There is a reason why retail stores have tightened up their return policies. Indecisive or sometimes remorseful shoppers will abuse a lenient return policy, purchasing items and then returning them rather than carefully thinking through their buying decisions while still at the store. To stop this, stores have made it tougher to return items hoping people won't devalue the integrity of the products.
It's hard to believe the same thought process is having to be applied toward adoption.
Wait. WHAT?
Did I just compare adopting a child to buying clothing? No and yes. Certainly, there is no comparison. An article of clothing is essentially a dispensible inanimate object whereas a child is a human being with emotions, psyche and deserving of certain inalienable rights. I think we can all agree on that. Right?
No.
Not if you're Torry Ann Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee who adopts a 7 year old Russian boy and then "returns" him to his country of birth by sticking him on an airplane by himself accompanied by a note.
Hansen claimed that she was deceived and misled by the adoption agencies when learning about her future son. She later alleged that the boy was "violent and has severe psychopathic issues." Rather than work with the agencies to seek help and counseling to deal with disruption issues (which are common in adoption), Hansen essentially returns her defective product to where she obtained it.
The problem is, this is no defective product we're talking about. It's a boy. A seven year old boy. A human being. A seven year old boy who has now been given up not just by one family, but now by two.
What must that do to a kid?
If Hansen thought the boy had psychological issues before, she sure helped him tremendously by abandoning him, sending him on an airplane alone and wiping her hands clean of him.
I can't imagine returning a pet to where I bought it, let alone a child to where I adopted him.
For the thousands of U.S. families desperately seeking to adopt a child, Hansen has single-handedly tainted the integrity of the adoption process, especially between the U.S. and Russia who is now threatening to cease all adoptions between the two countries.
As though adopting a child wasn't hard enough already.
But I'm curious what YOU think.
Was Hansen wrong?
What should/could she have done differently?
Or do you think she was right?
Is it best for the boy to not be in her hands?
What does Hansen's case do to the adoption process for families who are seeking to find a child?
