Aborted children symbolically ‘adopted’ in California

Apr 23, 2009 / 22:30 pm

A California man has symbolically “adopted” his wife’s two aborted children as a way to help support her and help her heal from the pain of the abortions.

Fox News reports that Stan and Lisa Musil signed papers on the radio show of host Rich Buhler of KBRT AM 740. Buhler put the Musils in contact with adoption law expert Rod Stoddart, who is also Executive Director of NightLight Christian Adoptions.

"I explained that it's not possible from a legal standpoint, because there's no birth certificate and no child living now to be adopted," Stoddart told FOXNews.com. "But from an emotional standpoint, there's no reason why we could not do an agreement between them where he would adopt those children and give them his name."

He drafted paperwork for the symbolic adoption, and the couple signed it on Buhler’s radio show.

Lisa Musil, 45, said her husband told her “I love you and you are a part of me. Your babies are a part of you, and so that makes them a part of me also.”

She had her first abortion at 19 because she was too frightened to admit her pregnancy to anyone, including her live-in boyfriend at the time.

She said the abortion caused her so much pain that she tried to cover it with “drugs, alcohol, partying, and a promiscuous lifestyle,” she told Buhler.

Her way of life led to her second pregnancy and subsequent abortion just before she was due to serve a jail sentence for drunk driving.

"The world tells me that it was only a blob of tissue, but my heart tells me otherwise," Musil told FOXNews.com by e-mail. "The grief often times was more than I could bear."

She has desired to establish a memorial for post-abortive women to engrave the names of their aborted children to honor their memory.

As the plan came into being, she explained, “I was wondering what last name I would put on this memorial, and my sweet husband asked if we could find some way he could legally adopt my babies and then they could take his name.”

Stan Musil said he filed the symbolic adoption papers on Monday as a way to support his wife.

The memorial is intended to be erected at Pierce Brothers Crestlawn Memorial Park in Riverside, California. It will bear the names that the Musils gave the aborted babies: Alicia Anne Musil and Vincent Matthew Musil.

Stoddart said he had received several requests from other couples who want to perform a symbolic adoption.