There is, in my opinion, no other response for an adoptive parent to make to allegations of the existence of intercountry adoption corruption than to agree. We then have a further responsibility to get under what that means, learn to recognize it, speak out against it, and understand our role in it. This neither diminishes our families nor undermines ethical transnational adoptions.
It would do my heart good if one day an article like Graff's could be met by adoptive parents with praise first of all for shedding light on this problem, followed by reasoned critique and dialog on how we collectively can bring intercountry adoption corruption to an end.
Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Reacting to Allegations of Adoption Corruption
From Third Mom, a suggestion for how adoptive parents should respond to reports of corruption in international adoption:
Agree 100%. Say yes! This doesn't mean, btw, you need to second-guess yourself or beat yourself up over your adoption. (I don't.)
ReplyDeleteThen we can get on with the task of thinking how things could change and how we could help them to change.