Adoption has always been a great substitute for abortions. I am not going to go into which is better or which is worse and all the moral issues surrounding that heated debate. I simply want to address the unseen downfall to adoption, and suggest that there be some form of law change or option made available to help protect the health of adopted children. I am not simply talking about the immediate health of the child, of course our hospital do a great job of protecting and making sue newborns are healthy and ready for out germ ridden world. I am focusing on the genetic family health history of adopted children.
As a child matures throughout the years new health issues can come to light. Family history of stress, mental illness, blood pressure, heart failures, or other genetic problems can cause major problems later in life. Sometimes there are worse problems that can skip generations, so while the parents are perfectly healthy the grandparents may have conditions that will reappear in the grandchildren but not the parents of the adoption child. These situations are not only limited to non adopted children. Adopted children can and will have theses same issues, this is why having some form of health information from the genetic parent to follow in the child’s health forms is important. Without knowledge these things can be early ailments or killers that could have easily been avoided. Whether this sort of information should be mandated by a law or a simple option given to the genetic parents, will remain to be a hidden hot spot for political issues.
As it stand today, when giving a child up fr adoption some information is collected and analyzed for health issues. If anything important pops up then it is linked to the child’s file, while still withholding the genetic parents identities if they chose to do so. I am not saying that the genetic parents do not have a right in adoption cases to give anonymously. I am simply saying that the right for a child to know his genetic family health history is a very important one and that is a right that should be grated to every person, including adopted children.
The most common type of people that give up children for adoption are younger people. Sometimes at these younger ages they themselves have not fully seen or expect all the health issues that can come later in life. This is why there needs to be some way to get this information to the child later in life and better prepare the adopted child. If someone who is adopted is concerned about their health and their genetic parents chose to withhold information from the child, that person has no way of finding out. They must live without drinking alcohol, try to stay in shape, watch their stress levels, and be in a continuous monitor of their health an how they handle some factors such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, or even sugars in foods. While these things are important to anybody on a health level, there is added importance to the adopted person later in life. Without anything controlling this important information, in regard to their past family health they are walking blind.
