Madonna adopting a child from overseas

[flump1]

The media have plastered this about and while I have not really taken too much notice, one fact caught my attention. The child Madonna has supposedly adopted has a parent, ( its' father) who apparently signed the child over. Far from adopting an orphan hasn't she just bought a child ?

[shineybomb]

The father gave the child up for adoption as he could not feed or care for him. The childs mother died giving birth I think.
Surely its better that Madonna can give this child a good life rather than he live in a poor orphanage

[�mermaid�]

no way! it's hardly going to grow up in a 'normal' life is it! Also, why is it that legally any normally person would be required to live in the country they were adopting from for two years, yet with her it's 'special circumstances'??! She's blatently just gone out there, looked around and picked the prettiest kid to adopt, making her seem charitable and caring. Gah, makes me sick!

[jno]

Giving your child up for adoption used to be common enough and I suppose it still is in poor countries. The kid should have a better life - if he stayed at home he would have a good chance of dying very young.

[lindapinda]

Good answer IAP...basically...what would be the odds,of a white couple..normally..being allowed to adopt a black child,they had never met before or had family interest in?

[flump1]

Thanks IAP You summed that up beautifully. It was I was trying to say !! My point is , while I am sure the child will have a better life with her than its' native land, it is not 'an orphan ' . May well be a homeless, neglected child, as are millions of others. I think the word 'orphan ' was misused making Madonna out to be more of a saint then she deserves.

[suffragette]

This is an excellent article about the effects of such an adoption on the child concerned. It makes you think twice, if nothing else.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/604429 4.stm

[smudge]

Hear, hear, IAP!

[enigma]

I think that given Madonna's overwhelming abundance of cash , it would have been far more heartwarming to hear that she had chosen to support the child and his father by donating the cash to support his upbringing , rather than purchasing her designer baby. In my opinion , a child is the most precious gift which you can be given and money changing hands soils the very idea of all that is wholesome in parenthood. If the child was indeed an orphan then I suppose that Madonna would be hailed as a heroine for adopting a child and saving them from a life of poverty and misery (such as with Angelina Jolie) but the fact remains that the child in question is most certainly not an orphan as he has a father and I feel that Madonna's money would have been better spent offering the cash to the child's father if she was so concerned with wanting the best for the little boy.

[shineybomb]

I don't agree she should be allowed to just go out and choose a child and bring him home mermaid but she could give him a much better life than if he stayed in an orphanage. A "normal" life to this child could mean he would be dead before he hits his teens - is that a better life?
She should have to go through the proper channels like anyone else though

[lauratee]

Enigma - well said, my thoughts exactly!