Adoption
of orphan children became a phenomenon in recent days, but how did
the religion of Islam treat problems of adoption 1400 years ago before
it happens?Let us read………….
Allah Almighty says in the holy Qur’an: (nor
has He made your adopted sons your real sons. That is but your saying
with your mouths. But Allah says the truth, and He guides to the Right
Way* Call them (adopted sons) by the names of their fathers, that is
more just with Allah){ Sûrat Al-Ahzâb -The Confederates –
verse4-5}, in this verse Allah Almighty orders us to call the adopted
sons by their real father’s name not by the name of the new father.
What is adoption?
In western countries as a
definition, adoption is the legal process by which a person becomes a
lawful member of a family different from their birth family.Once
a final order of adoption has been ruled by a court of law, the
adoptive parents gain the same rights and responsibilities as parents
whose children are born to them; subsequently, an adopted child gains
the same rights as birth children in regard to inheritance, child
support, and other legal matters.
In most U.S. jurisdictions, at the
time the adoption is finalized, the adopted child's name is legally
changed, and the court orders the issuance of a new, amended birth
certificate.
But what is incest?
Incest may be defined as any
sexual activity between closely related persons, normally within the
immediate family, which is either illegal or socially taboo.
Indeed, sexual relations between the closely related persons is not only against religions abut also is against the pure nature.
Depending on the culture and
jurisdiction, the type of sexual activity and the nature of the
relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social
taboo varies. Some societies consider it to include “blood relatives”,
whereas others further include those related by adoption or marriage.
Others also may consider it to include only those who live in the same
household, or who belong to the same clan or lineage.
Associated risks of incest
Studies confirmed that incest
produce children with special needs. Some geneticists put the risk of
producing a disabled child as high as 50%, but this is hotly debated.
Opponents of the incest ban also argue there are double standards,
noting that no-one would ban those with hereditary diseases from
reproducing. So that, by law many European countries make the intra-
families is illegal, but Sweden is the only country in Europe which
allows marriage between siblings who share a parent.
Disabled children may be a result from practicing incest
Studies say that the significant
damage from incest is psychological that is the emotional connection.
The surge in nontraditional families increases the risk of disruption.
"There are more incidents of incest reported in stepfamilies than in
biological families," said observes Lynn Reynolds of the Institute
against Social Violence, in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
Adopted children may be
particularly vulnerable; no matter how well they are treated by their
adoptive families, they frequently struggle with feelings of abandonment
by their biological parents.
Does adoption lead to incest?
According to the western way of
adoption, the adopted son is called by his or her new father’s name so
that the adopted child may meet his or her sister and brother without
knowing each other’s so that they can marry each other’swhich is exactly the incest.
In England brother and sister Parted-at-birth but they married
A pair of twins who were adopted by separate families as babies got married without knowing they were brother and sister.
The court annulled the couple's
union after they discovered their true relationship. A British lord said
that the case showed how important it was for children to be able to
find out about their biological parents.
He added “And if you don't know
you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to
them and tragedies like this may occur."
In Germany, a brother may marry his sister
Patrick Stuebing and Susan
Karolewski are siblings who were separated by adoption, the siblings met
for the first time in 2000 when Patrick tracked down his birth mother
and the younger sister he had never met. Now they are married and have
four children.
The older two children are
suffering from severe physical and mental disabilities and the third
child was born with a heart condition. All three were placed in foster
care but only one of the four children is a healthy child
In Germany many say that the
practice of incest does harm others. Children born as a result of incest
are at an increased risk of developing severe mental and physical
disabilities
"This couple is not harming anyone. It is discrimination. And
besides, we must not forget that every child is so valuable," said Dr
Endrik Wilhelm The couple's lawyer.
It is worth to mention that incest in Germany is forbidden by law.
It is seen as a deterrent and
helps prevent children being born with the disabilities that result from
genetic defects and inbreeding.
Vietnam to end US adoption program
In 2008 The Vietnamese government decided to end an adoption agreement with the US due to corruption.
