Birth Family: The Ethics Of Adoption

Adoption is a very controversial topic. However, much of this controversy is caused by misinformation or being ill informed on the subject of adoption. Adoption is a very complicated issue and there are many questions that can be posed regarding the ethics of adoption, but one of the biggest and most overarching questions about adoption is whether or not it is ethical to separate a child from their biological family and place them with a different family and whether the possible emotional strain on the birth family, the adoptive family and the child are acceptable risks in exchange for the possibility of a better life for all of the parties.
There are multiple types of adoption. Parents may adopt family members or relatives or they may adopt …show more content…
The benefits of adoption are often most evident in the lives of the child and in the lives of the adoptive family. Children are adopted into a “stable home” with “committed parents” which may have been an impossibility had they remained with their birth family. (Adoption Choice: Benefits of Adoption adoptionchoiceinc.org) One of the biggest reasons that birth families place their children for adoption is the inability to properly care for the child. A birth mother is very often on her own, without work and unable to take care of a newborn. Although a very difficult decision, birth mothers place their children in a family with the ability to take care of them better than the mother herself could. This has held true in my own life and in the lives of my siblings. Though we all came from varied backgrounds, one common thread in all of our stories is the unstable and difficult life that would have face us had our birth mothers not made the choice to place us for adoption. Often adoption literally saves the life of the child. In a TED talk given in 2007, a photographer named Rick Smolan tells the story of how he was able to orchestrate the adoption of a little girl from Korea and save her from very difficult circumstances. In a very poignant moment in the presentation, Mr. Smolan invites this little girl, now all grown up, onto the stage and she says that she started crying watching …show more content…
The ethical debate over adoption is whether separating a child from their birth parents is acceptable. Although there are undoubtedly negative effects to this separation, the possibility of a better life for the child makes all the risks worthwhile. My own life would be drastically changed without the influence of adoption. I am very grateful for both my birth family and my adoptive family. I wouldn’t ever change a thing about my life. I’m sure other adoptees feel the