An independent voice for ethical adoption
Letters from the President
Adoption Is Not the Only Way to Help a Child
Ethica launched a fundraising campaign this week in response to the Madonna adoption case. We have received numerous positive comments back from many people, as well as donations for the cause of keeping Mercy with her family in Malawi. Thanks to those folks who got involved with our call to action.
We received some impassioned comments from other folks as well.
Letter from a Board Member: Protecting the Right of Parents to Raise Their Children
Recently in Michigan, the Court of Appeals ruled that Cody, the child
of Kenneth Barnett and Christine Wolfe, should remain with his
biological parents. Cody had been placed for adoption with another
couple but the adoption was never finalized and Barnett never
consented. Over the course of several years, the child bounced between
the two homes and lived a double life. As Barnett put it – he spent
three years of his life with two homes, two names, two schools, two
religions, two families and nobody could stop and say wait a minute,
let’s put an end to this. Letter Continued Here
The Consequences of Safe Haven Laws
I teach my children to look at both the small picture and large picture
in given situations. If one of them listens to friends and does
something stupid on a dare, I want them to think about the consequences
of that action, but also to think about what consequences await them in
similar, but larger circumstances. For example, one of my children was recently in trouble for throwing a rock that hit a classroom window.
No one was hurt, a teacher was mad, but after appropriate apologies
were made everything was fine. The lesson I drove home to my child was
that doing something because of a dare, without thinking, can lead to
dire consequences sometimes, such as a person being injured by the same rock.
I have been thinking about how our nation’s safe haven laws are
similar. Fifty states have enacted safe haven laws in recent years.
Nebraska’s recent law created huge consequences. It was poorly
written and as a result, parents have dropped off over 30 kids, most of
them teenagers. We all hear the news reports and imagine pained,
scared, teenagers not knowing what was going to happen to them, if they
would ever see their parents and extended families again. We imagine
them floating in foster care until they age out and wonder if the
connections to their parents will ever be repaired again, or whether
they are irretrievably broken. We picture a family so damaged by
whatever came before this decision, trying to move forward, but finding
more pain and more damage around the corner after this almost
unbelievable decision has been made to permanently sever family ties. We wonder what could have been done to help them before this decision
was made, and what help any of them might get to heal from it
afterwards. Statement Continued Here
A Sad Day for America’s Children
Today is a sad day for America’s children. Ethica stands on the belief
that children need permanent homes. We prefer that those homes be with
their original families if they can be healthy and appropriate. When
that is not possible we believe they should be forever homes with legal
connections to their parents. Last night many laws were passed that
make that impossible. Statement Continued Here
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