The author wrote that she was adopted at five months old and grew up with parents she described as particularly loving and caring. She said she was happy not to have grown up with her biological mother but also felt angry at her. According to the author, a mother’s choice not to raise a child herself could cause emotional damage because the child loses, in her view, the most important person in his or her life. She emphasized that adopted children have diverse experiences and that attachment issues can have various causes. She found it unjust to dismiss those experiences as merely seeking attention or dissatisfaction. She also argued that children growing up with their biological parents could develop attachment issues. The author wrote that since her adoption in 1978, much knowledge had been gained about adoption and attachment, but the subject remained complex and more became known. She stated that international adoptions in the Netherlands had been banned for several years and that the Dutch government had offered apologies a few months earlier for its role in adoptions in the Netherlands, where babies had been taken from their mothers. According to her, the welfare of the child should always come first; she said she judged no one and only stood up for the child. #Adoptie #Hechting #Kinderen (translated)