Foster Care System: The Horrors Of Adoption

The Horrors of Adoption Despite claims of being a life-saving and necessary implement, adoption is trauma. The modern-day adoption process exposes children to abuse, the broken foundation for the system, and the well-meaning but harmful intentions of adoptive parents. The adoption process is full of millions of children who are harmed by the broken system. Healthy and functional families can be made through the adoption process, but no child comes out unscathed. Adoption is trauma. First, the adoption process and the foster care system exposes children to abuse. The adoption process, and the foster care system that works with it, are a broken system. These broken systems expose already traumatized children to neglect and abuse. A journal

The American foster care system and adoption process was built off of the Native American genocide. The first foster homes and foster children in the United States were made once the Native American genocide started. European colonizers would separate Native American children from their parents and place them in boarding schools. These boarding schools were the first implements of American foster care. Even though these boarding schools took place decades ago, they are a reflection of what the foster care system is like now. The boarding schools were responsible for plenty of children. This is comparable for the hundreds of thousands of children in foster care today. An article by the New York Times shares a statistic on the boarding schools. The quote States, “By the 1920s, one group estimates, nearly 83 percent of Native American school-age children were attending such school” (Callimachi). These boarding schools weren’t made to help the children but to disregard them. This is similar to how the modern-day foster care system disregards many children. Even though those boarding schools happened in the early 1900s, more recent boarding schools exemplify how traumatic the system is. Decades later, the boarding schools are still up and running and haven’t made progression for orphaned or separated Native children. An article from NPR shared the experiences of Native

The current adoption process is broken because of the outlook it tries to portray. The message behind most adoptions is that it is a way to get a child if you can’t get one biologically. This is a prime example of what is wrong with the adoption process. Not all adoptive parents fall into this category, but most adopt for the wrong reasons. Adoption should be about being able to emotionally, financially, and physically support a child. It shouldn’t be a baby-buying process for people who can’t conceive. For example, the most common adoptee parent that should hold off on adopting are infertile people. People who can’t conceive but want to, need to heal from that trauma. Instead, there are lots of cases of intertile parents adopting to get a child. To reiterate, adoption shouldn’t be about getting your hands on a child. Adoptions shouldn’t be a way to fulfill your parental fantasies. It should be all about the child and not the parent. An article from a journal illustrates the paradox of infertile couples wanting to adopt. The article states, “Adoption is not the most appropriate sequel to a diagnosis of infertility. A period of grieving is” (Renne 465). This quote from the journal perfectly encapsulates how prospective adoptive parents should assess their real reasoning for wanting to