A duty to adopt?

Journal of Applied Philosophy

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 25-39

  Friedrich, Daniel ^a  

^a HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84883528463     PISSN: 02643758     EISSN: 14685930     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/japp.12003     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. EveryChild, Every Child Deserves a Family (London: EveryChild, 2009), p. 48
2. D. A. Frank, P. E. Klass, F. Earls & L. Eisenberg, 'Infants and young children in orphanages: One view from pediatrics and child psychiatry', Pediatrics 97 (1996): 569-78
3. M. J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. H. Van Ijzendoorn & F. Juffer, 'Earlier is better', Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 73,3 (2008): 279-93
4. M. H. van Ijzendoorn & F. Juffer, 'The Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture 2006: Adoption as intervention. Meta-analytic evidence for massive catch-up and plasticity in physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 47,12 (2006): 1228-45
5. J. Palacios & D. Brodzinsky, 'Review: Adoption research:Trends, topics, outcomes', International Journal of Behavioral Development 34,3 (2010): 270-84
6. I understand adoption in a wide sense covering both de jure and de facto adoptions, international and intra-national adoptions, adoptions by unrelated persons and adoptions by kin, adoptions by couples or adoptions by single parents
7. For stylistic reasons I will often shorten 'duty to adopt rather than have biological children' to 'duty to adopt'. However, it should be emphasized that it is the duty to adopt rather than have biological children that is the sole target of this article
8. Peter Singer, 'Famine, affluence, and morality', Philosophy and Public Affairs 1,1 (1972): 229-43
9. Liam B. Murphy, Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
10. Barbara Herman, 'The scope of moral requirement', Philosophy and Public Affairs 30,3 (2001): 227-56
11. Garrett Cullity, The Moral Demands of Affluence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004)
12. Bart Streumer, 'Review of Liam B. Murphy, "Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory" ', Ratio 17 (2004): 357-62
13. Tim Mulgan, 'Liam Murphy, "Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory" ', Utilitas 15,1 (2003): 113-6)
14. Bernard Williams & J. J.C. Smart, Utilitarianism:For and Against (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973).
15. At least this will be so if one can rationally do what morality forbids. As Samuel Scheffler points out, the desire to shield certain areas from morality's reach will be especially acute for those who think it can never be rational to knowingly do what morality forbids ('Morality's demands and their limits', The Journal of Philosophy 83,10 (1986): 531-7
16. S. Matthew Liao, 'The idea of a duty to love', The Journal ofValue Inquiry 40,1 (2006): 1-22. In any case, the argument of this article is independent of Liao's claim
17. To be more precise, I think the relevant criterion is given by what is reasonable for an agent, given the evidence available to her, to judge about her capabilities of caring for an adopted child (rather than, say, to what extent she is in fact capable of doing so).While this raises important issues (cf. Benjamin Kiesewetter, ' "Ought" and the perspective of the agent', Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 5,3 (2011): 1-24 for an excellent discussion), they are orthogonal to the main point of the argument
18. Susan C Crockenberg, 'How valid are the results of the St. Petersburg-USA orphanage intervention study and what do they mean for the world's children?', Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 73,3 (2008): 263-70
19. In a large study of 10,019 American women between the ages of 18-44 only 1% had adopted a child. (Leslie Doty Hollingsworth, 'Who seeks to adopt a child?', Adoption Quarterly 3,3 (2000): 1-23).
20. This compares with 56% of women aged 18-44 that had a child in the US in 2006 (US Census Bureau, Fertility of American Women: 2006 Population (English Edition), 2008, p. 24)
21. Or consider that every year more than 1,000,000 people seek fertility treatments in the US but less than 60,000 adoptions of unrelated children occur (Allen P. Fisher, 'Still "not quite as good as having your own"?Toward a sociology of adoption', Annual Review of Sociology 29,1 (2003): 335-61)
22. Most desire-satisfaction accounts of wellbeing place 'information' constraints on the desires that determine wellbeing. Cf. Richard Brandt, ATheory of the Good and the Right (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998); James Griffin, Well-Being (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988)
23. James Griffin, Well-Being (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988)
24. Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption & The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, National Adoption Attitudes Survey 2002, 2002, p. 48
25. Admittedly, the expression 'a vast majority' is vague. Palacios & Brodzinsky do not give precise numbers, but to put their statement into perspective consider that a very large Swedish cohort study (Anders Hjern, Frank Lindblad & Bo Vinnerljung, 'Suicide, psychiatric illness, and social maladjustment in intercountry adoptees in Sweden: A cohort study', Lancet 360,9331 (2002): 443-8) found that only 4% of adoptees showed any indication of poor mental health (compared to 2% of non-adoptees).The results probably still exaggerate the risks, since the dataset includes children with special needs adopted at a late age.
