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Are adopted children slaves?

Travis

Misanthrope of the Mountains
Travis
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
24,133
While arguing against same sex couple adoptions Robert Oscar Lopez made the following argument:

I believe every child has a natural born right to his mother and father and ultimately those rights were taken away from them because adults made a decision that the child was not a party to because he didn’t exist or was too young to decide that. Even if you could come up with some study that showed that 95% of the children are okay with it, we as a society already went through a huge debate in the United States about owning other people and we decided — the Thirteenth Amendment is worded very sweepingly not just to ban what was specifically happening on Southern plantations but to ban any kind of practice. It says ‘slavery shall not exist,’ any kind of arrangement where you have a legal contract upon another human being is banned.

So the mother-father relationship to the child is a natural one that is structured around obligations to the child, anytime that you turn that around and you say that adults have a right to a child, really all of society then becomes put into an ethical problem because all of society is redefining what it means to be human, what it means to be a child, what it means to be a free citizen and what it means to have freedom. I don’t think you can really be free if you’re born with a price on your head.
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So....no one outside of the child's natural parents have any right to raise that child.

Is the right wing now posturing itself to abolish the institution of adoption altogether in order to stop gay couples from adopting?
 
My father was adopted when his mother died and his father didn't want him. Without adoption, he quite literally would have been a slave as there were relatives quite happy to take him to turn him into a free field hand (like they did another child in the family whose parents died). Instead, he had parents that, while flawed, did their best by him, made sure he was safe, loved, saw him educated (through a PhD), and helped him in every way they knew how. Of all the various children in his greater family in his generation, he did by far and away the best in life.

Meanwhile, my mom's mother also died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by a stepmother who was a far better, more loving parent than her natural father (who, among other things, molested her). That mother (the only one she ever knew), loved and protected her and was responsible for her getting out of grinding poverty and into a safe life. Like dad, her life was substantially better than her older siblings who were raised by their "real" parents.

So...yeah...slavery.
 
I was adopted when I was about 3 months old. I have no recollection of my birth parents and despite my adoptive parents giving me the requisite information in a sealed envelope on my 18th birthday almost 30 years ago, I have never wanted to seek out my birth parents. I have never felt any of the sense of loss or not belonging that some adoptees express (and as often portrayed in film and TV). Whether this is just part of the way I'm wired, the relationship I have had with my (adoptive) parents or because I'm an only child so had no-one else to feel different from, something else or some combination of factors - I don't know.

IMO describing adoption as slavery indicates that the writer either doesn't understand adoption or has had a horrible experience of it. It's not something I recognise.
 
Travis said:
Is the right wing now posturing itself to abolish the institution of adoption altogether in order to stop gay couples from adopting?
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Oh, this.

One loony right-wing person does not represent "the right wing" any more than another loony left-wing person represents "the left wing".

But you know this already, so why ask?
 
Travis said:
While arguing against same sex couple adoptions Robert Oscar Lopez made the following argument:


So....no one outside of the child's natural parents have any right to raise that child.

Is the right wing now posturing itself to abolish the institution of adoption altogether in order to stop gay couples from adopting?
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I read the original article. It mostly talks about surrogate motherhood rather than adoption in general.
It is a bit hard to make sense of what exactly he argues as he makes strange logical leaps and loose associations. Frankly, I think he is not entirely sane.
What is clear is that he really, really, really hates gay men.
 
Puppycow said:
Oh, this.

One loony right-wing person does not represent "the right wing" any more than another loony left-wing person represents "the left wing".

But you know this already, so why ask?
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There are an awful lot of "one" loony people. I think that meme has run its course. Time to take these people to task. With the age of the internet, "one" loony person can multiply like rabbits. These patently insane ideas must be stopped.
 
We have a 12yo adopted daughter and I can assure you that you have it backwards. She thinks we are her slaves!
 
Speaking as someone who was adopted I'd like to ask when I should expect to receive my reparations check.
 
It says ‘slavery shall not exist,’ any kind of arrangement where you have a legal contract upon another human being is banned.
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Uh oh. Does this mean that the institution of marriage must be banned too? Marriage is a legal contract that provides a whole host of issues one has over another human being; from financial (taxes, debt) to health (power of attorney in case of incapacity). Traditional marriage goes against the constitution! I guess the gays had it right all along.
 
"Are adopted children slaves?"

Depends. Are they working in your backyard cotton field ?

I am not sure either this quoted idiot is worthy of an answer.
 
Steve said:
We have a 12yo adopted daughter and I can assure you that you have it backwards. She thinks we are her slaves!
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There is an old joke about this: we provide food, toys and housing to dogs, and they think we are gods. We provide food, toys, and housing to cats, and they think they are gods.

I did have 12 year old children, and I can only reassure you that they do eventually grow up. Those years make for treasured memories, but I don't think I could go through that again.
 
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Giordano said:
There is an old joke about this: we provide food, toys and housing to dogs, and they think we are gods. We provide food, toys, and housing to cats, and they think they are gods.
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Yeah, I know this one. We have a dog and a cat so we see both sides of it every day :)


Giordano said:
I did have 12 year old children, and I can only reassure you that they do eventually grow up. Those years make for treasured memories, but I don't think I could go through that again.
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I was mostly joking in my comment, of course. She is a joy to have around (almost :D) all the time, and she is slowly learning and accepting more responsibility about doing things for herself.
 
The Don said:
Whether this is just part of the way I'm wired, the relationship I have had with my (adoptive) parents or because I'm an only child so had no-one else to feel different from, something else or some combination of factors - I don't know.
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There may come a time where that becomes a point of interest for you and you will want to do some research. Not because you feel lost or rejected, but just for the historic or genealogical interests. :)
 
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