Is It Ethical To Pay Up To $40,000 For An International Adoption: The ABBA Fund

We have a friend down in the States who works for an organization that offers interest-free loans (did you know there was such a thing?!) for adoptions. He also writes a blog called The ABBA Fund blog. It is really informative and I love that it is frequently updated.

The current topic (a 4 part entry/debate) addresses the topic of whether it is ethical to pay large sums of money for international adoptions. Jason says that a year ago he would have argued that no, we should adopt within our own country as there are so many kids in "the system" right now. However, his heart has been changed as of late and I think his arguments are extremelly thought-provoking...not to mention informative.

Here are a few lines from Part 4 of his argument:

"But $40,000 could save an entire village! Wouldn’t that be what Jesus would do, rather than take one child out of his family and culture?

If a child is in an orphanage his family is not willing or capable of taking care of him. He could remain where he is at and stay within his culture but we need to look at what the implications of that would be. The first thing I think of is the personal story of Solomon that I posted here. Solomon is an orphan in the Kolfe Boys orphanage in Ethiopia. Within the next year he will turn 18 and will be let out of the orphanage with $400. He will be alone with no one to care for him and no one to help him. His culture will provide barely any benefit to him outside those orphanage walls. In many countries orphans are seen as members of the lowest social class (along with beggars, prostitutes, the homeless, crippled, etc) and therefore face many hostilities the rest of their lives. A friend of mine said, by adopting these orphans, “We are not just helping one child. We are breaking a cycle of GENERATIONS of poverty, girls have no choice but prostitution, boys having to live a life of crime on the streets, having no chance at education and therefore an “out” to poverty, more orphans resulting from that poverty, and on and on.”"

I would really encourage you to read Parts 1-3 and also to visit his blog.