I agree with your comments, and it is sad to see so many children being adopted from North Korea at present, frequently without the mother's consent, and also attempts to remove children from Haiti on the premise of getting them to a safer place, before their parents had been located.
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in Australia there are few babies given up for adoption these days, as far as I know, and it is almost unknown for children to be taken into care, as the authorities think they are better off with their parents, however inadequate they may be. It may also be because of abuse in institutions where these children may otherwise have been placed, and subsequent litigation when those children reach maturity. I have a friend who is a social worker, and I heard of a family with 5 children, where the parents were both drug addicts. They live in an unheated house with no hot water, light or cooking facilities, due to the parent's inability to pay any bills, since all money goes on their habit. It worries me to think of how these children are growing up. I know often in these cases one of the children takes responsibility at a young age, but in the meantime these children are probably starving unless the neighbours or their schoolteachers are feeding them.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-07-22 12:27 am (UTC)I don't know how it is in the UK, but in Australia there are few babies given up for adoption these days, as far as I know, and it is almost unknown for children to be taken into care, as the authorities think they are better off with their parents, however inadequate they may be. It may also be because of abuse in institutions where these children may otherwise have been placed, and subsequent litigation when those children reach maturity. I have a friend who is a social worker, and I heard of a family with 5 children, where the parents were both drug addicts. They live in an unheated house with no hot water, light or cooking facilities, due to the parent's inability to pay any bills, since all money goes on their habit. It worries me to think of how these children are growing up. I know often in these cases one of the children takes responsibility at a young age, but in the meantime these children are probably starving unless the neighbours or their schoolteachers are feeding them.