26. F. Juffer & M. H. van Ijzendoorn, 'Behavior problems and mental health referrals of international adoptees: A meta-analysis', The Journal of the American Medical Association 293,20 (2005): 2501-15
27. R. J Sternberg, E. L. Grigorenko & K. K. Kidd, 'Intelligence, race, and genetics', The American psychologist 60,1 (2005): 46-59).
28. Mark Alicke, 'The better-than-average effect' in M. D. Alicke, D. A. Dunning & J. I. Krueger (eds) The Self in Social Judgment (New York: Psychology Press, 2005), pp. 85-108
29. L. Hamilton, S. Cheng & B. Powell, 'Adoptive parents, adaptive parents: Evaluating the importance of biological ties for parental investment', American Sociological Review 72,1 (2007): 95-116
30. J. E. Lansford, A. Abbey & A. J. Stewart, 'Does family structure matter? A comparison of stepfather, and stepmother households', Journal of Marriage and Family 63,August (2001): 840-51.
31. Anne Case, I-Fen Lin & Sara McLanahan, 'How hungry is the selfish gene?', The Economic Journal 110,466 (2000): 781-804. However, Case et al. failed to distinguish two parents adopting a child from one parent adopting the child of their partner. They thus confounded the situation of step-children and adopted children
32. Trudy Festinger, 'Adoption disruption: Rates, correlates, and service needs' in G. P. Mallon & P. McCartt Hess (eds) ChildWelfare for the 21st Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005): 452-68
33. For example, of the approximately 25% of US children growing up in single-parent households more than 50% are reported to receive no or only partial child-support payments by the other parent: US Census Bureau, Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007 Hispanic (Washington, DC: The Bureau, 2009), p. 12.
34. David Finkelhor et al. also estimate that roughly 20% of children are subject to maltreatment, 4% are victims of child neglect, 9% are victims of physical abuse, and 12 % are victims of emotional abuse
35. D. Finkelhor, H. Turner, R. Ormrod & S. Hamby, 'Violence, abuse, and crime exposure in a national sample of children and youth', Pediatrics 124,5 (2009): 1411-23
36. L. DiAnne Borders, Lynda K. Black & B. Kay Pasley, 'Are adopted children and their parents at greater risk for negative outcomes?', Family Relations 47,3 (1998): 237
37. M. A. Rueter, M. Keyes, G. Iacono & M. McGue, 'Family interactions in adoptive compared to nonadoptive families', Journal of Family Psychology 23,1 (2009): 58-66
38. Karen M. O'Brien & Kathy P. Zamostny, 'Understanding adoptive families: An integrative review of empirical research and future directions for counseling psychology', The Counseling Psychologist 31,6 (2003): 679-710
39. Michael W. O'Hara & Annette M. Swain, 'Rates and risk of postpartum depression: A meta-analysis', International Review of Psychiatry 8,1 (1996): 37-54
40. B. N. Gaynes et al., Perinatal Depression: Prevalence, Screening Accuracy, and Screening Outcomes. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No. 119 (Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). It is also estimated that about 10% of men suffer from prenatal and postpartum depression
41. James F Paulson & S. Bazemore, 'Prenatal and postpartum depression in fathers', The Journal of the American Medical Association 303,19 (2010): 1961-9)
42. For data on miscarriage see March of Dimes, 'Miscarriage'. Online at: (accessed 24 July 2011).
43. Marian F. MacDorman & Sharon Kirmeyer, 'Fetal and perinatal mortality, United States, 2005', National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics National Vital Statistics System 57,8 (2009): 1-19
44. Eleanor P. Hunt & Alice D. Chenoweth, 'Recent trends in infant mortality in the United States', American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health 51,2 (2008): 1-8
45. This claim may appear unsupported; after all, many people know the downsides of pregnancy yet still choose to experience it rather than to adopt a child. However, I doubt that many people really know the downsides of pregnancy in the relevant way.They might have heard that there are risks to pregnancy, but how many have actually formed an adequate idea of, say, the grief involved in miscarriage or stillbirth? And how many have truly considered that these awful things might happen to them? Moreover, women may not choose pregnancy over adoption because they have a strong intrinsic desire for pregnancy, but rather because adoption is not a culturally salient option or because pregnancy is seen as part of something else that is desirable (such as a child with great potential or a happy family). While this is ultimately an empirical issue, I think the downsides of pregnancy are so severe, that it would be surprising if, upon full consideration of the downsides of pregnancy, many people really did have a strong intrinsic desire for pregnancy and childbirth. (Thanks to a reviewer for pushing me to be clearer on this point.)
