Ethica Supports Family Preservation

Ethica, an adoptive parent organization for ethical adoption, announces their new pilot project to help parent(s) who were considering adoption and then chose to keep their child:

Ethica has partnered with social service organizations in two pilot cities [Tucson, AZ & Houston, TX] to launch our Family Preservation initiative.

While there are many services available to parents who are affected by poverty and/or youthful age, if the parent(s) were considering adoption and then chose to keep their child, often they find themselves unprepared to do so.

Ethica believes that poverty, youthful age and gender should not be, in and of itself, reasons to place a child for adoption. Sometimes a mother and/or father, just need a little help to get started. (emphasis mine)

At times Ethica has been told stories of parents who were transported to other states to give birth (usually states with “better” adoption laws…or laws that mostly benefit the adopting parents), and then if they choose to parent after they give birth they are stranded in a strange state, with no family or friends around to support them. Generally return transportation to their home state is withheld, and they have no car seat, no clothes, no diapers etc.

Even if they are not in a strange place, they often have not prepared for parenting a newborn and they need help and quickly!

I like this project for the same reason I like Love Without Boundaries' Unity Fund in China (the fund provides medical care for children whose parents cannot afford it and who might abandon the children so they'll get the medical treatment they need) -- adoption should be a last resort, and if a helping hand would allow a family to stay together, we should offer that hand.

Suz also posted in support of Ethica's project, and one of the situations described resonated with her. She, too, was transported to an "adoption-friendly" state far from friends and family, with no support and no way home.