CNN did a biased coverage on the intercountry adoption, with a strong spin on those adoptees that have voiced against the intercountry adoptions from Korea. To counter this bias, I wrote a comment (shown in earlier blog). There have been a few comments following it that argued against me, some to the point of going on personal attacks on me. Reason with reason, and facts with facts. There was no point in going beyond this when they personally attack you. However, there were many times more people that have supported my point of view.
Way down below the comments chain, another person asked me this question.
"The discussion about the baby box is interesting and has been going on for a while now. As you probably know, the UN has make the conclusion that baby boxes are troublesome as they can ENCOURAGE mums to abandon their children. Why do you support that?"
I responded as follows...
"It's a good question. I do not trust UN based on some of the positions they have taken. In the Europe, there are many nations with lots of baby boxes. In Germany there are 100 baby boxes, Czech has 47, Italy has 8, Poland 45, Slovakia with 26, and so on. UN is pushing to close all these boxes for the same reason you mentioned - that these boxes will encourage more abandonments.
But I think the UN is completely wrong on this. I do not think that these boxes are encouraging birthmothers that wish to raise their children to all of a sudden make them change their minds to abandon them.
Let me attempt to explain this logic by using the example of a homeless shelter. Let's suppose a homeless shelter has been set up in a neighborhood and it gets exposed heavily in the news media, and many homeless people flock to it to utilize the services provided by the shelter. Therefore, one can ask the same type of question. Does the availability of a shelter encourage more people become homeless? I think not. People were already homeless and they sought to find a way, a method to get sheltered.
Likewise, the availability of a baby box does not encourage more abandonments, but rather provides a way for birthmothers that have already abandoned their babies in their hearts, but just didn't know how to unburden them as they could not give up their babies at the agencies as the law forbids them to accept the babies without first being registered.
The US has a similar concept like the Baby Box through a program named Baby Safe Haven Law, which is adopted by all 50 states after finding many babies abandoned or left dead in trash bins or in other unsafe places by birthmothers. The program's aim is to prevent the lives lost by giving chances to birthmothers to relinquish their babies at fire stations, ERs, hospitals, social services, etc. with no questions asked."
Very well said, Steve!!
ReplyDeleteInternational adoption is a system filled with documented and on-going patterns of adoption agency corruption, re-homing, baby stealing, child trafficking, coercion of the biological parents and legal violations. I collaborated with other "foreign" adoptees to create this video showcasing the human rights abuses embedded in international adoption.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJlnfkRtBX4
It all depends on how you look at it. Someone may say that I was stolen from Korea, and if that is the case, I am glad that a loving family took me from a hopeless orphanage I was in. Someone may say that my agency practiced a corruption to place me in a loving home, then I say thank you to my agency for practicing a righteous justice for me despite being labeled as a corrupt by the naysayers.
DeleteAnother may accuse my parents for buying me and the agency for brokering a deal. If that's the case, I am glad that they bought me away from the misery of my orphanhood in Korea by sacrificing on behalf of me when they didn't have to. I've suffered eight long years in an orphanage, and a home is where I wanted to be since young.
You must believe that there are many decent people in the world that go out of their ways to reach out to the orphans, and no matter what rhetorics and tactics used to discourage adoption, there are millions of adoptees that have benefited from adoption.
It all depends on how you want to view things in life.
Life itself is very dangerous thing with risks to health and heartaches, many let downs, abuses, violations,...if this is what life is to you all about, you might as well not get married and have no children. But not everyone views life this way.
The traffic on the freeway is very dangerous, stressful, and risk to life, so you might as well pass a law to stop people from driving. But people continue to take the risk to drive.
So there are instances of things that you accuse on adoption. But there are many times more children that have benefited from adoption. One of the people presented in your video is a PhD and a professor at a college. Had he stayed in Korea, he might not have had the opportunity that he had. It is very unfortunate that he is blaming the very syste that he has benefited from.
I am sure there could be a similar video that could tell the opposite side of the story, with lots of testimonies and quotes from many people that would stand by and praise what adoption has done for them. I am one of the many that is grateful for the opportunity given to me through adoption.
It all depends on how you choose to view adoption. A glass is half-full of water or half-empty. Certainly there are cases of corruption, coercion or trafficking and violations that need to be corrected, and it will take years, or may never be fully corrected as long as people are involved. While these are present, it should not be used as a scare tactic to discourage adoption and block the opportunities for many children to grow up in homes of their own.
And may I recommend that if you are ever in one of the countries where there are orphanages, please visit them. Look into the eyes of the orphans, and see what you can do to help them.