To What Extent Should Race (ethnicity and Culture) Be a Determining Factor in Adoptions?

​​Gurnoor Athwal

To what extent should race (ethnicity and culture) be a determining factor in adoptions?

One of the most critical challenges we face in Canada is the number of children in our welfare system that are eligible for adoption and waiting desperately for a permanent, loving family to call their own. Children who are in foster care have usually suffered neglect, abandonment or abuse, and are in critical need of an abundance of love. Choosing to adopt a child is not a small decision, but an enormous one which requires a lot of thought, consideration and love. If after going through the long and intense process about deciding whether or not to go the route of adoption, a couple comes to the conclusion that they want to adopt , there are many factor which should be looked at before anything can be done. When placing a child in a permanent home many factors are considered., in response to the question of whether race should be a determining factor in a child adoption, my thoughts and notions are no, race should not be a determining factor in the adoption of a child.

What is truly the meaning of race? If you search it up, it will tell you that it is the classification of humans based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics or social relations, basically all objectives a person has no control over. The concept of race was established centuries ago and now in the year 2017, we as humans have come a long way from where we were back then. We know that in the inside everyone is the same, as cliché as it sounds, it is the truth. Regardless of the pigmentation of one’s skin, the internal parts of every person are the same. So when it comes to whether race should be a deciding factor, I strongly believe that the best interest of the child should be looked at first before race. As seen in the movie we watched in class “ Losing Isaiah”, the Lewin family, the family that took in Isaiah and raised him , provided Isaiah with the love, patience and security, which was like the love that a family that would have known each other all their lives and were of the same blood , would have. They showcased their unconditional love for Isaiah , which in the end was all that mattered. At the end of the day assigning a child to a home of the same