[ But now, when they do, these countries are using them to dump their “broken children.” ]
And we are dumb as hell because we fall for it.
Don’t be so condescending.
First, because WE wouldn’t need to go overseas if WE hadn’t so screwed the adoption system in THIS country, skewing it in favor of everyone but the people taking on society’s problem, and doing the adopting.
Next, it takes time for the anecdotes to filter through the parents network. It’s not like these countries admit what they are doing. Adoptions from twenty years ago until relatively recently were by and large, predictable. Now, in order to get past the ten year wait time, people will volunteer to take various, but specific, kinds of special needs kids they’ve concluded their family can accommodate, but then the kids they get have needs much greater than the scope of the receiving family’s capabilities.
The one thing I can assure you, after being involve in the process for almost 15 years and knowing what kind of vetting process these parents go through: the last thing they are is “dumb.”