As a group, while we didn’t think “Losing
Isaiah” wasn’t the most quality of films, it successfully presented many
important ethical issues in adoption.
First, the birth mothers rights were
completely ignored. This is evident when Halle Berry’s character Khaila, isn’t
given any papers when the adoption is finalized with Margret and Charles. Although
she left her child in the garbage at the start of the film, she is still the
birth mother and was not informed of what was happening with her child. The
film did a good job at portraying the emotions of a woman who has lost her
child. Halle Berry’s character was clearly a mourning mother, as she was caring
for her friend’s children and never forgets about her own baby. It also shows
both sides of a story, which is important in understanding a situation as
complicated as this.
The film displayed racial issues in adoption
in an accurate way. The scene in the bathroom with Margret and Khaila was
representative of the silent racism in society as they begin using race as a
weapon against one another when it’s really the situation that they’re feeling
hostile about. Another good example is the courtroom scene where Samuel L
Jackson’s character is questioning Margret about how she’s culturing Isaiah and
it’s clear that she isn’t introducing any black culture to him on purpose. It’s
shown on the lawyer’s face that this is a problem for his case. The film
blatantly states several times that a black child should be with it’s black
mother. Whether this is proven to be true cannot be known because at the end
both families come together to raise the child in both cultures.
After watching the film, it seems that there
are both positive and negative sides of adoption shown. An example of the
negative would be the judicial fighting over who the child should live with,
the emotional rollercoaster on both sides, and potentially scarring Isaiah. A
positive example would be that he is not left alone in the hospital but has
people he can rely on and a good home. However, the positive seems to outweigh
the negative because it’s getting the issue across of race in adoption to the
general viewing public.
GRADED REPLY
ReplyDeleteI think you all provided a great grasp of the ethical issues that are present in the movie. I like how you provided multiple perspectives and touched on how difficult and sensitive a situation like that would be. I think it is hard to generally say that the mother's rights were completely ignored. I agree that she did not receive adequate notification of the probable, and then complete adoption of her child. However, the mother had completely violated the rights of the child several times. I remember the hospital mentioning that Halle Berry's character Khaila had had incidents in the hospital several times in relation to her child. Margret had stated that she recommended social work intervention in Isaiah's life several times before the incident when they found him in the dumpster. So in the sense that she did not receive adequate notification of her child being adopted, yes Khaila's rights were violated. But she had put her child in harm so many times, that I think it would be hard for anyone to agree that she should have kept her child. Unfortunately, the loss of her child fueled the motivation for her to get clean and stay clean, which in the end made her able to fight for her child. Do you think she would have gotten clean if the hospital and social workers let her have Isaiah back after he was almost crushed in the trash compactor? I think that would be something to think about.
GRADED REPLY
ReplyDeleteI agree with your argument about the court scenes. There are a lot of arguments about keeping adoptees with adoptive families that are the same race in order to avoid teasing and also for the culture of the child. In the movie, they made that point very clear when the adoption agency representative straight up said that they like to put adoptees with adoptive families of the same race. Isaiah clearly did not see a difference between his white adoptive family and himself. In the bathroom scene where Hannah is blowing bubbles with Isaiah, they put their hands together and Hannah asked what the difference was between their hands. All that Isaiah saw was that his was smaller, not that his was black and hers was white. I think this shows that love can overpower race. On the other hand, the movie did not show at all that Isaiah’s adoptive family was trying to teach him about his culture. It may have been in their plans for when he was a bit older and could understand it more. Good post!
Katie A.