Adopting the last resort
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 18, 2009 00:00
Through the din of backslapping over Parliament’s decision to allow foreigners to adopt Turkish children -- coming from the supposed experts and politicians alike -- a voice of caution must be heard. Yes, it is preferable for a child to be raised in a family environment, domestic or foreign, than to remain in an under-funded institution; but we must not look to foreign couples as a solution to the issue of orphans in this country.
The bill passed this week does clearly stipulate that Turkish families will always take precedence and foreigners will only be considered if a suitable local family is not found. That’s all well and good, but what it doesn’t say is what happens to the kids for whom neither a suitable Turkish family nor foreign couple are to be found. One kid may well get a better future overseas, but what about the ones left behind?
The entire premise of the bill suggests that the number of orphaned children in Turkey is overwhelming the domestic infrastructure in place to find enough Turkish families willing to adopt. Perhaps a more pressing issue would be to find how this can be improved. Furthermore, the remedy of allowing foreigners to adopt will never get to the social roots of why so many children are being orphaned in the first place. The priority of the state must be to invest in working on the cause, rather than to just rely on a solution to the symptoms.
Ignoring entirely the debate regarding the ethics behind the latest celebrity vogue in the West of adopting foreign children -- the one championed by the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie -- how easy is it going to be to protect the policy of first searching for Turkish families from the determination of a deep-pocketed Western couple convinced they are doing their humanitarian bit?
The sociologists and psychologists tell us that the possible consequences for children being transplanted into an entirely different culture are outweighed by the preference of being brought up in a family environment as opposed to in a state institution.
And on that score they may well be completely right, but it should also bring back into focus the condition of some such institutions here that required a rebel minor British royal to bring into our consciousness the first time round.
Parliament is absolutely correct not to try and prohibit foreigners willing to give a better life to a child, but how remiss it would be to see this as a solution to something that is clearly an ongoing problem. What a grave failure of a state’s responsibility if it were to just "outsource" the problem of orphaned Turkish children.
The entire premise of the bill suggests that the number of orphaned children in Turkey is overwhelming the domestic infrastructure in place to find enough Turkish families willing to adopt. Perhaps a more pressing issue would be to find how this can be improved. Furthermore, the remedy of allowing foreigners to adopt will never get to the social roots of why so many children are being orphaned in the first place. The priority of the state must be to invest in working on the cause, rather than to just rely on a solution to the symptoms.
Ignoring entirely the debate regarding the ethics behind the latest celebrity vogue in the West of adopting foreign children -- the one championed by the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie -- how easy is it going to be to protect the policy of first searching for Turkish families from the determination of a deep-pocketed Western couple convinced they are doing their humanitarian bit?
The sociologists and psychologists tell us that the possible consequences for children being transplanted into an entirely different culture are outweighed by the preference of being brought up in a family environment as opposed to in a state institution.
And on that score they may well be completely right, but it should also bring back into focus the condition of some such institutions here that required a rebel minor British royal to bring into our consciousness the first time round.
Parliament is absolutely correct not to try and prohibit foreigners willing to give a better life to a child, but how remiss it would be to see this as a solution to something that is clearly an ongoing problem. What a grave failure of a state’s responsibility if it were to just "outsource" the problem of orphaned Turkish children.