| @wonton, I think it helps to understand the motivation of those who adopt children. Many people have been trying for years without the ability to have children, and only go to adoption as a last step in a frustrating process. In the US (where I live) it is very difficult to find children to adopt from the US. I found these stats on about.com for 2005, gather from State Department visa records, for the top 10 countries: 7,906 - China (Mainland) 4,639 - Russia 3,783 - Guatemala 1,630 - S. Korea 821 - Ukraine 755 - Kazakhstan 441 - Ethiopia 323 - India 291 - Colombia 271 - Philippines I know that the adoption process is lengthy and difficult from all countries and to all countries. I think good and loving parents can shoulder the heavy task of raising an adoption child, and I believe many of these parents are likely to be better parents than many parents that have children naturally. According this article in the China Daily there are 45,000 orphans in orphanages in China, 10% of the total. So it seems to me that for 8,000 babies to be adopted from China to the US, of about 450,000 orphans, is a good thing for both orphaned babies in China and for childless couples in the US. What do you think? |
Chinese Middle Name for Erik's Baby