Friday, April 16, 2010

Preventing adoption disasters

The New York Times Room for Debate blog addresses how to prevent adoption disasters, featuring the usual suspects (they pull out the same cast of characters for each debate about adoption, and as usual no one participating in the debate is an adoptee):

David Smolin, Cumberland Law School
Peter C. Winkler, social worker
Diane B. Kunz, Center for Adoption Policy
Elizabeth Bartholet, Harvard Law School
Pretty much all four posts are summarized in this quote from David Smolin:

Unfortunately, the adoption myth in the United States sends the message that the love and care found in any normal American home is enough to heal any child. This myth leads to numerous inadequacies: inadequate evaluation of children prior to adoption; inadequate preparation, training and selection of prospective adoptive families; and inadequate post-placement services.

If any good comes out of this awful episode with Artyom's return to Russia by Torry Hansen, it will be the increased discussion of the difficult issues in adoption that are generally ignored by the media, prospective adoptive parents, and adoptive parents.

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