In response to RfrancisR’s diary about the confrontation of Rick Santorum (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/stark-interviews-santorum-audio/).
Mr. Santorum may call it "a false choice,"but it is a real choice, a choice that hundreds of “pro-life” advocates have already made. The choice to “adopt”(a misnomer both legally and linguistically) an embryo rather than a living breathing child.
The fact is that at any given time thousands (if not tens or hundreds of thousands) of children languish in the foster care system in this country waiting for adoption. The mantra “every child a wanted child” has been parroted by “pro-choice” activist and the claim that for every aborted baby there is a family waiting to adopt has been equally cried by “pro-life” proponents.
But the reality remains that while there may be a home waiting for most babies, and a long waiting list for healthy white infants, older children, children with health issues, and sibling groups struggle to find adoptive homes many times bouncing from foster home to foster home through their entire childhoods. Confirming this reality is as simple as looking at the state by state adoption photo listings and seeing the thousands of children desperately in need of homes at any given time in this country.
Any family seeking to adopt must then make a choice. A choice of what kind of child they are willing and able to accept into their homes. I do not want to imply that this is an easy choice, or that every family can, or should, try to deal with any child. Every parent has their own limitations in abilities, finances, and community resources that limit the children they can help. But in many cases the choice is a selfish one, a choice to adopt only an infant, only a child that can still be shaped to be like you, only a child that looks like you, or any variety of other reason. I am struck by what I find in the photo listing. First the children are almost all older, finding homes for infants is usually easy it seems. Second they are mostly minorities (slightly more so in Bible Belt states), finding homes for white kids seems easier. This in strong contrast to the snowflake “adoption” children, a cursory examination of embryo adoption sites find photos only of white families with white children.
But, back to the Petri Dish. Every family looking to adopt must chose among many children to adopt. Inevitably a family who chooses to adopt” a snowflake baby by that choice chooses not to adopt an already born child. If every child who needed a home could find one this would not be a problem, but reality is many children cannot find a home. So by choosing to “adopt” an embryo, a couple is choosing to leave an already born child without a home. This is obviously a problem. While the frozen embryo will still be there frozen and waiting a year from now (yes I do realize that the chances of successful implantation go down slightly each year), the already born child will be a year older and that much harder to find an adoptive home for.
The reason Rick Santorum cannot answer the question about if he would save the Petri Dish or the girl, is that he know many “pro-life” Americans (Who he hopes will vote for him for president) already have chosen the Petri Dish over the girl. Why, sometimes because they value having an infant over caring for a child, sometimes because they value a white “snowflake” that looks like them over a black child that they will never be able to see as their own, but either way because they value what they want over what children need.