It goes almost without saying that as people grow older and their ability to conceive declines, other options can still fill their desire for a child, including adoption. But for many that may soon become more difficult.
We ran a story today about new restrictions on adoptions of children from China. The new restrictions prohibit, among other things, people who are over 50 from adopting. I for one can't figure out how they came up with 50 as the cut-off age. It seems to me that someone in their 50s in reasonably good health (which they should be, since physical conditions are another reason to be denied) then you would think they would be around long enough to raise the child into mature adulthood. Also, they are looking for parents with solid financials, which would also tend to favor older parents. And older parents understand what kind of commitment they are making as they adopt, presumably it's a decision they've made where they feel they have the love, time and resources to make good parents. I'm sure more older parents than ever are looking at adoption given the recent attention on the genetic risks involved in having a child of their own.
There are still other adoption alternatives out there. I know a few couples who have adopted from China, and they have said that the process there was more reliable than what they had heard about other countries. Hopefully some of that has changed in recent years.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
One less option for older parents
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2 comments:
Hey, Daddy G. I was surprised by this new set of restrictions from China. I would tend to agree with the writer that it probably has to do with their international image before the Olympics, but that's pure speculation. When we adopted our daughter seven years ago this month, we were in our thirties and pretty much fit the perfect profile of adoptive parents in China. They preferred parents to be over 35, they preferred men to be married and if they were not, they had to be at least 50 years older than the child. Weird, huh? I guess single men are out of the question all together, now. At that time, single women were regarded the same as a married couple. As I understand it, shortly after we adopted our daughter they put a limit on single women and lowered the preferred age to 30. They also relaxed the one-child rule a little bit. If you have the money to pay the fine, you can have more than one. Our experience was wonderful and I know that several of our travel group went back and adopted second and even a third child. I think that says a lot.
mama jane - thanks for your post, good to hear from someone who has been through the process. From what you're saying and based on the new restrictions, it's hard to get a feel exactly for what they think a good age for parents is. I'm glad the experience worked out well for you and your daughter.
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