Pretty much all children adopted from the foster care system have special needs, though the needs and severity will vary hugely. If there was no abuse or neglect in the original family, then they shouldn't have been in foster care in the first place, and abuse and neglect lead to special needs.

Also, maybe they charge money in some states for foster care homestudies, but I have never heard of that in mine... our homestudy was completely free, and we were reimbursed for adoption expenses. We never paid any money at all, in fact we receive an adoption subsidy from the state.

(cont'd) Though I won't speak for black people since I am not one, on a general level, I do not believe everyone has a moral obligation to adopt the least adoptable children (older, special needs). Because if people adopt when they're not prepared, the adoption generally gets disrupted and the child is often worse off than before they started. Old child adoption carries unique difficulties and responsibilities and I have often heard it said that having biological children is actually not good preparation for it. I believe everyone has a moral obligation to support vulnerable children, and we can fulfill that obligation in numerous ways, including without having children... we can support political and economic goals that improve child welfare.

Finally, I'm uncomfortable with the implication that protecting children means adopting them. More often, protecting children means giving their original families enough support so that the children don't have to be adopted in the first place. Adoption is not a totally altruistic endeavor and potential parents often have a lot of unrealized privilege. Adoption corruption is a potential in all forms of adoption, not just international adoption. I adopted from the foster care system, and I think my son's situation was ethical, but I'll never be 100% sure of that, and I've heard of others that were definitely a lot less ethical.

The main ethical problem with private infant adoption is that much of it is driven by religion and social stigma... women of all races often relinquish their babies because they've been told to believe that single motherhood is wrong. This is not the only reason that women relinquish, but it's one of the biggest ones.

OK, going to try one last time, this time splitting my comment in half.

I still haven't seen a single shred of proof that the Wares' baby a) is white or b) isn't black. Every comment I've seen on it has been where people judge from a couple photos, and judging the race of an infant is notoriously unreliable.

@Restructure: there are a small number of black infants privately adopted out to Canada and some European countries every year.

It's important to differentiate between two kinds of adoption: private domestic (infants) and foster-to-adopt. There are less parents waiting to adopt black infants, but there is still not a huge shortage, because most first-time parents are looking for a healthy infant to adopt.

The shortage of black parents for private infants is a combination of factors including:
- African-American parents already have high rates of informal and/or relative adoption (nieces, nephews, grandchildren, etc.)
- African-American parents already have high rates of adopting from the foster care system
- African-American parents do not have a high awareness of private infant adoption, and if they do, they often have negative views of it, since unlike the prior two forms of adoption (relative/foster), you have to pay money to adopt.

Where I live in Atlanta, there are a lot of potential parents out there who want to adopt younger and healthier black children. But once the age gets past 10 and there are a lot of special needs, the pool of potential parents shrinks to practically nothing. It's the same dynamic with white children, although when age and special needs are equal, black children (especially boys) will wait much longer than white children.

None of my comments are coming through, could it be because of the length? Checking now with this one.

Trying again to leave comment...

I still haven't seen a single shred of proof that the Wares' baby a) is white or b) isn't black. Every comment I've seen on it has been where people judge from a couple photos, and judging the race of an infant is notoriously unreliable.

@Restructure: there are a small number of black infants privately adopted out to Canada and some European countries every year.

It's important to differentiate between two kinds of adoption: private domestic (infants) and foster-to-adopt. There are less parents waiting to adopt black infants, but there is still not a huge shortage, because most first-time parents are looking for a healthy infant to adopt.

The shortage of black parents for private infants is a combination of factors including:
- African-American parents already have high rates of informal and/or relative adoption (nieces, nephews, grandchildren, etc.)
- African-American parents already have high rates of adopting from the foster care system
- African-American parents do not have a high awareness of private infant adoption, and if they do, they often have negative views of it, since unlike the prior two forms of adoption (relative/foster), you have to pay money to adopt.

Where I live in Atlanta, there are a lot of potential parents out there who want to adopt younger and healthier black children. But once the age gets past 10 and there are a lot of special needs, the pool of potential parents shrinks to practically nothing. It's the same dynamic with white children, although when age and special needs are equal, black children (especially boys) will wait much longer than white children.

Though I won't speak for black people since I am not one, on a general level, I do not believe everyone has a moral obligation to adopt the least adoptable children (older, special needs). Because if people adopt when they're not prepared, the adoption generally gets disrupted and the child is often worse off than before they started. Adoption carries unique difficulties and responsibilities and I have often heard it said that having biological children is actually not good preparation for it. I believe everyone has a moral obligation to support vulnerable children, and we can fulfill that obligation in numerous ways, even without having children... we can support political and economic goals that improve child welfare.

Finally, I'm uncomfortable with the implication that protecting children means adopting them. More often, protecting children means giving their original families enough support so that the children don't have to be adopted in the first place. Adoption is not a totally altruistic endeavor and potential parents often have a lot of unrealized privilege. Adoption corruption is a potential in all forms of adoption, not just international adoption. I adopted from the foster care system, and I think my son's situation was ethical, but I'll never be 100% sure of that, and I've heard of others that were definitely a lot less ethical.

The main ethical problem with private infant adoption is that much of it is driven by religion and social stigma... women of all races often relinquish their babies because they've been told to believe that single motherhood is wrong. This is not the only reason that women relinquish, but it's one of the biggest ones.

I still haven't seen a single shred of proof that the Wares' baby a) is white or b) isn't black. It's all just people judging from a couple pictures, and judging the race of an infant is notoriously unreliable.

@Restructure: there are a small number of black infants privately adopted out to Canada and some European countries every year.

It's important to differentiate between two kinds of adoption: private domestic (infants) and foster-to-adopt. There are less parents waiting to adopt black infants, but there is still not a huge shortage, because most first-time parents are looking for a healthy infant to adopt.

The shortage of black parents for private infants is a combination of factors including:
- African-American parents already have high rates of informal and/or relative adoption (nieces, nephews, grandchildren, etc.)
- African-American parents already have high rates of adopting from the foster care system
- African-American parents do not have a high awareness of private infant adoption, and if they do, they often have negative views of it, since unlike the prior two forms of adoption (relative/foster), you have to pay money to adopt.

Where I live in Atlanta, there are a lot of potential parents out there who want to adopt younger and healthier black children. But once the age gets past 10 and there are a lot of special needs, the pool of potential parents shrinks to practically nothing. It's the same dynamic with white children, although when age and special needs are equal, black children (especially boys) will wait much longer than white children.

Though I won't speak for black people since I am not one, on a general level, I do not believe everyone has a moral obligation to adopt the least adoptable children (older, special needs). Because if people adopt when they're not prepared, the adoption generally gets disrupted and the child is often worse off than before they started. Adoption carries unique difficulties and responsibilities and I have often heard it said that having biological children is actually not good preparation for it. I believe everyone has a moral obligation to support vulnerable children, and we can fulfill that obligation in numerous ways, even without having children... we can support political and economic goals that improve child welfare.

Finally, I'm uncomfortable with the implication that protecting children means adopting them. More often, protecting children means giving their original families enough support so that the children don't have to be adopted in the first place. Adoption is not a totally altruistic endeavor and potential parents often have a lot of unrealized privilege. Adoption corruption is a potential in all forms of adoption, not just international adoption. I adopted from the foster care system, and I think my son's situation was ethical, but I'll never be 100% sure of that, and I've heard of others that were definitely a lot less ethical.

The main ethical problem with private infant adoption is that much of it is driven by religion and social stigma... women of all races often relinquish their babies because they've been told to believe that single motherhood is wrong. This is not the only reason that women relinquish, but it's one of the biggest ones.