East West - The Asian American Lifestyle Magazine

Opinions on a Controversy

With the media in a frenzy over Madonna’s recent international adoption, we asked Beth Russell, the adoptive mother of two daughters from China and author of “Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China,” (March 2007), for her thoughts.

What are your thoughts on Madonna’s decision?

International adoption, in my view, represents the best of which human nature is capable. To reach out and offer one’s home, love, time and resources to a child in need, rather than to sit back amidst a comfortable life, is an impulse that some may not fully understand.  The recent controversy surrounding Madonna’s decision to adopt a boy from an orphanage in Malawi is an example of the confusion around this issue. I believe that if people could see with their own eyes the conditions in which so many of the world’s children live, they too would be driven to do the same thing that Madonna did, and that so many other American families have done, which is to adopt at least one of these children and give them a home. 

There is a lot of talk about whether or not such adoptions are “good” for the child. Is it good for them to be taken to another country, away from their native culture?

When I hear these questions posed, my first thought is to ask:  have you ever been to an orphanage, have you looked into the eyes of one of the children left there? The child lying alone in a crib does not have time to wait for the world to change. That child needs loving arms now, and does not care if those arms are white, black, Chinese or American, and if we really cared about the needs of the most neglected of the world’s children, neither would we. Adopting one child may not change the conditions that led to that child’s orphan status immediately, but that one act can have tremendous cumulative impact over time. 

What about the criticism for not adopting a child from the U.S., to help the children here?

There is nowhere in the U.S. where you would see rows upon rows of babies who are never picked up or touched, fed very little, who are sick and struggling, abandoned at birth. The mortality rate in orphanages in the developing world is extremely high, and in these places the issue of adoption is literally one of life and death. If not adopted, there is a high probability that many of these children will die; the ones that live may have permanent disabilities from chronic malnourishment and emotional deprivation, leaving them with little chance of ever integrating into society. There is nothing comparable in our country, where children not in their birth families are placed not in institutions but in foster care, and many are later adopted. It is an issue of hierarchy of need.