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It is very, very, sad for the children and families already suffering. I don't minimize that or the longing of people here who would like to have a family. I can't emphasize enough that I realize and understand the love, longing, and good intent of individual families...
But I think it is about a lot more than just "pockets" of corruption, and, honestly, I'm not sure "corruption" is always the best word for what desperate people do in desperate circumstances.
As unintended as it surely is, the aggregate effect of this outside demand for children coupled with other very strong and powerful forces does contribute to the nightmare children and families in Guatemala are living on a daily basis. The more I read and learn, the more I can't get over the horror of the numbers and the reasons behind them.
One out of every 100 births...I checked it, and it is true, one out of every 100 births in Guatemala ends in adoption in the United States.
Imagine if one out of 100 children born in this country was surrendered by grief-stricken parents overwhelmed by poverty to a country hundreds of times richer. In a country of large families, that means that far more than 1 out of 100 families are torn apart every year. Imagine if every fourth or fifth family you knew was losing another child every year....
Imagine if the women of this country were poverty stricken and had no access to birth control of any kind, or real family planning, or any choice whatsoever about what happens to their own bodies--no hope of and sometimes no knowledge of the very things that have emancipated the women of that very rich country that is adopting their children. Imagine if you were one of them and had to choose between keeping a child you didn't plan but love with all your heart nevertheless and the subsistance survival of the children you already have.
These children are not orphans. They are not abused. They are not unwanted. They are grieved deeply by families that are overwhelmed by the dictates of authority and denied the very simple tools and knowledge--birth control, family planning, choice--taken for granted by every woman in that much-richer country and accessible to virtually every woman in the developed world.
These parents are slaves to their fertility, producing and surrendering their much-loved children to richer nations at a tremendous rate. Those with the power and ability to give them the tools they need to stop this continuing sorrow--including, as a matter of policy, our own nation, the very nation that takes so many of their children every year--refuse on "moral" grounds.
This one country is emblematic, I think, of why advocating and promoting children's rights, the Hague Convention, UNICEF's work, etc., is so important the world over. As a matter of compassion, social justice, and social health, children have a right and vested interest in being raised by their families and in their country of origin when possible. Mothers and fathers have the right to plan their families and keep their children and not be coerced into exporting them by the easily remedied pressures of overpopulation.
Families should not be torn apart for economic reasons. Too many children are being born into unsustainable conditions, too many families are being sundered, too many cultures are being pushed aside as a matter of not just traditional religious beliefs but national policies, including our own, that discourage responsible family planning and access to reliable information and tools.
Exporting children is not a sustainable or productive solution to overpopulation and poverty.
Although it will surely cause great pain in the short term before it takes full effect, in the long run, I am hopeful that steps such as these that push back on nations' own resources and policies with regard to their people will lead to consequential changes in the conditions that led to the forced disruption of families.
In the meantime, I am truly very sorry for those caught in the cradle/crucible of change and would hope our country would step in in some constructive and truly compassionate way to minimize and mitigate their suffering.
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