Parenthood Prevails

Re a July 29 letter on adoption: The ability to procreate does not qualify individuals to become parents; neither does the mother-child bond sanctify ill-prepared or unqualified women to raise happy, healthy children.

The real tragedy in our society is the insistence that some inherent, biological womb-bond supersedes the moral bonding enacted by adoptive parents’ willingness to raise someone else’s child. The practice of finding natural parents, while sounding noble, serves only to marginalize the adoptive parents’ charity. By perpetuating the mythology of the natural-parent bond, we only undermine the institution of adoption (a real tragedy, indeed). Adopted children who insist upon finding their true parents selfishly ignore that their true parents are the mother and father who chose to raise them.

Jason Scheibler

Claremont