Displaced children MUST be protected...NOT adopted.

[SoCalDem]

I know that every time some horrific event happens, Americans immediately set out to "save" these kids by adopting them, (Rumanian kids, African kids, VietNamese kids, and now "tsunami" kids)but the kids would be better served if they were housed together and cared for for enough time, so that distant or "lost" family members can rejoin them.

They have a culture, and if there is any way they can remain where they are, it's the best for them. When so many of the young people were taken in such a horiffic way, it will only anger the adults if they percieve us as "stealing" the children who remain.

Also, if children are removed from the scene too early, there is always the nagging thought that somewhere, a mother or father is released from a long hospitalization, only to find out that his "orphaned" child has been adopted, and is in America. There would be NO way on earth that a poor Indonesian could ever get that child back. Also if it starts to happen, then "every" missing child might be suspected of being alive in America, stolen....instead of the obvious.

Unwed mothers from another era have pined away their whole lives wondering where their child was. With the sadness these people in Asia have endured, we should not add another uncertainty to their llives.

Orphanages are the norm in Asia, and we should set out to help them build/rebuild them...nice ones.. so that the "unclaimed" children can at least have the chance to be "found". If, after a sufficient time, no one claims them, adoption would be welcomed.

For the children too, it's the best thing. These children need time to be together to absorb the enormity of what happened to them. They need to know that if their parents were alive, they would be reunited. If they are whisked away to a foreign country, they may get Nintendo and Nikes, but they will always wonder if their parents are looking for them in their homeland..

[Maat]

1. And yet, where was everyone when I was trying to find ...

adoptive parents for American children? Oh, that's right, they were older, 'imperfect' kids that likely had been exposed to drugs or alcohol in utero. How ironic.

[supernova]

2. Agree, these children

would be much better served if they can be placed with extended family whereever possible. And didn't Indonesia just ban the emmigration of kids?

[SoCalDem]

4. Kids under 16 are forbidden to leave without permission

but who could give permission if they have no parents?

[DoNotRefill]

3. It'd be far safer for the kids...

to allow them to be adopted over here, and set up a genetic database to match up kids with parents if their legitimate parents tried to claim them.

The problem the kids are going to be facing is one of being sold into virtual slavery and the sex trade.

With all the bad things about Americans adopting foreign children, once they're in the US, they are generally, as a rule, well cared for and not exploited. That's not true overseas.