The angst expressed by children in this article sounds much like that of many adopted children.
Sure, their experience is different, but are they better off than they would be otherwise? In the case of the in vitro kids, would they rather never have existed? Maybe so.
I’m not arguing the pros and cons of in vitro. The point is that we all look around ourselves and yearn for what we perceive is the better life of others.
There is no perfection on this earth. No family, no body, no collection of experiences called “life”.
We all have to take what we’re given and make the best of it.
As an adoptee and adoptive parent, let me assure you the difference between adoption and IVF conception is very different. Adoptees are the product of an unplanned pregnancy vs IVF children which were produced in a petri dish to gratify the desires of one or two individuals. The one child's perception was excellent - they are a commodity.
We all have to take what we’re given and make the best of it.
That is an adult statement. Think back to your teen years, when hormones were churning and youth seeking an 'identity'. One of my best friends, an adoptee who grew up in a loving home with two parents, asked me to help track down information on her birth parents. It is a natural desire to want to know what you inherited from the dna of your biological parents. Is there a history of heart disease or some other illness, etc.?
I was thinking much the same thing. Children can be conceived in other ways that are far from God’s plan of the fulfillment of a loving adult relationship: through rape, or casual sex, or even unwanted children.
There are many less than ideal circumstances. I’d guess more children than we’d like to admit find themselves in these.
Jedediah, that is exactly what I was thinking. They are yearning for the loving embrace of an intact family with parents who love them. This is often NOT the reality of families, and what is visible from the outside is often not what is really going on.
I connected up with a childhood friend recently. She told me she had loved our family, it had seemed like Leave it to Beaver to her. “Really?” I responded. Our dad was really mean and angry, it was anything but the Cleavers. And yet ... it blessed her and we had so much, regardless.