tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12894384.post3653039347753311363..comments2024-01-07T05:38:18.423+00:00Comments on Wednesday's Irish politics blog: Wednesdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09799255977193959208noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12894384.post-13539403605718175122006-11-16T12:07:00.000+00:002006-11-16T12:07:00.000+00:00I largely disagree with you
Most people do, that'...<i>I largely disagree with you</i><br /><br />Most people do, that's what makes it a "consensus" :)<br /><br />See, I'm not arguing that there will be no trauma involved. But in real life there are any number of situations which may cause a child trauma. The law cannot be determined solely on that basis. It's just my view that in this case, the trauma will not be <i>so</i> overwhelming and <i>so</i> irreversible as to override any other consideration. <br /><br />As to the kidnapping scenario, while there would surely be people who still would favour the adoptive parents, there'd be nothing like the consensus that exists over this case. People tend to put themselves in others' shoes and a parent whose child was kidnapped is a much more sympathetic figure than one who willingly gave the child up. Just listening to some of the comments that people have made about this case, there's obviously at least an element of "you made your bed, now lie in it" from some (I emphasise, not all) corners. <br /><br />That's where it ties into my fears about the reactionary agenda and the referendum.Wednesdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09799255977193959208noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12894384.post-4958599764718514482006-11-14T22:14:00.000+00:002006-11-14T22:14:00.000+00:00Apologies if this has been posted twice - your com...Apologies if this has been posted twice - your comments system seems to dislike me...<br /><br />I have to say on this one I largely disagree with you although I understand your logic. One of the pillars of the thinking behind adoption is that the initial trauma where a child is removed from a mother for whatever reason is extremely serious. The training adoptive parents go through here and in the UK is largely directed towards ameliorating that trauma and any resultant attachment issues, phobias and so on. To compound that initial seperation appears to me to be probably piling a further trauma on the child. Knowing quite a few two year olds in my time it's fairly clear that attachments are profound. Yes, of course the child will survive, but whether it's in it's best interests seems to me to be dubious. <br /><br />I'm not entirely sure that you're correct in your hypothetical situation of a kidnapping. I suspect that in that instance the reports of social services would be the first port of call, and judging from their general attituded to seperation of children from parents I can make an educated guess as to where their sympathies are likely to lie. <br /><br />More to the point, while I share your fears of a conservative agenda in sheeps clothing I'm hard pressed to see how this case has any relationship to the instances that you cite. Surely the liberal agenda is best served by acknowledging that families evolve through messy processes including adoption, whether by straight or lesbian or gay biological or adoptive parents. The issue here is much more centred on whether a child should be taken from one home where it has settled over two years and removed to another where it must reinitiate bonding etc and in the process effectively destroy the de facto family that it is already in for one which has yet to exist. <br /><br />It's a very tough case indeed, and I can see right on all sides, but... it strikes me that reading between the lines best practice in child care is tending towards leaving the child where she is at present. That strikes me as a much more liberal analysis than the constitutional situation which appears to lean on concepts of marriage as legitimising tools of relationships to remove the child again. Indeed it can be said that this judgement, and perhaps your central analysis, ignores the point that parenting is a little bit more than simply a noun or descriptive label and actually has an awful lot more to do with it's use as a verb.<br /><br />As for the referendum, I was actually dubious about it up until this case (again sharing many of your concerns), but now I'm beginninng to think that if it can override previous concepts of family that legitimise the de jure rather than the de facto then it might not be a bad thing...<br /><br />However if this sort of case can prove that those of us on the liberal wing can take opposing views of it it sort of demonstrates the fairly grim complexity of the issue...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com