46. Sally Haslanger, 'Family, ancestry and self:What is the moral significance of biological ties?', Adoption & Culture 2,1 (2009)
47. J. DavidVelleman, 'Family history', Philosophical Papers 34,3 (2005): 357-78)
48. Kermyt G. Anderson, 'How well does paternity confidence match actual paternity? Evidence from worldwide nonpaternity rates', Current Anthropology 47,3 (2006): 513-20)
49. Some countries, like the US, offer generous tax-deductions for those who adopt which can substantially lower the overall costs, but others do not. The cost of domestic adoptions also varies a great deal. In Germany, for example, domestic adoptions are free, but in the US domestic adoptions outside the foster system are estimated to cost about as much as international adoptions
50. USDA, Expenditures on Children by Families, 2009 Policy (Washington, DC: USDA, 2010), p. 39
51. Michelle J. Budig & Paula England, 'The wage penalty for motherhood', American Sociological Review 66,2 (2001): 204-225
52. David Ellwood, Elizabeth Ty Wilde & Lily Batchelder, 'The mommy track divides: The impact of childbearing on wages of women of differing skill levels', 2009: 1-45
53. J. Boivin, L. Bunting, J. Collins & K. Nygren, 'International estimates of infertility prevalence and treatment-seeking: Potential need and demand for infertility medical care', Human Reproduction 22,6 (2007): 1506-12
54. P. Katz, R. Nachtigall & J. Showstack, 'The economic impact of the assisted reproductive technologies', Nature Medicine 8 (2002): 29-32
55. M. P. Connolly, S. Hoorens & G. M. Chambers, 'The costs and consequences of assisted reproductive technology: An economic perspective', Human Reproduction Update 16,6 (2010): 603-13)
56. Thanks to a reviewer for alerting me to this possibility
57. There are also non-monetary costs to the adoption process, such as difficult paperwork, home screening, etc. While these should not be ignored, they do not seem sufficiently weighty to silence the duty to adopt
58. Michael McKinsey, 'Obligations to the starving', Noûs 15,3 (1981): 309-23
59. I. Lammerant & M. Hofstetter, Adoption: AtWhat Cost? (Geneva: Terre des Hommes, 2007)
60. UNICEF, 'UNICEF's position on inter-country adoption' Children, 2011: 2. Online at: (accessed 14 March 2011)
61. International Social Service, 'Exposing myths about the number of adoptable children and the need for more precision when defining who is adoptable', Monthly Review N ° 10 / 2008 October 2008 41, October (2008): 1-3
62. Nellie Wieland, 'Parental obligation', Utilitas 23,3 (2011): 249-67
63. Lionel K. McPherson, 'The moral insignificance of "bare" personal reasons', Philosophical Studies2 110,1 (2002): 29-47
64. E. J. Graff, 'The lie we love', Foreign Policy, 2008: 59-60
65. Nigel Cantwell, 'Intercountry adoption.A comment on the number of "adoptable" children and the number of persons seeking to adopt internationally', The Judges' Newsletter on International Child Protection V (2003): 72
66. This is especially true for countries that have ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption as the convention specifies a range of demanding criteria that must be met for a child to be recognized as adoptable in the inter-country adoption system
67. 'The entire continent of Africa, with its population of nearly a billion people, in 2007 sent less than half of what the tiny nation of Guatemala, population approximately 14 million, sent, and 68% of Africa's total came from one nation, Ethiopia'
68. D. M. Smolin, 'Child laundering and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: The future and past of intercountry adoption', University of Louisville Law Review 48,3 (2010): 469-470
69. UNICEF, Africa's Orphaned andVulnerable Generations: Children Affected by Aids (Geneva: UNICEF et al., 2006), p. 52
70. This calculation is based on numbers from Statistisches Bundesamt, Statistiken Der Kinder- Und Jugendhilfe, 2010: 24 and United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, 2009.
71. Similar estimates can be derived for countries such as the US. Note, lacking adoption options parents in non-Western countries often feel compelled to abandon their children.To illustrate, in 2003, roughly 1200 infants were abandoned on the streets of Khartoum with 50% dying within hours (Consortium for Street Children, 'Street Children Statistics': 11. Online at: (accessed 18 March 2011))
72. Rahima Essop, 'Hope for abandoned babies' Eyewitness News. Online at: (accessed 18 March 2011)
73. Neetu Chandra, 'Our heartless Delhi dumps its baby girls', IndiaToday. Online at: (accessed 18 March 2011))
74. P. Selman, 'The rise and fall of intercountry adoption in the 21st century', International SocialWork 52,5 (2009): 575-94
75. It is a difficult question what changes should be made to ensure that more children in need of adoption are recognized as adoptable - e.g. whether we should relax the consent conditions in the Hague Convention, whether we should invest more resources into the bureaucracies tasked to handle adoption cases, whether we should promote the possibility of adoption in communities that do not usually consider it an option, etc. For the purposes of this article I will remain neutral on these issues.