Image this scenario: a working-class, white, Methodist woman from Iowa
named Fran with a serious drinking problem has lost her two children to
foster care. Her cousin, who lives across town is raising them. Fran
is unhappy to learn that she is pregnant with her third child. She
does her best not to drink during the pregnancy but slips a few times.
She decides she wants this child to have an entirely different life, so
she goes to an adoption agency where she is told, a happy, healthy,
middle-class Muslim couple who live in Cairo will raise her child with
love and privilege. They fly her to Egypt and she gives birth. The
next day, Fran signs away her rights to her child and is flown back to
Iowa. In a couple of days, she realizes she has made a terrible
mistake. She confesses the whole thing to her family, who, desperate
to claim the child and bring her back to be raised among them, go to
the State Department and cry foul. The State Department informs the
Egyptian couple that they must return the baby to her extended family
back in Iowa. No way, the couple insist, this is their baby.
Where should this child be raised?
Read More...
