Monday, June 27, 2005

on adoption

On a completely different topic, I would like to talk about my desire for a family. The interesting thing about this desire of mine is that whilst we are perfectly fertile, I am really keen on adopting a child. There are lots of motivations culminating in my desire to adopt, so let's keep it simple and talk about the main impetus, and the possible issues..

1) We like children, and can give them a good environment to grow up in

the child I would like to adopt already exists, and is born to parents unwilling or unable to care for him or her. By the way this is NOT a pro-life/ anti-abortion spiel. I am thinking of children already born in orphanages from Ukraine to Uganda to Uzebekistan, for whatever reason, they need to have a home, and I believe that Fab and me can provide an excellent one.

2) This is an overpopulated world we live in, and so we do what we can do ease the pressures

if you look at the world as a whole, 80 million or so people are added every year. We consume fossil fuels in large quantites, devestate pristine ecological systems, the list of sins continue. So since I am not an advocate of genocide, I do think we can transfer the kiddies from places of high birth rates (and also high infant mortality rates!) to the so called "developed" countries. I am no Malthus, but I kinda think that we are breeding ourselves off this planet!

3) We want to have biological children too

This one is a really controversial issue, and I hope I have not opened a hornets nest here. It sounds hypocritical in the light of statements (1) and (2) above to say that we also want biological children. But we do. There is no logical reason for this, and it is a purely physical/biological/emotional kind of desire. I have done a little research on this issue, and it appears to be an urban myth that you cannot raise well-adjusted adopted children with your own biological kiddies. I guess I am reasonably confident that children raised by Fab and me will be well-adjusted and hopefully happy whatever their genetic origin.

So these are my current thoughts on adoption and starting a family. Will welcome any points of view, and have a good week ahead..

No comments: