Simple Simon

Scott Simon, host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition and author of Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud, October 4. Prior to his appearance, three guests --- an adoptee/birthmother and two adoptive mothers -- and several callers spoke. While their views on adoption varied, they acknowledged the trauma that can accompany adoption and the need for children to know their first families.

Scott Simon: Adoption Pimp

It’s not enough that Scott Simon is glorifying adoption through his new book, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption. Simon, the host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, is now pimping for an adoption agency.

He’s coming to Portland, yes, super liberal Portland, to do a benefit for Journeys of the Heart Adoption Services. His appearance is co-sponsored by Bouneff & Challey, Portland’s oldest adoption law firm, operating under the name Adoptions Northwest. John Challey is one of the co-founders of Oregon’s largest adoption agency, Open Adoption & Family Services. (Bouneff is no longer practicing law).

Journeys of the Heart Adoption Services is Oregon’s second largest adoption agency, marketing both domestic and foreign adoptions. While total non-related infant adoptions in Oregon declined from from 402 in 2008 to 364 in 2009, Journeys increased its adoptions from 18 to 27. Journeys employs the usual seductive advertisements designed to convince young women that their infant would be better off with one of the glamorous couples whose pictures adorn the website than with its own mother.

What’s really appalling about all this is that Simon knows next to nothing about adoption. Simon became a father for the first time at age 50, adopting Elise from China in 2004 and returning to scarf up Lina in 2007.

According to Simon:

“Adoption is a miracle. I don't mean just that it's amazing, terrific, and a wonderful thing to do. I mean that it is, as the dictionary says, "a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of divine agency."

"My wife and I, not having had children in the traditional, Abraham-and-Sarah-begat manner, have learned to make jokes about the way we've had our family. ("Pregnant! Why would you do that? Those clothes! And you can't drink for months!") … But we cannot imagine anything more remarkable and marvelous than having a stranger put into your arms who becomes, in minutes, your flesh, your blood: your life.” Scott Simon's Family

Simon wipes out little Elise’s and Lina’s birth families and cultural heritage without a bat of an eye lid. Scott, when you come down to earth, I urge you to read the E. B. Donaldson Adoption Institute report: Beyond Cultural Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption.

Simon is using his NPR connections to publicize his book and his celestial view of adoption. He’s been a guest on Minnesota Public Radio and Terry Gross’ Fresh Air. He's appearing on Think Out Loud, an Oregon public radio show (91.5 FM in Portland) on Monday morning, October 4 at 9:00 PDT. The show will be rebroadcast at 9:00 PM and available as a podcast. Call-in questions at 1-888-665-5865 or post them at on the website. Tell your adoption story at Think Out Loud: Adoption and Adaption.