Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2016-04-20 06:31 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2016-04-20 06:31 pm
[ SECRET POST #3395 ]
⌈ Secret Post #3395 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 027 secrets from Secret Submission Post #485.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Non-fandom secrets - GO!
There aren't - at least where I live - "thousands" of children awaiting adoption. There are less than one hundred, and every single one of them either has severe, debilitating health problems that will cost tens of thousands of dollars a year plus full time care to treat, severe mental problems, is almost "aged out" of the system already (i.e. is a teenager), or some combination of all three. The government has a list of them (under pseudonyms, of course) right up on their website. It's wonderful if you have the means to adopt one of these children, but that requires not only wealth and a special set of life circumstances that not everyone who would be a perfectly good parent to a healthy child could manage.
The "thousands" of children aren't up for adoption - they're in the foster system. And while it's true that you could apply to adopt these children eventually, you could easily be rejected, or the parents could just not want to give them up.
There's international adoption, of course, but not only does it cost as much as three times more than the most expensive fertility treatments available - zero dollars of which goes to making your child's life or the lives of other children better, and all to lawyers and bureaucrats - but there's a decent risk that child is a "paper orphan" stolen from his or her parents to essentially sell to desperate, childless, or well-meaning rich Westerners. Moreover, many countries have already closed their borders to this practice and many more are following suit, as their own fertility rate drops and their own wealthy citizens are increasingly likely to want to adopt.
You could just give money to help charities that help children in need, of course, but you could also do that while having children of your own perfectly well.
Worse, there's absolutely nothing preventing the biologically capable of "just adopting" or fostering themselves - if it's such a wonderful, preferable act, and the insistence on having biological children is so selfish and irrational, and we're already so overpopulated, why try to foist it off on the infertile and gays? Why don't you do it?
Fertility rates drop with increasing GDP, and freely accessible birth control and abortions decrease the number of unwanted children - honestly, it's probably best for the planet and society just to support global equality and development and women's rights, if that's the outcome you want, then to take up arms and berate infertile people who are probably having a hard enough time already. That's not going to solve the problem. Adoption is already in much of the developed world a seller's market, to the point couples are desperate enough to drop $100K on a kidnapped foreign kid with severe disabilities. There's no way we wouldn't be better off if they spent $25K on IVF, had the biological kid they wanted, and used the savings to foster or donate to a charity that helps children.
I think people should have kids if they want them, will take good care of them, and can afford them, regardless of how those children came to be. Economics is already taking care of the overpopulation problem; everywhere but Africa's dropped below replacement levels. So, have your one or two kids, give the ridiculous adoption fees to a young mother in Africa to help her afford birth control, or a young girl to help her go to school, instead of some lawyer or government agent. Trust me: the waiting lists to adopt anywhere in the world right now is years, that kid you were "going" to adopt is going to get adopted by someone else. Or use it to foster a second/third kid in addition to your own.
Re: Non-fandom secrets - GO!
(Anonymous) 2016-04-21 02:56 am (UTC)(link)I think these are all really good points. My opinion isn't set in stone, it's something I pass back and forth in my head a lot. I fullyadmit that my experiences with kids in foster care has colored my opinions.
Re: Non-fandom secrets - GO!
Flash forward to today and just about everybody's at below replacement levels and those that are still allowing international adoption are profiteering off of it. The kids who are actually in need are in the foster care system, and those might get yanked away from you at any time, so while it's a noble and needed effort, it's not the same. It just isn't. At the same time, fertility treatments get cheaper and more effective every year.
Today I think I'd just have one kid of my own and foster the other with a partner. That's still a net negative in terms of the global population, and leaves more cash available to help other causes - environmental or humanist - that aren't "pay a lawyer's salary for the prestige of having my own foreign adopted child like all the rich, trendy people have."
Re: Non-fandom secrets - GO!
(Anonymous) 2016-04-21 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)Re: Non-fandom secrets - GO!
(Anonymous) 2016-04-21 11:51 am (UTC)(link)