What are some ethical issues that tend to arise with foster care?

Answer 1

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week441/cover.html

Do your own homework?

Answer 2

1. Willyou love the child as much as they need.
2. If there's a racial difference, will the child be able to accept it.
3. Am I the best I can be for the child.
4. Will the child love me in return.
5. Do i need to change and adjust my life for this child.
6. Will I have enough to cover the needs of the child?
7. Will I be able to let the child go - if I become attached to the child?
8. Will the child be in the best situation for the child - especially if they really miss his/her parents?
9. Is love enough?
10. What if they want to stay with me, and the courts say they have to move on?
11. Is this what GOD wants for my life?
12. Can we be a blended family?

GOD bless us always.
MBA-Boston Univ.

P.s. I was considering this or becoming a child advocate to help represent the child in court.

Answer 3

While I appreciate what the previous poster listed as serious questions one must ask themselves before considering foster care, I doubt any of them really qualify as 'ethical questions'. The couple of questions that comes to mind are, if the child is ordered to go back home to a place that you *know* is dangerous, do you run with the child? If the child is blinded by the love they have for their natural, albeit destructive and dangerous parents, and keep longing to go home, do you condition the child to reject their birthparents in order to keep them in a home that is safe? Do break any law in order to keep your foster child safe?

Being a foster parent myself, I am grateful that I have not had to be in any position where I had to answer the previous questions. The closest I ever came was having to be very candid with my foster (now adopted) son about the negative things about his birth father. He was praising the man, and rejecting his adoptive father. We needed to set that record straight.