Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Adoption is a Feminist Issue
The following are quotes from Joss Shawyer, author of "Death by Adoption."
The entire piece is at:
“Does the woman who decides to resolve her infertility by adopting really manage to kidhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif herself that the donor of an adoptable child has a ‘choice’?. Would any woman with a choice put herself through nine months of pregnancy and go into labor having made the decision to surrender her child, if in fact there was another way? With the rare exception of surrogacy, carried out for money, no woman would knowingly, willingly do this. Does the infertile woman have the moral right to complete her family with another woman's child? I think not.
“Whatever happened to sisterhood, that brave frontier of gender equality where women banded together to fight the monster, that oppressor enabled by a structural inequality that collectively used woman's fertility to keep her oppressed, uneducated, downtrodden, poor. I put it to every woman, that any woman who expects to exercise a ‘choice’ to fulfill her maternal needs with another woman’s child, has herself become that oppressor....
“Until every woman, everywhere, has the right to raise the child she carried and birthed, the patriarchy is alive and well, still using ‘good’ women to punish ‘bad’ women - through the role of adoptive applicant. The personal remains political; adoption is a feminist issue.”
The entire piece is at:
“Does the woman who decides to resolve her infertility by adopting really manage to kidhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif herself that the donor of an adoptable child has a ‘choice’?. Would any woman with a choice put herself through nine months of pregnancy and go into labor having made the decision to surrender her child, if in fact there was another way? With the rare exception of surrogacy, carried out for money, no woman would knowingly, willingly do this. Does the infertile woman have the moral right to complete her family with another woman's child? I think not.
“Whatever happened to sisterhood, that brave frontier of gender equality where women banded together to fight the monster, that oppressor enabled by a structural inequality that collectively used woman's fertility to keep her oppressed, uneducated, downtrodden, poor. I put it to every woman, that any woman who expects to exercise a ‘choice’ to fulfill her maternal needs with another woman’s child, has herself become that oppressor....
“Until every woman, everywhere, has the right to raise the child she carried and birthed, the patriarchy is alive and well, still using ‘good’ women to punish ‘bad’ women - through the role of adoptive applicant. The personal remains political; adoption is a feminist issue.”
# posted by Senior Mom @ 2:59 PM 
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This quote is totally awesome and speaks truth to power. It makes me want to buy that book. Thank you for sharing it.
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