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Human Rights, as they relate to adoption, family, and children

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The more I see articles presenting the arguments for and/or against gay (LGBT) adoption, the more I get annoyed by this mythical notion clouding the minds of the masses, suggesting all people have "the right" to adopt a child.  A human right to adopt?  Can we please get serious?   [This mythical thinking reminds me of the comical illusion created (and perpetuated) by the adoption industry, suggesting adoption is a triad-experience.  Anyone touched torched by adoption knows complex adoption issues can not be broken-down to a simple easy-to-read three-sided adoption story.... there's too much tricky human math involved...making the adoption experience a convoluted complicated mess. ]  So what is this new Right to Adopt issue all about?  Is this issue about the right to purchase, without discrimination or who has the legal right to have a family with young children?  Or is the real issue a completely different animal, cloaked in BS PC bureaucracy?  I have to say, the way I see it, this new breed of malcontents, marching and petitioning, claiming they have a right to do something, reminds me of the old-school complaint given by young sexually active women back in the 1960's -- women claiming they have should have reproductive rights... they should have The Right to Choose.

So allow me to make my own pro-choice convictions clear.   I don't believe any one person has more of a legal right to adopt than another simply because I don't believe any person has the human right  to adopt (purchase a child), period.  However, knowing each child born is born into a family, I do strongly believe each person has the human right to have contact with original family members, and that right should not be denied by government rule.  Of course, this belief-system mocks American adoption laws and goes against many standards seen in international adoption practice.  You see, in a more pro-choice friendly Adoptionland, Closed Adoption would be a real deal-breaker and Open Records would be a real simple automatic legal given.  Unfortunately, such is not the universal rule.

There is more.  Thanks to the many things I have learned through PPL, I have drawn a new conclusion...one that differs from the one I held strongly in my younger days...the days that had me thinking all AP's are closet nut-jobs with serious unresolved personal parent/family issues and all adoptions are wrong.  When it comes to 'the right to have a family', I will even go so far as to publicly state I believe a non-pedophile person should have the right to choose if he/she will become a parent, (and have children), and if one of the ways and means to create that family with children includes adoption, then that option should be made available, regardless of color, sex, creed.  However, it's important to note, when it comes to the rights of children, and who should have them through adoption, I'd like all pedophiles (and some who are mentally ill) to be excluded.  After all, when it comes to who should be allowed to adopt, (or be adopted), and future family wellness and child safety, I think discrimination (skimming out and removing from the pool) is good.

So... advocate "a right to adopt", because as Australian lawmakers say,  “This is about morality and this is about the rights of children.”?  Um... no way.... you still have the rights and orders wrong.  Try again, all ye new and old adoption law-makers playing God with children's lives.  (Yup, that's my personal Pound Pup opinion, based on case-review.)

I'd like others to share their thoughts and opinions on human right issues, as they relate to adoption and family.  What are some of the rights, and what are some of the wrongs?  When it comes to future child safety and well-being, what should people and government be doing (or not doing)?

by Kerry on Saturday, 04 September 2010