Experience of Child Adaption as a Social Issue Families of the War Casualties with Spinal Cord Injury

Seyed Hassan Hosseini, Ghasem Oveisi Farduie

Abstract

The topic of this article is child adoption of people who have spinal cord injury caused by Iran-Iraq war. Since most disabled war casualties who have spinal cord injury cannot have biological children, child adoption is a substitution. A large number of war casualties in Iran, due to their psychological as well as physical status have adopted children. The study aimed at answering the following questions; how do these people narrate their situation with child adoption and the way they face it? What difficulties or challenges have they been facing? The study is based on grounded theory methodology. The subjects of study include 20 disabled war casualties who have spinal cord injury (waist and neck) in three cities: Tehran, Qom and Isfahan. The findings explain that child adoption has been a way to confront with problems of loneliness, family disagreements and emotional issues. However, over time as the child grows to the maturity, especially at high school and later on, family face multiple problems. Keeping the child adoption as “the big secret”, being a confidant or not a confidant, attitudes of relatives and friends, being an only child, legal obstacles, common problems and social rejection can be considered as some of the problems of child adoption in such families.

Keywords: Child Adoption, Disabled War Casualties, Spinal Cord Injury, Social Issue, Grounded Theory

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