So I suspect this is going to be the new "big" thing for adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. This is a documentary about children being raised in institutions and how horrible that is. I totally agree with that. No child should ever have to be raised in an orphanage.
The focus of this whole documentary is on getting kids out of institutions and into families because every child deserves a family.
But here is another example of privilege, power, greed, selfishness the issue.
It's not about wanting kids to be raised in THEIR families.
It's about wanting kids to raise in OUR families.
I agree that every child deserves a family.
What I don't agree with is that every family deserves a child-
especially not someone else's child.
I guarantee you that the VAST majority of those children in the videos have at least one living birth parent and near 100% of them have living birth relatives.
Family that in most cases can not take care of them due to reasons directly related to POVERTY
(not abuse or neglect or indifference)
Families that can be restored with some help or support.
No mention is made of corruption, coercion and trafficking
No mention is made of illness, lack of education, POVERTY
No mention is made of food or resource scarcity
No mention is made of birth family searches
No mention is made of family preservation at all
The movie uses the "best interest of the child" argument to ignore the sociological and economic issues that result in abandonment or relinquishment and instead justifies the removal of children from the families, communities and culture because that is what is best for us for them. There will always be a need for adoption but it is not, and should not ever, be our first response, let alone, as this movie seems to suggest, our only response.
If what you actually care about is the children, you lobby the government for foreign aid, you support NGOs in other countries, you sponsor children and families through programs like Heiffer, Habitat International, and Doctors without Borders. If you actually care about the children what you do not do is lobby the government to allow more adoption. Wanting to see more kids adopted (especially in huge numbers) is about what WE want- not what children need.
One quote from the trailer sums it up best (and yes she means something totally different)
ETA- there is a response to Nick's comment here
