Graded Response 9

So often, throughout this past semester, our ethics discussions have come back to the question, “What is in the best interest of the child?” That question came up again for me on Friday, during Mrs. Marcus’ presentation for our class. Her story was very interesting and quite unique. It’s amazing that people from the same town adopted all these four sisters, so that they could stay in contact with each other. However, I couldn’t help but think about each sister being raised by different families, and whether or not that truly was in each child’s best interest. In the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, article six mentions that “whenever possible the child should grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security,” (http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/child.asp). I understand that this article means that children should stay with their parents if at all possible, but the phrase, “atmosphere or affection and of moral and material security,” lead me to feel that because their siblings were they only family they really had, I feel as though separating them was taking away the only security they really ever had in life. I fully understand that these girls’ lives have been improved significantly by being adopted and brought to the US, and that they are probably much better off than if they had stayed in the Ukraine. However, the breaking up of their family still seemed to some degree wrong to me. It made me feel really conflicted. Imagining my siblings and myself in a situation like that, where one by one they were taken away from me, to a place that far away, would break me as a person. But on the other hand, I would want what was best for them, so they could have the best life possibly and all the opportunities that people deserve to have. All in all it was a very thought provoking guest speaker. 

--Mary S.