30-10-2022, 02:30 PM
True, we can't change the past. All we can do is to learn from it, & try to do better - which is somewhat scary when we consider that the forced adoptions were done from good motives.
Perhaps more open adoptions, with some rules around that, may be a better way to go if we must have adoptions.
And prior to those forced adoptions, families sometimes managed things so a daughter's child would be brought up as a sibling.
The world back then could be a very cruel place to women who became pregnant outside marriage. I remember a friend's brother than 'having to get married' to his then fiancée who opted to have their baby at one of the Bethany hospitals which also took a lot of unmarried mums. When friend went to visit she found her new sister in law making scathing comments about 'those unmarried girls'. I think she was then reminded that, if not for friend's brother 'doing the right thing' then she would have been one of them.
Perhaps more open adoptions, with some rules around that, may be a better way to go if we must have adoptions.
And prior to those forced adoptions, families sometimes managed things so a daughter's child would be brought up as a sibling.
The world back then could be a very cruel place to women who became pregnant outside marriage. I remember a friend's brother than 'having to get married' to his then fiancée who opted to have their baby at one of the Bethany hospitals which also took a lot of unmarried mums. When friend went to visit she found her new sister in law making scathing comments about 'those unmarried girls'. I think she was then reminded that, if not for friend's brother 'doing the right thing' then she would have been one of them.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)