Oh, Christ. Let me guess.

If all those women would only do as you tell them, those babies could all go to good Christian homes, right?

Pregnancy may not be a disease, and it may be inconvenient, but what woman in her right mind would bear a child to see it raised by the very people who condemned her.

Christians are the ones who define sexuality as sin. They are the ones who order society so that a miracle becomes a disaster. The ones who condemn a young unmarried woman to a life of overwhelming poverty and shame, deprived utterly of the opportunities for education, fulfilling work, or ever being a 'respectable' part of her community, without stigma or censure or blame.

And Christians are the ones who insist that these women be deprived of the right to avoid all that horror by depriving them of their rights over their own bodies.

You want those babies to be born? Gather up the mothers and love them. Help them live half decently, stay in their families and continue school, and find work, and be able to still have the chance to rejoice in motherhood. You won't get the kid. You'll have to stop trying to dominate the women. You'll have to change the way you think about almost everything.

But from what I've read, it's the only way Jesus would approve of.

Blessings like roses should rain down upon you, Bailey.

There's so much truth and beauty in those few lines of yours.

Thanks.

The whole point of the article is that there is a shortage of homes for adoptable children which is what adoption is traditionally about, that is, finding homes for genuinely orphaned and abandoned children not finding (or creating) babies for infertile couples. Forcing women to have babies for the adoption market only exacerbates the situation.

The current government has cut back support systems for young, single mothers i.e. daycares in high school while at the same time awarded organisations like the Adoptive Families Association of BC million dollar grants to encourage adoptions which will cause lifelong grief and anxiety for these same young mothers should they be conned into giving their babies up.

Really the point is missed here by many in this writers point of view.

Having unwanted children for the infertile is surly not the answer as one write said, and thinking adoption is the answer for everyone is equally not the answer.
What is the percentage of failed adoptions?
MCF is not printing that figure.
What is the percentage of failed adoptions from this country & then from foreign adoptions?
These would be impotent figures to know.
All foster homes are not temporary, in heart, time, or dedication. Some long term placements work very well for children who have grown up in a home and this is the mane care giver they know it is their home into adulthood and beyond.
Children may be part of a sibling group and it would be a financial liability to take on the total care of 2 or more children. If the children are special needs then one parent would need to be home full time, hence leaving only one parent income. Perhaps the delays required 2 parents at home. Maybe there is a daily weekly contact with the birth family. Not all birth family's lose their children due to neglect or cruelty, there is illness, and many other reasons.
It is impotent thing is to look and work outside the box.
I think we need to as a society take the stigma off of foster care, foster children & foster parents.
All social works should have a mandatory 4 years as foster parents, then perhaps they will have a better understanding what it means to be a child in care, as well as the parent of children in care, and we will not be just experiencing the experience of a few.
The benefit will in the end be the children, having a true life that fits their needs, and Not Lip Service, or the politically correct point of view.
Just one readers opinion.

Abortion is not an elective surgery until our education system offers women all the positive sex lessons they need to informedly elect their sexual situations.

And also not until abortion is as easy and cheap as a common male solution to unwanted pregnancies -- walking away. (Sorry, good guys -- I know you exist. Respect to the good guys.)

An abortion is not a nose piercing, Dolphin. Get with it and stick to the program -- this short article is focused on children under the care of the government.

If you think all fetuses fall into that category, you'd better move south.

"And also not until abortion is as easy and cheap as a common male solution to unwanted pregnancies-- walking away." Nicely put, Maureen. Kudos to Bailey, too.

Thank you Bailey, and Maureen. Dolphin, most trolls are found under bridges and in culverts.

The paucity of availability for testing for fetal drug or alchol damage is disgusting. Until you have tried to live with a child who has been damaged that way you have no idea how difficult it is.

Many foster parents would gladly adopt the kids they have been caring for and LOVING open-heartedly if they could afford to do so. We need government subsidized adoption; I'll go further and say every parent deserves generous subsidies.

The welfare system in this province is so broken it can't be patched or fixed. We need to look for systems which work and then change not only what we have but WHO we have in charge of the lives of the vulnerable.

