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I don't consider them interchangeable. But the thread is about people's reasoning for deciding to have children and so I asked a followup question about a specific reason where I thought for that particular reason, adoption might have been the "superior" option." I understand it's a complicated decision.

That being said, I can definitely see why adopting a "troubled teen" would be more difficult than having your own kid. But is adopting a baby really that much different than having your own?

My wife works at the extreme end of the foster system: special needs kids with trauma. For the most part, kids are kids. You have a non-trivial chance of a special needs kid if you make it or adopt it. The bio-parents are generally the problem, which iswhymanyadoptive parents refuse all contact with them and move to a different city, oradopt from a different city.

I think in general you rarely get to adopt someone tabula rasa, so to speak.