I think the marginal difference you can make by adopting is probably surprisingly large. (If your expectations of the amount of good it’s possible to do are well-grounded to start with.)
The difference in quality of life for a child who’s adopted rather than staying in the care system is spectacularly large: it’s a long time since I looked at the data but I remember it being eye-popping. And society is likely to be better as a result—there’s a much greater chance of the child contributing positively to society rather than causing significant problems. (Of course, this is on average: some cared-for children grow up to do spectacularly positive things for society, and some adopted kids go on to a life of antisocial crime.)
There are way more children who would benefit from being adopted than there are adoptive parents. (In the UK it’s something like 10- or 20-to-1 at the moment.) With some complex social issues, it’s hard to see what the limiting factor is in improving things: not here. For looked-after children, the supply of adoptive parents is a runaway winner.
[EDIT: Woah, cultural assumptions there, sorry. From a quick glance, it looks like there is a shortage of adoptive parents in the US, but nothing like on the scale as in the UK.]
One of the big problems with organised altruism is the distance from the donor to the beneficiary: for instance, if you’re trying to help people a continent away, and in a profoundly different social context, it’s hard to be confident about what is genuinely improving things and what isn’t. But an adopted child lives right in your house and is socialised by you, so the distance—literal and figurative—is much smaller.
I wouldn’t advocate it as a life choice for people whose main goal is purely to benefit society. Parenting is bloody hard work, physically and emotionally. But some people (me included) find it hugely rewarding as well. So if you think you’re likely to find it rewarding to parent, adopting seems to me like a great thing to do.
On a personal note, good luck with the process: friends and relations who’ve been through it have had mixed experiences. But the ones who ended up adopting report being very happy they did so.
(Bias declaration: I’m a parent of young children, and so likely to irrationally overvalue actions that benefit young children.)
Sometimes adopted children were kidnapped from their families, rather than being in the care system. I don’t know how common this is compared to adoption of children who don’t have families or are being abused, but it should go into the calculation somewhere.
I think the marginal difference you can make by adopting is probably surprisingly large. (If your expectations of the amount of good it’s possible to do are well-grounded to start with.)
The difference in quality of life for a child who’s adopted rather than staying in the care system is spectacularly large: it’s a long time since I looked at the data but I remember it being eye-popping. And society is likely to be better as a result—there’s a much greater chance of the child contributing positively to society rather than causing significant problems. (Of course, this is on average: some cared-for children grow up to do spectacularly positive things for society, and some adopted kids go on to a life of antisocial crime.)
There are way more children who would benefit from being adopted than there are adoptive parents. (In the UK it’s something like 10- or 20-to-1 at the moment.) With some complex social issues, it’s hard to see what the limiting factor is in improving things: not here. For looked-after children, the supply of adoptive parents is a runaway winner.
[EDIT: Woah, cultural assumptions there, sorry. From a quick glance, it looks like there is a shortage of adoptive parents in the US, but nothing like on the scale as in the UK.]
One of the big problems with organised altruism is the distance from the donor to the beneficiary: for instance, if you’re trying to help people a continent away, and in a profoundly different social context, it’s hard to be confident about what is genuinely improving things and what isn’t. But an adopted child lives right in your house and is socialised by you, so the distance—literal and figurative—is much smaller.
I wouldn’t advocate it as a life choice for people whose main goal is purely to benefit society. Parenting is bloody hard work, physically and emotionally. But some people (me included) find it hugely rewarding as well. So if you think you’re likely to find it rewarding to parent, adopting seems to me like a great thing to do.
On a personal note, good luck with the process: friends and relations who’ve been through it have had mixed experiences. But the ones who ended up adopting report being very happy they did so.
(Bias declaration: I’m a parent of young children, and so likely to irrationally overvalue actions that benefit young children.)
Sometimes adopted children were kidnapped from their families, rather than being in the care system. I don’t know how common this is compared to adoption of children who don’t have families or are being abused, but it should go into the calculation somewhere.
Yes—I wasn’t thinking of inter-country adoption in this context, because it’s barely-on-the-radar where I live (UK) for people who want to adopt.