Americans go to foreign countries to adopt children all the time. Does the reverse ever occur?
Furthermore, doesn’t some provision in the Constitiution prevent Americans from being placed in the “posession” of foreign nationals? I coulda sworn I read something like this back when I studied for the Constitution test back in high school.
I don’t know. I suspect it does happen, but probably only in a within-the-family context, e.g. non-American grandparents adopting their American-born grandchildren whose own parents have died or are unable to look for them.
Since the number of Americans seeking to adopt far exceeds the number of American children placed for adoption, there generally won’t be much need to look abroad for adoptive parents. And since the adoption authorities (presumably) feel some responsibility for the welfare of children who have been adopted and want to be in a position to discharge that responsibility, they would generally tend to prefer adoptive parents who reside within the United States.
The answer is yes, emphatically yes. Indeed, it’s not uncommon at all.
My wife and I adopted a little boy last year from a prominent Texas-based adoption agency, and I can tell you there were several British couples attending the original seminar we went to. Over the past year, we’ve met a number of British couples who adopted through this same agency.
These couples all told similar stories: in Europe, adoption is VERY rare indeed. That’s because
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Since modern Europeans are very rarely religious, there’s almost no stigma attached to abortion any more, and
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Most European countries have very generous welfare states, which provide well for single mothers.
So, in short, if a single European woman gets pregnant, she’ll abort the child if she doesn’t want it or she’ll keep it and apply for state assistance if she DOES want it. There’s no good reason for her to consider adoption. In Europe, the children who ARE available for adoption are usually older kids who’ve been taken away from abusive or unfit parents. Healthy babies are almost never available for adoption in Western Europe.
So, Europeans who want a healthy whiote baby DO sometimes look to the U.S.A.
I’m going to nitpick here, but the truth is that ideal children are in somewhat short supply.
Ideal, in general, means cute, white, healthy babies. Things are getting better though, or so I understand.
Peace,
mangeorge
Not to be snippy, but I’m sure you meant to write “healthy white very young” children.
Ah! A kindred spirit. 
One can be an atheist and still find abortion wrong.
Getting better how? (It’s a bit ambiguous from your post.)
The supply is of white babies is increasing, or white adults are seeking to adopt babies of other colour?
Interesting. Does this extend to Canada, Australia and/or New Zealand? Or is the US the only white, industrialized nation where abortion is rarer than it is in Europe and without generous social welfare?
That’s not the whole story, at all. In the UK, there’s actually shortage of adopters - the process for vetting suitable would-be parents is notoriously lengthy and complex. Many people with the financial ability to go to America to avoid this choose to do so.
Abortion data can be found here
% of pregnancies aborted by country for year 2000:
US: 24.4%
UK: 22.7%
Canada: 24.3%
Australia: 23.1%
France: 19.6% (1999 data)
Germany: 14.9%
Netherlands: 11.6%
The original premise does not appear to stand up. Where it does hold true, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands, better sex education provides a more convincing explanation IMHO.
…err, the original premise does not stand up, period.
Not in Ireland, where it’s still illegal. Adoption is still pretty rare here - and is very hard, for the ‘preference’ reason. Don’t have any figures, but I know a couple that’s been waiting more than a year because they want a healthy baby that looks Irish. However, there have been many reports of people adopting from China and Eastern Europe.
My (UK) parents adopted on moral grounds. The number of times they were told “we’re so sorry, we don’t have any white ones” was laughable.
Other interesting figures from those pages.
% pregancies aborted by country:
Russia: 57% (2002)
Ukraine: 53% (2000)
Ireland: 10.3% (abortions abroad) (2001)
Poland: 0.03% (2001)
How so? They didn’t adopt because they wanted a(nother) child?
My “original premise” stands up just fine, thank you.
I NEVER said or even implied that abortion is more common in Europe than in the U.S. I merely said that when a single British, Dutch or German woman gets pregnant, ready access to abortion and generous state welfare benefits mean that she needn’t seriously consider giving the child up for adoption. She’ll either get rid of the baby or keep it herself.
Hence, there aren’t many babies available for adoption in Western Europe. And so, some European couples hoping to adopt DO come here to Texas.
Wow, I had no idea abortions were so common!
Indeed. I was addressing HeyHomie.
But many do opt for adoption.
Do you have any evidence that there are numerically less babies available in Europe? (I’ve already pointed out a very separate and significant reason for the British market for adopting from America.)