Inside Tad's Mind

Most of us have seen or read stories of adoptions of Haitian children following the earthquake last month. Some of the stories have had a positive slant (the charity has saved children...) other's have had a negative slant (the "missionaries" who kidnapped and tried to smuggle 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic). At a family gathering yesterday, my wife heard a story about a couple that was "finally" able to adopt a child they've been trying to adopt for about 4 years. As the story was related to me, this couple had originally been matched with this child about 4 years ago, but the adoption was cancelled when the parents of the child took her back and parented her themselves. After about three years of caring for the child, the natural parents returned her to the orphanage because both of them had been diagnosed with tuberculosis; a death sentence in Haiti. (Mortality for untreated TB is about 67%.) The adoption was finalized just befo...

It's official. I am no longer a member of the Mormon church. I received a letter from church headquarters about a week ago saying that my name has been removed from the records of the church. This was done at my request after the church's leadership refused to respond to my three letters on their policy of encouraging all unwed mothers to relinquish their babies for adoption. I had been playing the Mormon game for several years, but had not really believed the LDS dogma for a long time (if I ever really believed it). I had felt that LDS doctrine was pretty benign it did no harm and actually did some good. Until I was confronted with the church's policy. This policy is not benign. My research found significant evidence that infant relinquishment is traumatic for both the mother and the child, and the damage caused is lifelong for both. Causing unnecessary harm to these infants by imposing a generalized policy promulgated by a "prophet" is, in my opinion, an institu...