Transracial Adoption Effects

Win Ma PH-211: Ethics Jo Jo Koo “Let Your Kids Grow Up”: Kantian, Utilitarian, and Virtue Ethics Response to Parental-Child Upbringing of the Disabled It is common for parents to make their children become independent when the children reach adulthood. However, disabled children’s parents are hesitant to let their children become independent. To see what the parent should do I consider responses from three ethical systems: Kantian Ethics, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics. As I will show, all three ethics show disabled children’s parents should make their child independent. However, I will then argue the utilitarian position is more persuasive.

Wilson stated that the causation of child abuse is multifaceted relating to the background of the parent. He mentioned individual and sociological causation such as stress, drugs and alcohol, and the ignorance of raising a child. In regards to stress, he mentioned the community and factors of location and lack of resources. This connected well to the sociological theory of child abuse specifically resource theory that relates to the lack of control by those who are economically disadvantaged and lack of alternatives to punish creating the environment for abuse (Loseke, 43). Drugs and alcohol were another causation that he brought up as a reason for abuse.

• Encouragement: if children are not given the praise and encouragement they need, this will affect their relationships and friendships as they get older and they will have poor attachment this can develop into anxiety, depression and they will lack motivation. • Learning difficulties are also a factor that influences a child’s development. Children with learning difficulties will need extra support with certain areas of development and may develop low self-esteem because they get annoyed with themselves for not being able to do something, such as a simple numeracy problem or read a book. External factors affecting learning and development are likely to be limited access to services and support, but parents and carers may not be aware of this. • Children with ill heath on a regular basis can develop much more slower, this may cause longer term issues such as failure to grow or thrive.

Abuse and love both have powerful meanings to it but they can’t coexist with each other in any good way shape or form. One piece of evidence to support my claim is a passage from bell hooks’ essay Childhood Love Lessons. hook makes a point that studies showed that that males and females who were violently humiliated and abused repeatedly, with no caring intervention, were likely to be dysfunctional and will be predisposed to abuse others violently (hook 15). This piece of evidence shows that we are shaping the way how our children will react and do certain things in their future. They will learn different meanings of love and discipline than other kids will.

Transracial Adoption: A look into Black, White, & Right. Transracial adoption has become a very compelling and interesting topic over the past century. Transracial adoption is defined as the adoption of children of one race or culture to parent(s) of another race or culture. Transracial adoption started around the 1960’s after World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam war ended leaving many children abandoned and homeless resulting in a vast increase in the number of available children for adoption. (Hollingsworth, 1998; Silverman, 1993).

Some parents aim to include partially, if not all of the child’s birth culture into their household (Harf et al., 2015). While others, are not so keen and tend to favour bringing up the child completely into the culture of the adopted family (IBID). These different parenting practices, will ultimately influence the child’s future identity. Similarly, the cultural experiences of transracial adoptees are uniquely influenced by their adoption and their place within their own racial/ethnic groups and cultures (Baden et al., 2012). The exposure to a child’s birth culture will help the child decide if their birth and/or adopted culture accurately reflects their identity

There is a cultural difference that should be made aware of. I need to consider the definition of child abuse in the Western culture and the definition of child abuse in the American culture. Both definitions will be different, therefore it is unethical to punish the parents for using discipline that is custom to their culture. According to the Department of Human and Human services, child abuse is defined as “ the non-accidental commission of any act by a caretaker upon a child under age 18 which causes, or creates a substantial risk of, physical or emotional injury” (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, n.d.). There is a misconception on the definition of abuse between the Western culture and American culture.

As a result, any potential children these couples may have had identify as biracial. Therefore the ban may lead to segregation of these interracial communities into an even further constricted 'bubble' than they were before. The children of these couples may be affected psychologically as they may be encapsulated in the feeling that they don’t belong anywhere and are unwanted. They may face verbal and physical harassment by other people who are not biologically like them in the process of them trying to make the victims feel inferior. Many people from the working population might lose their jobs and even if they retain their jobs, the harassment they face might cause them to quit.

Parents mostly view holding back the truth from their children as a simple means of protection of their children (Bridges, 2010). Parents seek to protect their children from being hurt by information that they view their children cannot handle (Lott, 2014). Matters such as separation of parents have seen to contribute a significant share of the lies that parents feed children. Parents assume that they can withhold the truth from their children about their marital issues thinking that they will tell the truth to their children later in life when they can understand the complexity of the matter at hand. Taking this example, when the children enquire about where their parents are when they are not at home.

The bad part about being in an open adoption process is when the adopted parents feel to be a threat, fearing that the birthparents will intrude. This is a situation most people feel simply because they want the biological parents just popping in their lives. Some adopted parents don’t mind it but others do. Another problem open adopted parents have is that the biological parents might want their child returned to them. FindLaw.com said “Adoptive parent may worry that the child will be confused over who his or her “real” parents