Adoption as a business or international trade

[Charles Anthony]

The recent story of Alison Quets kidnapping her twins two years after they were born turns her children into victims of adults.

Mom accused of kidnapping her children wants kids back

The biological mother of 17-month-old twins says that postpartum depression and the overwhelming demands of child care led to her putting them up for adoption.

---

Now, Quets, 49, is accused of kidnapping the twins from their adoptive parents during the Christmas holidays and fleeing to Canada.

The babies, Tyler Lee and Holly Ann, were returned to their adoptive parents at their home in Raleigh, N.C., following Quets' arrest after a week on the run. A custody agreement with the adoptive parents had allowed Quets to take the children for a brief visit Dec. 22 to Dec. 24, but authorities say she never returned the babies and went to Canada.

---

Adoption Appeal May Continue

Quets, a single engineer who gave birth to the twins after undergoing in-vitro fertilization, was in the process of appealing the adoption in the state of Florida at the time of the alleged kidnapping. Though a resident of Florida, Quets kept an apartment in Durham, N.C., so she could see the children.

She says she regretted putting up her twins for adoption immediately and still wants to attempt to get them back. Besides postpartum depression, Quets says an inability to eat led to her putting up Tyler Lee and Holly Ann for adoption.

More details of the events leading up to the alleged kidnapping have come out in a newly unsealed FBI affidavit.

---

"They are my whole life. I love them very much," she said. "I will never stop fighting to make sure their lives are as good as they can be, and they need to be home with their mother and I'm fighting for them."

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

The legal details surrounding this case are bizarre but morally irrelevent. Every single country and State within the U.S.A. has different laws surrounding time limts after which a mother may take back her adopted child. Incidentally, Alison Quets reversed her decision 10 hours after signing away her parental rights and in Florida, they are allowed a window of up to three days.

Without knowing everything that occurred among these children and the adults, it is impossible to judge what is best for the children. Maybe nothing is best and nothing matters anymore. Children need to bond to their parents. Clearly, ALL OF THE ADULTS INVOLVED are responsible for disrupting that. At the very least, these children will grow up knowing that all of their parents loved them enough to fight to have them back. Unfortunately, that may backfire. As far as the welfare of the children is concerned, the adoptive parents could have kidnapped them from their birth mother. The children will not likely to have the capacity to be certain who to trust until after the need for bonding is completed. My arm-chair quarter-back recommendation to adoptive parents is not to accept "visitation" rights from the birth parents in exchange for a child.

What I find distressing is that adopted children are now a commodity. International adoptions are attractive to avoid birth parents from demanding the return of their children. However, international adoptions can backfire. Occasionally, newly acquired children are returned to their home countries (as fuzzy-wuzzy Christmas-gift pets are returned to kennels following News Years) after the adoption-joy is over and the reality of raising an infant takes hold. Children need to trust adults since they do not have the strength to resort to coercion. If adopted children were adults, they would be called slaves.

There have been a few previous threads that have discussed various issues surrounding adoption. Most notably:

Blacks are accessories for whites

Queering the Family Tree -- Is it possible or a bit dishonest?

I highly recommend reading them. They are both a nice read and cleverly ahead of their times.