I don't think putting the burden on people who want to raise a family is the right question about morality and altruism here, as if by choosing to have one or more children, you create parenting 'slots' that any child in need of a home can be dropped into in order to 'solve' adoption as efficiently as possible.
The kids that really need help are already partially grown-up, and it's a significantly different set of issues to raising your own kid from a newborn, even if you remove any wishes to have your own children from the equation. Adoptive parents are absolute heroes with a ton of training and support, there's a reason the application process to do so is so long- plenty of would-be parents wouldn't necessarily be great adoptive parents.
I'm a father myself. Looking at the issues around adoption, if that makes us 'vain', 'immoral' or 'selfish' (to use some of the terms thrown around in this thread) to have chosen to have our own kid rather than sign up to adopt, it seems like a poor way to frame the discussion by reducing it to simplistic parenting slots and taking a swipe at parents. Rather than looking at adoption and all of the complex needs surrounding it, from health and trauma to issues around culture and international adoption, the legal rights of the child and those of their biological parents etc, as an individual multi-faceted issue worthy of discussion.
The kids that really need help are already partially grown-up, and it's a significantly different set of issues to raising your own kid from a newborn, even if you remove any wishes to have your own children from the equation. Adoptive parents are absolute heroes with a ton of training and support, there's a reason the application process to do so is so long- plenty of would-be parents wouldn't necessarily be great adoptive parents.
I'm a father myself. Looking at the issues around adoption, if that makes us 'vain', 'immoral' or 'selfish' (to use some of the terms thrown around in this thread) to have chosen to have our own kid rather than sign up to adopt, it seems like a poor way to frame the discussion by reducing it to simplistic parenting slots and taking a swipe at parents. Rather than looking at adoption and all of the complex needs surrounding it, from health and trauma to issues around culture and international adoption, the legal rights of the child and those of their biological parents etc, as an individual multi-faceted issue worthy of discussion.