A Family for Every Child: International Adoption of American Children in the Netherlands

Like I said in another comment one of the reasons behind the low figures for domestic adoption is the non-existence of adoption from foster care, although that is not a complete explanation. The figures for domestic infant adoption in the Netherlands are also much lower than in the United States.

There is no reliable information about the number of domestic infant adoptions in the US, but it is estimated to be around 20,000 cases per year. In which case the rate of domestic infant adoption in the US is about 40 times higher than in the Netherlands.

Many factors play a role in that. First and foremost, the number of teen pregnancies in the Netherlands is much lower than in the United States, which not only influences the number of adoptions, but also the number of abortions performed. The age of first sexual contact in the Netherlands is also more than a year later than in the United States, which correlates with the lower teen pregnancy rate.

It's difficult to give a definitive answer to what the Netherlands is doing better, though there are a couple of notable differences. First of all sex education is mandatory and comprehensive, so there are relatively few teen-agers who don't know about human reproduction and its relation to sex. The educational system is also more closely regulated, making it impossible for schools not to offer comprehensive sex education.

Yet the biggest reason for the low teen pregnancy rate in the Netherlands, I believe, has to do with relatively low levels of poverty. Teen agers from all back grounds engage in risky behaviour, but teens growing up in poverty are much more likely to do so; they have a lot less to lose. For teen agers aspiring to go to college, have a career, there are reasons to be more careful. Teens growing up in poverty often don't have such aspirations, so they have much less to lose when engaging in risky behaviour.

Poverty is also the underlying reason why many more people in their twenties relinquish children for adoption in the US than in the Netherlands.

The reason why the United States has so much more poverty than the Netherlands is largely cultural and something that cannot be done much about. As much as the income disparity in the United States would be unacceptable to the Dutch, income equality as seen in the Netherlands would be unacceptable to Americans.

In many ways the Netherlands is much more mediocre than the United States. The Netherlands has mediocre health care, which on average is better than American health care, but top-notch health care in the US is better than top-notch health care in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a mediocre educational system, which on average is better than the American educational system, but the best colleges in the US are far superior to the best colleges in the Netherlands. The Netherlands offers mediocre career opportunities. On average it is easier to get a well-paying job, but the top is lower than in America.

I don't believe the US will ever trade its superiority for mediocrity, even when that mediocrity would on average be superior. So in the end, the US has to accept that it will have relatively poor health, relatively many teen pregnancies, relatively many abortions, relatively low life expectancy, relatively poor eduction, because in the end most Americans will choose to fight for excellent health care for themselves and excellent education for their children, and not settle for mediocrity for everyone.

Finally to the issue of adoption of children from the American foster care system by Dutch people, which after all is the topic of this thread. In the first place, I am not in favour of it. If America cannot take care of its own, it shouldn't be alleviated of that task by people from other countries. It sets a very wrong example. I also think this is a phenomenon that has largely flown under the radar. I believe if more Americans knew about it, there would be much more protest. How can a country so proud of itself and so patriotic allow itself to ship off its children to Europe? So I guess the adoption of American children by Europeans will last as long as Americans are ignorant about it. In the end Americans will probably not be able to live with the cognitive mismatch between living in the greatest nation in the world, while accepting it needs other countries to take care of their children.

"The kids would be better in   ..."

If I had a nickel.

And I swear I read on this site somewhere about the high suicide rate of black children placed in white European countries because they were treated like some kind of freak in their community...

What are your stats on "black children" and suicide in general?

Which community are you talking about? People belong to more than just one community.

If you want to see USA gov. run health care look at the care Native Americans and Veteran's get (really poor care in many cases)

Or Medicare, which a lot of government-off-my-health care types somehow want left intact .

Or being denied coverage from private insurers after paying out the nose on premiums for years. Come on, we can do better than this level of analysis.

I don't think sex ed would help anything, and if the gov, dished out more comprehensive sex ed it would suck as well.  I think just about everyone gets a really go idea about how babies are made (there is another really big problem in the USA though I agree, that really isn't is sex ed issue, but a self worth issue for girls/young women... see many think the only way to get a man is to dish it out and in many community as young as 11 it goes on all the time....) 

Sex ed is a joke.  What's needed is a program that teaches kids about real-life experience, and the consequences each action brings.  When it comes to sex-ed, we need to ask, do we want to deter/prevent STD's and pregnancy, or do we want to deter/prevent poor parenting?  I would like to think we, as a tax-paying society, would like to deter/prevent all three.

If 11 year olds are seeking the comforting arms of a sexual stranger, what is that saying?  Think about all that's missing.  Sad, isn't it?

But let's dare ourselves to go beyond the baby-making basics, shall we?  It's not enough to know how to make a baby.... one needs to, at the very least, recognize decent parenting, so it can be tried and emulated, donchya think?  I know in my own case, when I got pregnant at the ripe age of 24, I knew... if not for Nursing School, I'd be diving into the seas of parenting (or shit's creek, as it often feels) without a boat or an oar.  What was I going to do, use my parent's example:  when times get tough, throw the crying child away (?)  Thanks to nursing school, I learned not only what to do, but I learned what NOT to do... critical points when caring for yourself and/or another person.

Still, there are other not-so-subtle messages being sent to teens learning about sex-ed, biology and an "unwanted pregnancy".

A few weeks ago I overheard an interesting discussion between teen girls.  The topic was:  if you found out the baby you were carrying was deformed, what would you do?  The choices?  Abort or adopt.

What happened to the third option:  keep the child, and find a way to provide?  Oh, wait... that would require parent/extended family involvement.  I forgot, Americans struggling to afford decent health-care are not for that option... thank God for adoption!