Foster parents are almost constantly slandered. Most of the time any problems do not originate with the foster parents but with the dipstick regulations. Social services still is burdened with the mandate of "reunification of the family.". In all too many cases "family" is what caused the problems in the first place.

We are cruel to our children in this province and in this country. Yammering on against abortion services does nothing positive for anyone. I have never met a woman who skipped into a clinic, sang during the procedure and came out cheering and yelling "now, let's party hearty!".

All services which ought to be of benefit to children have been slashed in the past four years and the citizenry went out and voted the child abusers back in power: that says volumes about the priorities of too many people who surely to God are parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and ought to have known better.

Some wonderful writing in the responses to the opening silliness. Thank you.

Support. Or rather the LACK of it - is the issue. A brief mention is made of the Adoptive Parent's Association ability to provide some support to families post-adoption. However, the reality is that the one province-wide program, Society of Special Needs Adoptive Parents (SNAP), that has offered excellent support and resources for well over a decade is heading towards non-existence. Why?!! Because the provincial government's priorities do not include these services.

SNAP offers a province-wide Resource Parent Network so when you're burned out, exhausted and without answers in Smalltown, BC - you can reach out to someone nearby who will hear you, help you and make a difference. SNAP's newsmagazine, Family Groundwork, is fabulous with up-to-date articles on the different issues that foster and adoptive parents worry about ... such as "What happens to our kids after 19?"; "What support services are available?"; "How do we plan for their well-being and care if something should happen to us (i.e. death or disability)?".

When you're raising a child with special needs such as FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) ... there are a multitude of things you worry about ... and you (perhaps that should be I) need the 'village' mentioned in this article. I need support and information for navigating the school system (typically FASD does not garner any aid or assistance in the school system) yet our daughter desperately needs it. There is also the medical system, then the complicated child welfare (MCFD) system ... and of course, all of the attachment and therapeutic issues that arise for foster and adoptive children ... as Sarah Watson clearly points out.

So, YES to more adoptions within our province and from our foster homes ... except for one question ... WHY ... without ANY support? I would not currently encourage any of our friends or neighbours to follow our path. They will not have an opportunity to benefit from the wealth of knowledge, resources (did I mention SNAP's library within excess of 15,000 titles all related to special needs adoption)and support. It's a tough road, sometimes a lonely road but it's also incredibly an incredibly rewarding journey.

As one person commented already ... "what are the stats on failed adoption?" I don't know the answer to that but I'm fairly comfortable in saying that the number will most likely rise without the key resource that so many adoptive and foster families have come to rely on ...

Wonder if the provincial government's cost savings will be worth it?!!

"what are the stats on failed adoption?"

This is from an 1999 article in the Globe & Mail:

"Native Child and Family Services, a Toronto social agency that runs aboriginal foster homes and a drop-in centre for troubled native youth, says 80 per cent of the homeless youth who now cross its doorstep were adopted by white parents.

In a study of adopted children (including 37 native children) published in 1993, Christopher Bagley, then a professor of social work at the University of Calgary, found that "native child adoptions are significantly more likely than any other parenting situation to involve problems and difficulties," with nearly half of the adopted native children separating from their parents by the age of 17."

Their was a really tragic story in the papers last summer of a young native woman who killed her twin daughters and committed suicide. The two highest profiles of Picton's victims, Dawn Crey and Sarah de Vries.

Oops. Last paragraph should read:

Their was a really tragic story in the papers last summer of a young native adopted woman who killed her twin daughters and committed suicide. The two highest profiles of Picton's victims, Dawn Crey and Sarah de Vries were both adoptees.

