“Lesschumras, I suspect the cases of mamzeirus are uncommon. Even in those cases, it’s certainly better for a Jewish child to be raised by Jews than to be raised by non-Jews.”
Good point! I always wondered about that when people talk about its being better to adopt a goyish baby because there are no mamzeirus issues. Even if the child is a mamzer, he is still a Jewish baby with a heilige neshama who needs a home.
I do understand that someone might be hesitant to adopt a baby with a “problem”, but it bothers me that many people seem to just write off the possibility of adopting a mamzer. And this is despite the fact that people will adopt kids with all sorts of other problems. I think it’s because there is a stigma attached to mamzeirim, and I think we need to try to get rid of that. The kid is just as holy as any other kid and has as much potential to be good Jew and maybe even a tzaddik.
All it really means is that he can’t get married, and there are even halachic ways around that.