Every day I see children that no one wants, who have no home. I live next to a licensed, accredited children's home which cares for kids until foster homes can be found. My living room window looks out over their play area. These children laugh, ride bikes, play in the sand box and sit on the swings, just like any other kids in a playground. All races are represented, but according to my unscientific observation, most are white.
No one wants these kids.
Their mothers, for whatever reason, chose to give birth to these children; obviously they were not aborted. Yet they are wards of the state because no one wants them.
That's why these "snowflake adoptions" REALLY piss me off.
People are actually adopting unfertilized embryos from clinics. This "saves" the contents of a test tube from being "destroyed" in order to help find a cure for Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's, etc.
The contents of a test tube don't know what it's like to be abandoned. Even if your religion teaches that the contents of these test tubes represent life, you have to agree that they don't have to go to school with children who have families. They don't know the pain of being separated from their siblings.
The contents of a test tube doesn't know terror, or loneliness, or confusion, or fear because unfertilized embryos cannot feel.
Yet passionate pro-lifers encourage these "snowflake adoptions" when healthy, lovable and loving children like the ones next door live day after day without anyone wanting them.
Politically, the candidates and office holders who promote these "snowflake adoptions" are also the ones who are anti-choice, who want every pregnancy to end in a birth. They should come look out my window at these children that no one wants and encourage adoption. Adoption of children -- not babies, and especially not pre-babies!
These candidates and office holders maintain that "snowflake adoptions" are the right, moral, Christian thing to do.
My Christian faith tells me something very different, especially when I'm looking out my living room window. Perhaps these good Christians would like to explain to the little girl wearing the hand-me-down windbreaker going down the slide why the contents of a test tube deserve a good home before she can get one.
According to our government (the Federal Citizen Information Center), there are currently 75,000 to 100,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption.
I agree with you 100% here! Both of those issues make me so mad. I feel so bad for those kids who just want a family of their own. And, in my opinion, saying that every embroyo should result in a birth is only a step or two away from saying that each act of sex should result in a baby ... i.e. you shouldn't have sex except to get pregnant.
ReplyDeleteMy sister's in-laws fostered for a while. Their last group was three brothers - ages 1,2, and 3 - who were with them for a year and a half. Those boys were "lucky" because they had several people who wanted them - grandparents, then new adoptive parents who took all 3 - in addition to the in-laws who took care of them for so long while the placement and final arrangements were sorted out. (It took a LONG time.) I can't imagine what it must be like to not be wanted, to be bounced from place to place.
Stem cell research is the most exciting medical development since the discovery of antibiotics. We should welcome it with joy. I don't have the impediment of religious belief to colour my opinions but it is beyond me how anyone can claim to follow a man of compassion like Jesus, and at the same time do their best to preserve all manner of foul diseases.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a series of group homes myself: www.sunshinegirlonarainyday.com
ReplyDeleteNow, I advocate for people in and from foster care:
http://sunshinegirlonarainyday.blogspot.com/
Lisa
As a former foster child and current youth advocate, I try to "pick my battles."
ReplyDeleteThe bumper sticker on my car says, "If you can't be a foster parent, why not be a mentor?"
When I was in group homes with the other children, no one from the community came to visit us. They would not have had to adopt us, but what if they just took one of us out to lunch once in a while?
Lisa
Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. This is such a complicated issue. And, as Lisa, says, we need to pick our battles. The battle I have chosen is to support political candidates who will return our country to a more secular form of government. A return to our honorable tradition of the separation of church and state. Messy issues like this occur when politicians try to legislate Christianity, and I'm sick of it.
ReplyDeleteI admit I get too emotional about the issue of foster care because of what I see outside my window. I don't know how my other neighbors stand it. I do what I can to support that children's home, both financially and in terms of community outreach, because how can I not? Those children are quite literally my neighbors.
My uncle is dying -- agonizingly slowly, by the way -- of Parkinson's disease. My best friend wears an insulin pump every day of his life. I find it hard to argue that their suffering is less immediate than the destruction of the contents of a test tube. And, while we're at it, I'm not sure that I believe that IVF squares with my personal religious beliefs. Which is not to say IVF should be illegal. Of course not. My personal religious beliefs are just that, and should not be legislated.
Why don't our politicians trust us? Why is the idea of giving us choice so horrifying to them? Especially when you look at the mess they have made of things ...
Rather than protesting the choice that a woman may have, pro-lifers should be going beyond the birth to providing homes for babies.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that there are a lot of ignorant people in our society today who don't understand how to raise a child. A baby is cute up to the time where now you are responsible. I see a lack of responsibility by teenagers, adults and politicians.
What a good post, man, I could really go off on it.
"Adoption of children -- not babies, and especially not pre-babies"
ReplyDelete"I find it hard to argue that their suffering is less immediate than the destruction of the contents of a test tube"
Very well said, and I couldn't agree more!
they spend actual, real money to adopt things that are not real children yet? Fiscally responsible, yes sirree bobby
ReplyDelete