[B]
There is some great thoughts here I am enjoying the discourse on this thought provoking topic.
So I would like to add a few more thoughts;

Still we get social workers that want to take aboriginal children from their long term foster home were both parents are aware of the strengths & weakness of the child, and place the in a home that is unaware and has a expsepctaion beyond the childes capabilities.
Why? Because the placing social worker has no awareness of this child in any form, and is incapable of using his/her biggest resource, the foster parents. That are in fact themselves more then likely not only willing but wanting to raise the child to maturity, except for lack of funds to do so.
The child wants to stay the foster parent, but the child social worker and the establishment has a better Idea give him/her to some childless person without all the facts.
The new instant fix for children in care, in out world of fast cars, fast money, fast food, is a fast forever home that looks shinier and newer better then the old foster home, and as I suspected is destined for failure, like many things that lack substance and awareness.
We rip children from a loving home, add to their attachment issues & blame others. That is NEW Improved MCF they are good at it, ask foster parents that are not to frightened to speak for fear of reprisals.
And the general public as well, needs to embrace foster children and most impotently foster parents, doing the job that many speak of and criticize and few are willing and capable of doing. Life is a fish bowel with all the lights up bright, and every-ones opinion. Its a nice place to life. I speak from experience.
Try it, more then likely you will not like it.
But the children keep us {foster parents} coming back, till we stop.
And then the children suffer the loss as always.

I would seriously think twice before adopting most children in the Ministry's care. I find that the information provided by the ministry regarding the child's history, disability and difficulties is not truthful. I have found that they fail to be completely honest about what you may be taking on when you adopt that particular child and then they leave the families without financial or social supports needed. It's unfair to the child, adoptive parents and for those of us who may be thinking about adoption, it makes us seriously reconsider the idea or even choose not to adopt.

Ruby,
The MCF is not truthful, kind, or careing.
I have been lied to buy them, and have heard the lies they have told others.
Their mantra CYA {cover your ass}!
The saddest thing is they believe their own propaganda.
Hence the saying, the worst person to lie to is yourself.
You can not know what any child will grow to be for sure, but MCF has a good idea of the start & they twist it.

Hi Ruby and Una,

It is hard to have trust in MCFD, I agree. But, in the same breathe I also would not want to have to be a worker in the system. The repetitive changes and cuts, changes and cuts must make it incredibly hard to work within such a system. I'm not excusing any dishonest, unsupportive behaviour. However, I've also worked with some social workers who were operating with one-tenth of the information they needed to know about a child they were placing. The constant change and shuffling within MCFD makes me think of the title of Vera Fahlberg's excellent book, "Journey through Placement". I wonder if a similar text should be written as a survival guide for the workers and foster/adoptive families involved in the system.

As a parent of two adopted children I have some insight. As I am handicapped we adopted a 9 month old first as I thought I couldn't care for a new born and the burden would fall entirely on my wife. That was a mistake, as the child had been in numerous foster homes, and it was several years before he realized he wouldn't be moving on again. We next adopted a newborn, and while changing diapers with one hand was quite a task, I did manage, and this child was 'at home' from day one. Both are now happily married and we have a number of grandchildren.

A sister and brother of mine both raised FASD children, one adopted the other a natural child
born to an aloholic wife after a divorce. While both have turned out well, it was a most difficult task in each case.

Don't underestimate the effect of the first few months, or years, on an adopted child.

The struggles for both foster parents social workers are trying, I am sure with budget cut backs, staff changes, lack of support, and control issues from upper management. They all add to a growing challenge to do a job that is something of the heart, with long term effects.
Adoption workers, resource workers & line works do not always work well together this adds to the problem, somewhat like different branches of the police they are not always on the same page.
It is hard to always get a clear picture of a child, or were the child's best placement might be.
There are foster homes that get more offers of children then others, and not always is the best placement for the child thought of.
Many minority children are not placed in homes that may well be available with the same cultural understanding, because a Anglo home maybe more preferred by a Anglo resource worker.
This would also be true of disabled placements, and other factors in what would work well of a child that found themself in care.
There is a multiplicity of things going on at the MCF that the general public is unaware of.
Certainly adopting a child is both changeling and rewarding, as well is fostering long term & short time for that matter.
I would like to reiterate that all foster placements are all short term, and many of these children grow up never in fear of replacement to a new home.
We seem as a culture not to discuss these homes, but short term homes only with many placements {makes for a better story perhaps}.
However many foster parents are more then likely aware and might even be fearful of such a out come with their long term placement children, and not speek out.
Something in this writers opinion should be put in place for theses parents & foster children, so that both will be safe from the changing social workers and political whims of the MCF.

What are everyone's thoughts on PLEA? How do they differe from MCF?