Paula Zahn can BITE ME

I am fuming right now after watching a segment about the new China adoption regulations on Paula Zahn's show on CNN this evening. I can absolutely not believe that this is something that aired on CNN - a relatively respectable news channel. She basically just touched on the new rules imposed by the Chinese government (including max BMI, net worth, etc.) and opened the discussion up to a panel of 3 uninformed people who proceeded to say basically that people should adopt black children from the US foster system instead of adopting from China, that they don't understand the fascination with Chinese children and that we only adopt from China because we think our children will be smarter. If you don't believe me then read the transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/05/pzn.01.html .


Thus far, I have avoided most things inflammatory on my blog but this just has me irked beyond belief. I did send an e-mail to the Paula Zahn show (see below). ARGGGG! I think I will go puke now.

"As a potential adoptive parent who has struggled with infertility for over 5 years, suffered a miscarriage and finally made the choice to build a family by adopting from China I am appalled by your show this evening. The decision to pursue adoption from China was not one that my husband and I took lightly. We educated ourselves about all of our options, including domestic adoption and adoption from other countries. The insinuations made by your panelists were extremely insulting and based on an obvious lack of knowledge related to the subject of adoption in general. Specifically:

1)The remark that Americans should adopt African-American children in the US instead of opting for adoption from China. It is plainly just not that simple. American adoption laws often do not protect the interests of adoptive parents and, ultimately, the children involved. As an inter-racial couple (African-American and Caucasian), my husband and I would have loved to welcome a child of any race into our family. However, after the struggles that we have already endured to start a family, we could absolutely not handle welcoming a child into our home, loving him or her as our own and building our lives as a family only to have our lives shattered when the birthparent decides that she/he want the child back (and they can do this in some states as long as 6 months after signing away parental rights).

2)The insinuation that parents want to adopt from China because they think that they are going to have a smarter child than if they adopted domestically - please do I need to even respond to such a blatant stereotyping statement?? We don't choose to
adopt from China because we think our child will be smarter than an American child...we make this choice because we desperately want a family and the adoption system in China has a proven record of stability and quality care for children. If American adoption laws worked for the good of the children and the potential adoptive parents then our decisions may be different. In the end, we will choose to build our family in the way that protects our future child.

I challenge you to revisit the topic of adoption from China on your show. I would hope that you would consider the thousands of families that have been created by adoption from China and look more closely at the adoption policies of the US government compared to those abroad. "