Can an Adopted Child Be Returned?

Warning: Don't read this post if you are too sensitive. It'll tear your heart out. If you must, stop at the second sentence and you'll see why I've warned you.

Every child is a gift, as the saying goes. But in a case that has stoked outrage on two continents, a Dutch diplomat posted in Hong Kong has been accused of returning his eight-year-old adopted daughter like an unwanted Christmas necktie. The story, which first appeared in the South China Morning Post on Dec. 9, began seven years ago, when Dutch vice consul Raymond Poeteray and his wife, Meta, adopted then-four-months-old Jade in South Korea. The couple, who also have two biological children, brought Jade with them to Indonesia and then to Hong Kong in 2004, although Poeteray never applied for Dutch nationality for the child — a curious oversight, given that he worked in a consulate. Then, last year, the Poeterays put Jade in the care of Hong Kong's Social Welfare Department, saying they could no longer care for her because of the girl's emotional remoteness.

The girl's emotionally remote? What the fuck is on the way after being rejected, at an age she can understand what is happening, by adoptive parents after being put up for adoption by her birth parents?

I don't usually encourage horse whipping, but for the Poeteray's it seems fitting.

You take what you get. You deal. One of their own children could have been emotionally remote. What would they then do? Sell it? Put it up for adoption?

Life doesn't deal everyone perfect children, whether by birth or adoption. And you all know of people dealing with children with far more serious medical or emotional problems than this poor girl's. They adjust to the child. They aren't as selfish as these two assholes.

I would have included the TIME photo of the Poeterays, but I didn't want to have you blame me of causing you to spit on your monitor.

SPIIDERWEB™ Rulz!

Via TIME.