A report from the US embassy in
Hanoi cited cases in which children had allegedly been sold and families
pressured to give up their babies.
The report said the embassy had
received "credible" accounts that some adoption agencies gave $10,000
for each child that was referred. It also detailed brokers travelling to
villages to look for babies. The report was drawn up after US officials
noticed a rapid increase in the number of "abandoned" babies offered
for adoption.
In Russia
In April 2010, The Russian Foreign
Ministry announced that it would suspend all adoptions of Russian
children by Americans after an adoptive mother in Tennessee sent her
7-year-old son back to Moscow alone.
The mother said the boy’s
emotional problems had overwhelmed her. “After giving my best to this
child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends and
myself, I no longer wish to parent this child,” she wrote in a note
placed in his knapsack.
Associated risks of adoption
A study published in the Archives
of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that adolescents adopted as
infants are twice as likely to have behavioral disorders as those who
are not adopted. These behavioral disorders include ADHD and
oppositional defiant disorder.
The study followed 514
internationally adopted adolescents, 178 domestically adopted
adolescents and 540 non-adopted adolescents, aged 11 to 21
Lead researcher, Margaret A.
Keyes, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and her
colleagues assessed the adolescents using child and parent reports of
attention-deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiant, conduct, major
depressive and separation anxiety disorders, teacher reports of
psychological health, in-depth psychological interviews and contact with
mental health professionals. Testing was done when the adolescents were
on average, 15 years of age.
"We found that most of the adolescents - adopted and non-adopted - were
overwhelmingly psychologically
healthy," Keyes says. But Keyes also found what she calls "an adoption
effect." Approximately seven out of
every 100 non-adopted teens had a diagnosis of ADHD, a number that rose to 14 or 15 for adopted youngsters.
Another study was published in the
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines to
investigate the risk of developing schizophrenia in adoptees and in
non-adoptees.
The study base on utilizing data
from the Danish Civil Registration System, researchers established a
population of 1.06 million persons resident in Denmark before the age of
15, whose legal mother lived in Denmark at the child's birth.
Inter-country adoptees were identified as children born abroad.
As a result, researchers found
that Inter-country adoptees had an increased relative risk of developing
schizophrenia compared to native Danes. The increased risk was
independent of age at onset and age at, or region of, adoption, and was
not attributable to mental illness in a foster parent, the foster
parent's age, or to urbanization.
Adoption and incest in Islam
From all of the above we can conclude many pitfalls of adoption and incest according to the western application:
1- Adoptees are named with the name of their new fathers so
that they may meet with their relatives and fall in love with them and
the brother may marry his sister that causes severe social and medical
problems.
2- Overseas adoption may lead to very harmful behavior by gangs who may get poor children and resell them in another country.
3- Risk factor is not limited to adoption but it extends to the
dangerous of incest as some people in western countries are calling to
legitimate the marriage of relatives in the same family which is totally
forbidden in Islam.
4- Resulted children from incest have a high risk to be
infected by many diseases such as schizophrenia, disability and many
psychological diseases.
Hence we have to understand the
miracle in the verse when Allah Almighty ordered the believers 1400
years ago to name the adopted sons by the name of their real fathers as
He Almighty says : (Call them (adopted sons) by the names of their fathers, that is more just with Allah){ Sûrat Al-Ahzâb -The Confederates – verse5}.
Also He Almighty strictly
prohibits incest as relatives may marry each other’s which happens in
western societies. He Almighty says: (Forbidden
to you (for marriage) are: your mothers, your daughters, your sisters,
your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters,
your sister's daughters, your foster mother who gave you suck, your
foster milk suckling sisters, your wives' mothers, your step daughters
under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom you have gone in -
but there is no sin on you if you have not gone in them (to marry their
daughters), - the wives of your sons who (spring) from your own loins,
and two sisters in wedlock at the same time, except for what has already
passed; verily, Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful.){ Sûrat An-Nisâ’- The Women -verse23}.
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