Child adoption should not be abused’

Child adoption should not be abused’

Although, the nation’s constitution and laws supports adoption of babies to give succour to married couples who could not give birth to children.

The process is often abused particularly by young couples, who do not adher strictly to the relevant laws guiding adoption of children.

Speaking on the advantages of child adoption to The Tide on Sunday in Port Harcourt recently, a legal practitioner, Barrister Bethel Diri averred that one of the aims of child adoption was to give comfort which was expected to serve as elixir for longevity to couples whose hopes to have their own biological children have been sealed as a result of old age.

Diri observed that in most cases married and single parents suffer untold hardship in old age because they do not have children. According to him they have no persons to fetch water, fire wood, cook and serve them food, attend to them medically and keep them company hence, the establishment of home for the elderly so that society could be saved from the health hazards of decomposed corpses in private houses or apartments.

He said the humiliation, threat to life and property and other forms of embarrassment by relatives have made the adoption of children by childless couples a necessity in Africa.

The legal practitioner disclosed that in some indigenous societies in the country when the husband dies without having a child biologically, the relatives and other family members deprive the woman from inheriting the late husband’s property, adding that the brothers and sisters first confront the widow.

The lawyer said in some cultures the widow faces the agony of deprivation and rejection if she does not marry her late husband’s brother, but if the couple have children this may not be an easy task to accomplish by the family of the deceased.

Barr Diri noted that in a typical rural community where the so called custodians of the people’s culture and tradition exploit such inhuman custom to torment poor widows, adoption of children by married couples has always served as a source of stability, unity, respect, honour and hope. “Adoption of babies also assures the future of children being adopted,” he said.

The legal practitioner described the future of children before adoption as bleak considering the circumstances surrounding their birth. The lawyer said quite a lot of them were abused and abandoned to their fate having being picked from the gutter, drainage, mangrove, bush and the road side, adding that their adoption has given them equal opportunity like other children in the society.

Diri said child adoption was part of Nigeria’s law which has saved individuals, community and government. It is true that the Holy Bible says people should go to the world and multiply which implies that the Almighty God has not created any person barren.

The legal practitioner hinted that the law says those who wished to adopt should not adopt more than two children and must have the means for their upbringing and be prepared to love them as biological children. He then lamented that this aspect of the law has come under very serious abuse by the rich who adopt as many children as their money can fetch them.

Speaking on the difference between child adoption and human trafficking, the lawyer explained that child adoption is the act of having a child or owning a child backed by the full knowledge of the law. He said as part of the test to qualify prospective parents for child adoption, he or she must first show evidence that such child could adequately be catered for, and the child to be so adopted must be given sufficient affection, adding that the child must be given adequate sense of belonging in the family.

Diri described child trafficking, as evil and lamented that child trafficking was an illegal business of converting children into goods or cargoes and sold either within or outside the shores of the nation.

The legal practitioner stated that those who buy these innocent children used them as slave labour and have no respect for their dignity.

He called on the government and people of this country to stop child trafficking, adding that child trafficking has destroyed Nigeria’s image abroad.

On whether child adoption has any psychological and social effect in a family, the legal practitioner said contrary to speculations in some quarters that an adopted child suffers some inferiority complex in the family, an adopted child has equal opportunity as the biological children and should assert the best of his ability and authority in the affairs of the family.

He reiterated that if an adopted child was maligned with an imputation of his status as an adopted child, as an adult he could seek for a proof of his biological parents in the law court.

Barr Diri said child adoption was never been known to have bad consequences in any family rather, it has engendered prestige and continuity in the family tradition of succession and inheritance, adding that there are families, today especially the middle class and the, rich which will be succeeded by adopted children.

The legal practitioner said there were families where biological female children dominate and the couples have tried to give birth to a male child but to no avail, adding that the only way to have a male child for the continuity of the family was by adoption. “Such families abound all over the country and many of these children have become people of substance in the society today”, he said.