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The video highlights a foster home in Alabama which hasn't had an adoption in years. The commentator mentions the Haitian orphan crisis as a factor that has increased American awareness of adoption, but emphasizes that this increased awareness has not affected these kids. This video really struck me. I immediately began wondering about issues of race, age and class in relationship to these kids' lack of adoption. I was ready to talk about economic crises as a reason behind the lack of recent adoption or the fact that people often want to adopts infants, not older children. I was ready to make an argument about the domestic issues in the United States and possibly, even go so far as to reprimand people who only decided to adopt in the wake of the Haitian earthquake, while there were children before the earthquake and still are children after the earthquake who are in need of adoption at home - in the United States.
....But then I saw a link to this video:
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Granted this video is from January 17th, 2010, a mere 5 days after the Earthquake, it was a quite a shock to see the status of the American foster children and the Haitian orphaned children back-to-back. In the video, of the American foster home the children are adequately dressed and have a permanent place to live. In the video of the Haitian children, the children wear tattered clothing and no shoes and are housed in tents. They are also far greater in number. In all, the video of the Haitian children reminded me of the extreme situation in Haiti- a terrible natural disaster compounded by long-standing economic issues. My viewing of these videos respectively was deeply colored by my viewing of them in succession.
I am not sure how to reconcile my reactions to these videos. It is obvious that the children in Haiti, in terms of dire circumstance, are probably in greater immediate need of assistance than the American children. Adoption is at least one way to provide that assistance. Yet, I am reminded of a sociological term- relative poverty- that, if I remember correctly, describes a way of understanding poverty in relation to the society that surrounds a person. For example, a person living on $20,000 in the United States would be relatively poor to the majority of the country, while a person living on $20,00 in Haiti may not. I believe it is safe to say that the children featured in the video from the Alabama foster home do live, to some extent, in relative poverty to the rest of their home country. I wonder if adoption would raise these children out of relative poverty.
But, my emotions are further complicated by my belief that the children in the Alabama adoption agency and the Haitian children alike are equally as deserving of basic needs fulfillment- food, water, shelter yet equally as importantly they deserve love, comfort, acceptance and stability. The children in the Alabama home clearly yearned for these needs. They wanted a home. Adoption is what they want (although I do want to be honest and state that I wonder how much of their desire for adoption is socially conditioned by the agency itself).
I doubt (although admittedly I have little fact or experience to base this doubt on) that the children in Haiti want adoption in the same way that the children in Alabama do. Not that they are not equally as deserving of a home, family and acceptance, just that these children are experiencing a notably different set of issues than are the children in Alabama. This is inherent in the fact that when referring to adoption in Haiti and I inexplicitly, but clearly, am referring to international adoption- from a undeveloped- natural-disaster torn country to one of the richest countries in the world.
I am led to wonder how fruitful a comparison between the situation in Haiti and the Alabama home truly is, yet I also see that there are some fundamental concerns in common- human rights, children's well being, the right to basic needs, the human desire for love and acceptance. As this situation progresses Americans should consider their situation at home while also remembering our fellow humans who do not live within the American borders. We should remain open to Haitian adoption when it is the best option, but we should also consider the long-term macro issues in Haiti that might not be best addressed through adoption. We should find ways to support children here who are growing up in a foster system while desiring something else.We should work to connect these children with adoptive families. We should support the humanity of all people- not just those at suffering at home and not just those affected by glaring natural disasters. Adoption, for those wanting to take children into their families, is one of the many ways to do this.
You bring up a hugely complicated problem and comparison. In fact, that's why human rights are such a knotty issue-when giving humanitarian aid to one person shortchanges another, who is the one to get it? Do we step back and do nothing so one isn't favored? Or do we understand the reality of one situation better than another?
ReplyDeleteEven further, what does it mean if we adopt the children in Haiti before those in Alabama? Then we have to deal with cultural transfer and problems of permanence as well as validity, especially in light of the lack of facilities available in Haiti. How painful would it be for a couple to take care of a Haitian child until the family is found, and then lose that child they most certainly would have gotten attached to?
Politicians and humanitarians are in a huge moral dilemma because of all the issues you raised.