Another adoptee commits suicide: Fashion designer L'Wren Scott,girlfriend of Mick Jagger, found dea

[Xithras]

143. Nothing I wrote is even vaguely offensive to anyone who understands statistics.

I'll spell it out for you...

Facts:
The poor don't eat as well as the non-poor.
The poor don't get the same medical care as the non poor.
The poor are statistically more likely to consume alcohol excessively and use harder drugs than the non poor.
None of these things are even remotely debatable, and all are not only backed up by solid science, but are just plain common sense.

More facts:
Poor nutrition, poor medical care, alcohol, and drug abuse increase the prevalence of birth abnormalities.
Multiple studies from everyone from the UN World Health Organization to the March of Dimes have demonstrated a direct and unassailable correlation between poverty and birth defects.
According to the UN, being born into poverty increases an infants odds of being born with developmental abnormalities by as much as a FACTOR OF TWO!!! Poor babies are nearly twice as likely to experience developmental abnormalities as the non poor. This is because they (again) don't eat as well, don't get the same medical care, and are statistically more likely to engage in "risky" behavior like alcohol or drug consumption.

And the final fact that makes all of this germane to this particular topic:
The #1 reason that women give their babies up for adoption is POVERTY. They lack the financial resources to raise the child, so they give them up to others who can.


Ergo: Most babies who are placed for adoption are born to poor mothers. Babies born to poor mothers are up to twice as likely to have birth defects, which is true whether or not the child is placed for adoption. Because the percentage of poor mothers placing babies up for adoption is higher than the percentage of the poor among the population as a whole, the odds of a baby put up for adoption having a developmental abnormality are ALSO higher than among the population as a whole.

The only "hateful", insulting, or classist thing about ANY of that is the fact that poor mothers can't afford to eat decently, or get medical care, or raise their own children if they choose. It's insulting to us all that CLASS can determine whether or not a particular child is born with a disability. In a just world, birth defect rates among the poor would be the same as the non-poor, which would wipe out any statistical differences between adopted children and non adopted children. That's an indictment of society as a whole, and not of adoptive children or the poor.