When people question the despicable practices in Russia and other countries, they are sometimes attacked as anti-adoption. For those who fight to improve bad practices in certain foreign countries, some are inclined to call them anti-adoption.

Is it really fair to label people who want to reform adoption either domestically or internationally as anti-adoption? Not to me, it isn’t. But, what about all those poor children in the bleak orphanages of the world that will not be adopted because some “do-gooder” wants to clean up adoption practices in a specific country? Believe me, I feel for children growing up in orphanages. However,does that mean we maintain lax standards and policies to get more children adopted? Do we relax and throw aside any standards so that more children get adopted no matter who adopts them? In those countries where parents are supposed to send reports on adopted children, parents should be honoring their committments.

Blame the corrupt people who create, support and practice the unethical adoption policies, not those who are trying to clean them up. Put some of the blame on adoptive parents who support agencies known to be “iffy”.

I simply cannot justify directing anger at those who are seeking to make adoption better. Or is it adoption full force, ethics be dammed? Sometimes I wonder.

There is something I have been noticing lately. It appears to me that when people criticize any aspect of adoption, some people are immediately ready to brand that person "anti-adoption". Pitchforks suddenly appear and a posse of "adoption is perfect" triad members gather. They appear chomping at the bit, ready to pounce on the poor unsuspecting soul who unwittingly committed a grave sin by criticizing adoption.

This tendency to condemn those who speak ill of adoption sometimes happens in all types of adoption. For the moment though, I am speaking about when it occurs in discussions about international adoptions.