NCFA Responds to Madonna Adoption Controversy

NCFA Responds to Madonna Adoption Controversy

The real news behind the headlines is not that Madonna has finally been approved by a Malawian court to adopt an abandoned and orphaned child after months of delays, but that there are some groups of so-called child welfare advocates who openly and without a hint of shame fought to deny a little girl a family by insisting that she live the rest of her childhood in the deprivation of Malawai’s orphanage system. An orphanage is no place to live, and in fact, many children in orphanages never survive childhood. Those children fortunate enough to survive the disease, squalor, and loveless conditions of an orphanage emerge, as adults, completely unprepared for the challenges of life. Many become victims again to homelessness, the sex trade, and crime. The anti-intercountry adoption crowd argues that a child belongs in his country, surrounded by his or whole culture, while at the same time asking that more money be given so they may provide the child with minimal institutional care. But common sense dictates that a starving, dead, or traumatized individual has no opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his or her culture.

Given that fewer than 50,000 children find families through intercountry adoption each year, it is obvious that intercountry adoption is not the solution for the majority of the millions of orphaned children around the world. Thus, best practices dictate that every effort be made to preserve families and encourage domestic adoption worldwide. For thousands of children, however, intercountry adoption is a solution, and self-described child welfare advocates who argue otherwise are guilty of furthering their ideology at the expense of the very children they claim to represent.

Chuck Johnson

Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Training and Agency Services

To read Adoption Advocate No. 11: A Case for Ethical Intercountry Adoption please click here.

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