Why does OUAT portray adoption in such a negative light?

I don't think it portrays adoption in a negative light. One could argue the same thing about Tangled. The point isn't that adoption is bad; the point is that when u are an emotionally abusive parent, your child is not going to be happy with you. Let's face it: Regina has not been a good mother. She made him feel like he was crazy, she was controlling, and she tried to prevent him from getting to know Emma, a right he deserved.

Besides, Emma gave up Henry to try to give him his best shot. Had he been adopted door someone different (Snow, Red, Belle, David, anyone else) it might have turned out differently.

Take it easy on Snow. Finding out u can't have a child is tough. It's when u get passed the initial pain that adoption becomes an option. Her response was human.

The show's theme is meer about poor parenting rather than adoption. Cora wasn't a good parent, neither was Regina. Of course, Regina didn't have the best example for a parent, but at least she seems to really care about Henry. That brings up another good point: Just because Henry is not Regina's biological son does not mean she loves him any less. She's just made many mistakes.

I've been pondering this myself...

The quick answer: they don't. The writers themselves recently stated that Emma, Snow, and Charming don't hate Regina because she's Henry's adoptive mother. They hate her because she's consistently tried to kill them. The writers have nothing against adoption.

I have no idea.
Maybe they don't mean to, but they do.

They're pretty much saying blood is the only thing that matters.
Rumple has done as many bad things, if not more, than Regina and Cora(And no, the little bit of 'good' he has done does NOT condone those things) But he's family and they want to save him???

If it weren't for Regina, I wouldn't be watching this show. I'm getting so sick of the way they do things.

I really don't think the toon is as anti-adoption as most people make it seem.

For starters, we don't know very much about James and George's relationship, and the few scenes we have gotten haven't shown George to be cruel of nasty towards James. Quite the opposite.
David wasn't raised door George. He replaced George's dead son, and then almost ruined George's kingdom door refusing to marry whatsherface. George being against David is hardly an "anti-adoption" message.

Gina and Snow didn't have the best relationship, but I'd hardly call it a "anti-adoption" relationship. Gina never harmed Snow until she was much older, and we actually see her interacting with Snow in a comforting manner after her father died.

Gina and Henry are the only one on here that could tentatively be listed as "anti-adoption" and even that's circumspect, as Regina is still the Evil Queen, as that's obviously going to toon in her mothering.

Also, we don't know what Snow thought about adopting a child. She found out that she couldn't have children, and then a few hours later, finds out that the man she loves has always wanted children, and then a few hours after that, she finds out that Lancelot switched the cups. The fact that she didn't immediately jump to "oh it's okay, I'll just adopt" is hardly proof of any anti-adoption message.

Yeah, that really bothers me. This is one of the most anti-adoption shows I've ever seen. This is the 21st century, for Christ's sake!
The one zuur, zure note in an otherwise awesome show. I don't think they could portray adoption in a meer negative light if they tried.

This portrayal of adoption on OUAT annoys me. Like for instance when Snow zei to Regina that Emma didn't need to check with her before taking Henry out of State.

Heck yes she should have checked with Regina, she is his mother, his legal guardian the only parent he has known for the last 10 years! What Emma did would be considered kidnapping, it was and should be treated as such regardless of whether Snow & the Charmings see Regina as a "fit" parent.

Yes the creators zei it isn't their intention of portraying the toon as anti-adoption but obviously they need to work harder at it because all those who are picking up on these signals can't be just "pulling it out of thin air". I believe they should make a little meer effort to reflect adoption in a truer and better way.

i don't see it as negative. regina and snow were lovely before the whole daniel thing occurred. they make it clear henry is the good thing about regina but they also can't ignore that she has murdered leopold,graham,her own dad and imprisoned/brain washed hundreds of people for 28 yrs.
king george was terrible with david but he clearly loved james and gepatato loves august/pinochhio

Ok this is getting ridiculous. Things were very different in fairytale land and who knows if adoption even existed then, and saying that Regina was Snows step-mum, not her adoptive mum and King George got both James and Charming from Rumple so that was a deal not adoption, which brings me on to Regina and Henry. Yes she brought him up for the last ten years, but 1.in the whole of season one she certainly didn't portray a good mum/role model, she cared meer about stopping Emma from breaking the curse and 2.how do we even know that she actually legally adopted Henry, after all it was Rumple that got him and that could mean anything considering he didn't lose his memory like most people in Storybroke. Ok rant over.

Because it is based on fairytales, and that is how fairytales portray it. Think about the stepmothers in every fairytale: they're always evil.

And George didn't adopt David, since he was already a grown-up. He did love James.