While encouraging the public to adopt children, the Catholic Church’s Good Shepherd Social Welfare Services yesterday reminded people interested in adoption to be adequately prepared before making a decision.
“Of course we always hope to find sweet homes for children [in our shelter], but we’d like to remind the public to think twice before making the adoption decision and assess if your motivation for adoption is a good one,” said Chen Hui-ching (陳惠鏡), the group’s regional director for southern Taiwan.
“Raising a kid is a lifelong responsibility and the kid’s happiness has a lot to do with the adoptive family,” Chen said.
Sheltering children born out of wedlock or those from economically disadvantaged families unable to raise their children are one of the services provided by Good Shepherd.
Last year, a total of 75 children were adopted through the organization.
So far this year, 22 have been adopted, Chen said.
Among adoptive parents, 85 percent did so because they were sterile, 73 percent said they did so because they liked children, while 23 percent said they were too old to conceive.
However, some people wanted to adopt children because of reasons that Chen said were “inadequate.”
“Some people say they want children to inherit their property after they pass away. Some women believe their husbands had an affair because they could not conceive, while some childless parents said they were worried that no one would pray for them after their death,” Chen said.
Chen said a man had once inquired about adopting a child born out of wedlock as well as the child’s mother because he was single.
“These are some of the motivations we consider to be ‘inadequate’ because the potential adopters’ reasons are not based on the interests of the children,” she said.
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