-province.

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