When Aspiring Parents – And Children – Lose to Politics

Its a sad state of affairs when the futures of tens of thousands of children needing good homes are sacrificed to petty political gamesmanship.  And no, I’m not talking about the “fiscal cliff” in the United States.  In this instance, Russia has decided to put the kabosh on allowing American parents the opportunity to adopt Russian orphan children in need of good homes.

According to this New York Times article, there are 650,000 children in Russia living without parental supervision.  Many of these children need a loving adoptive home.  So why is Russia withholding the ability for these children to be adopted to loving would-be parents in the USA?  Because it’s “payback” for US sanctions against Russian human rights abuses.

The lives of children are too important to be subject to the vendettas of politicians.  Hopefully this is a short-lived “penalty”, since the only ones truly getting penalized are orphaned children who desperately need a good home.