Repaired Special Needs

Preface: I am Taiwanese, brought up to be more than a little leery of the Chinese communist government. In fact, that's the main reason my family immigrated to the US.

RQ posted that China is referring "repaired special needs" children as non special needs "again". Apparently it was an issue last year then sort of died down. I wonder if it's not a little like the Chew blog situation where a disturbing situation (disrupted adoption) gets discussed a lot when it happens then dies down because the incidence is pretty low and unchanged in reality. On the other hand, it could be that with improved medical care in China there are more children who get treated for correctable conditions and are now available for adoption and the CCAA is doing its best to find homes for these kids. Or, as quite a few claimed, China is trying to slide unhealthy children into families that requested healthy kids. Words such as trickery, deception, and corruption were used.

An understandably heated discussion followed, mostly centered around the rights of PAP to have choices and be informed about the referrals of "corrected special needs" children. Almost all admit to being concerned, many are angry, some more blunt about their anger than others. The whole spectrum of attitudes ranged from the sanctimonious"how can anyone not love any child and want to parent them", to the frightening "I paid more for non special need babies and am entitled to one". Waiting parents are a little to a lot worried, including me.

In so much as China has changed and is changing, so must it's international adoption program, including the types and numbers of Chinese children it deems appropriate for international adoption. That's a given. Has the integrity of the program deteriorated as changes occur is a more fundamental question. Related to that questions is, why do the waiting adoptive parents find China or more specifically the CCAA deceitful for placing children with corrected special needs as non special needs?

One must accept when adopting that no system can be 100% correct in accessing the medical condition of a child. A certain percentage of non special need referrals will have "special needs" or medical problems. Vice versa, a certain percentage of "special needs" are not really special needs at all. It seems logical also that the population of "corrected special need" children may have a higher incidence of permanent medical problems than the traditional non special need population. It follows that if the CCAA does its best to assess the condition of the children being referred, and choose to define non permanent corrected medical condition as non special need, they can not and should not be faulted. Let's not forget that China did not solicit the world, and the United States in particular to adopt their children. We went knocking on their door, and lately, the waiting crowd is wanting to knock down the door, grab the babies and run. China never advertised its international adoption program as the predictable, ethical, efficient, low risk program that beats all others. That is a conclusion drawn by the adoptive parents themselves. The adoption agencies described the program as such, and they were correct, at least in the recent past. If the character and nature of China's international adoption program is changing, it's for the PAPs and the agencies to find out for themselves and communicate that to one another.

On a more cynical level, for those who find China or the CCAA manipulative, arbitrary, and unresponsive to the people/children it serves, which part of "a communist government" do you not understand? Let me spell it out for you, IT IS NOT A DEMOCRACY, and you are not even one of it's citizens. What kind of rights and political representation do you think you are entitled to?

I am just as worried as any waiting parent, if not more so given my personality. I am just as selfish in wanting healthy, happy children. Those who know me know that I am easily stressed. My motto in life is: the solution to problems is not to create problems. I do sometimes wonder if I am tempting fate to adopt again when I already have three literally gorgeous, healthy as can be, and smart babies. But, for what ever reason, I/we, were driven to want another. So I am committed, and my heart already engaged. Even though I can't predict the future, I know that when my child is here, I do not want to have written, or have thought anything that she might find hurtful. I am her mother. Perhaps that should serve as an internal yardstick for PAPs dueling it out on adoption forums. What would my child think, how would my child feel, if he or she ever chance upon these discussions?