Linda Robak said:

Linda Robak said:

"As a long-time child advocate, I'm puzzled as to why VIVID would print such an ignorant opinion piece. Mr. Douglas clearly illustrates his ignorance of children's needs in general, but specifically those who have been abandoned or removed from their biological families due to abuse (physical, sexual, or both), severe neglect, or the simple fact they are unable and/or unwilling to care for them. The last thing a child who has been abused needs - or wants - is to be placed in the same town and school where his abusers reside, where he may come in contact with them, and where visual associations reminding the child of the abuse would be inflicted on a regular basis. If biological parents (and relatives) who abandon their children in hospitals and orphanages don't bother to visit them, what makes Mr. Douglas think they will visit them in a foster home? Mr. Douglas is obviously not a parent and would be much enlightened if he took a few classes in child psychology and sought the professional expertise of those who work with abused and abandoned children. He clearly doesn't understand the basic rights of the child as stated by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child nor the Hague Treaty - both of which Romania has signed. ALL children's most basic human need is a permanent family, wherever that family may reside, and whether thru domestic or inter-country adoption. Paid foster care parents, most who think of foster parenting as a career, is not the same as a permanent family who have adopted the child from a spirit of love and forever care and support."