The first item in your Sept. 18 Scrapbook caught my eye. Your survey asking how parents, if they died, would want their children raised clearly demonstrated the high level of distrust Americans have for the present foster care and welfare systems.
Unfortunately, you left the best option out of your survey: adoption. As Speaker Gingrich said in an address to the National Council for Adoption: “I wish I had been really smart when Sam Donaldson said to me, “What would you say to somebody who just couldn’t take care of their children?” If instead of saying orphanages, I had said adoption, we would have had, I think, a more profitable debate.” Having been adopted himself, Mr. Gingrich knows whereof he speaks.
The debate over welfare reform is not between the nightmare of foster care and a Dickensian orphanage. Adoption is often the best option.
PATRICK D. PURTILL, NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ADOPTION, WASHINGTON, DC
