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Would I be homeless?

16 hours have passed and you're still stuck on your flight. Your spouse is sound asleep by the window, while you have to listen to the guy next to you snore as loud as the PSU student section at a football game. Finally you hear the pilot announce that you will be landing in Beijing soon. After months of preparation, you and your spouse have made it. In the next couple hours you will have new identities: mom and dad.

Adoption, more specifically international adoption, is a tough process for both parties. The soon-to-be parents must prepare a bedroom and clothing. The child must prepare for a new home, a new lifestyle. Being a parent is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world; not that I would know, but that's what I've heard.

Picture of me and my mom when she first held me (PC: Daphne Suzanne)

 For my paradigm shift I want to research the changes made to international adoption; I want to focus primarily on adoption in China. When thinking of my topic, I started to think of something that pertains to my life. I'm adopted internationally! I thought about how my parents told me they wanted to adopt again, but couldn't. I found out that my parents weren't eligible to adopt again due to health related issues.

As a result of this thought, I did some digging as to the reason my parents were not eligible to adopt. I found that starting in 2000, a year after I was adopted, adoption from China was being restricted. As, I looked at the timeline, provided by CQ Researcher, I saw that China had made many regulations in regards to prospective parents of orphans. Factors such as age, weight, marital status, even sexuality were being taken into account.

This shift I found is important, because if this situation were to happen when I was born and needed a home, would I have gotten one? Would I be homeless?

Regulations to international adoption are hurting orphans in China more than benefitting them. I came up with this thesis statement after reading the opposing viewpoints article on this topic. To further investigate my claim I have come up with a list of research ideas.
  1. Look up the specific regulations set in place for prospective parents. I mentioned earlier that age, weight, marital status, and sexuality are factors that China takes into consideration when approving parents for adoption. 
  2. Look for the statistics of how many orphans are in China. I feel like knowing if there are an abundance of children needing homes this would further my point in claiming that the regulations hurt orphans more than benefit them.
  3. Context, as in what was going on in China when the regulations were set. Looking into potential reasons for why China created them, would be beneficial to the argument. 
  4. Finding other viewpoints. I'm a bit unsure about this idea, but still feel like it's relevant to my argument to see the opposing side of my claim. 
There are plenty of other things for me to research, but here are about 4 ideas as to what I could research more about.

So would I be homeless? I'm clearly happy where I am now, but I feel like this shift has caused more and more children to not be as lucky as me. I would love to hear some feedback in regards to my topic. Thanks for reading!

Works Cited

"Chinadaily.com.cn: - Fewer Chinese children available for adoption in US." China Daily (Beijing, China), 26 Feb. 2010. NewsBank, infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/12E32A8096014918?p=AWNB. Accessed 18 Oct. 2017.

Greenblatt, Alan. "International Adoption." CQ Global Researcher, 6 Dec. 2011, pp. 573-96, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqrglobal2011120604.

 Karaim, Reed. "China Today." CQ Researcher, 4 Apr. 2014, pp. 289-312, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2014040400.

Poncz, Elisa. "China's New Adoption Regulations Will Prevent Many Americans from Adopting Children." Issues in Adoption, edited by William Dudley, Greenhaven Press, 2004. Current Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010271244/OVIC?u=psucic&xid=1d6066ce. Accessed 18 Oct. 2017. Originally published as "China's Proposed International Adoption Law: The Likely Impact on Single U.S. Citizens Seeking to Adopt China and the Available Alternatives," Harvard International Law Journal, vol. 48, 29 Apr. 2007, pp. 74-82.





Comments

  1. Matthew MouckOctober 19, 2017 at 7:13 AM

    Wow! You really have gathered a lot here and outlined the line of thinking you have had for this topic! I would think that this might almost be too specific, but since you have a personal connection to this I think that you might be able to work in some anecdotal evidence integrated with research to make a really compelling essay and especially speech. I'm not too familiar with any data about adoption, so I hope that you will be able to find enough information about Chinese adoption to make this work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Charles RyanOctober 19, 2017 at 7:16 AM

    I think this is going to be an excellent essay. It may be interesting to see what other diplomatic events took place at the time of the inception of the new regulations. Also, it may be helpful to look at statistics about US adoption from China to see whether it was high or low at the time of the regulations. Good Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. bevOctober 19, 2017 at 7:16 AM

    There is definitely a shift in the adoptions laws. However, would this constitute a shift in how people (outside of the Chinese legislature) viewed the world? I don't know enough to concur.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 19, 2017 at 9:21 PM

    This shift is important, and very personal to you, which will make the essay and TED Talk very engaging and interesting I think. Make sure that you mention the impact of this shift in the long term as well - what will this mean in the future, for instance. I also like the specificity of this topic, which I think, as you have already outlined, will lead to some really detailed research. I'm looking forward to watching your TED Talk on this topic, good luck!

    ReplyDelete

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