现实有时候就是这么矛盾，是让一个孩子在明显更良好的家庭成长，还是应该回到更贫困、显然更没有前途的父母身边，相信对于任何人来说，都是一个难以解答的伦理难题。影片《失踪人口》（Gone Baby Gone）更是把这个问题推向了极致。
侦探Patrick被一个失踪儿童Amanda的家人雇佣帮助警方一起破案，随着调查的深入，他发现Amanda的单亲母亲Helene是一个地道的瘾君子，她对毒品的关心程度远胜于女儿的失踪，调查围绕她展开之后，毒品贩子、诈骗犯、虐待儿童的人渐渐浮出水面。最终的结局出人意料：小孩的亲舅舅为了不让孩子在问题家庭里长大，把孩子抱给了一个自己女儿早年就被歹徒杀害的高级警官抚养。
当Patrick在这个警官的别墅找到Amanda时，她和警官妻子已经亲如母女，Monaghan Freeman饰演的警官Jack Doyle和Casey Affleck饰演的侦探Patrick有一段精彩的对白：
Patrick：5分钟后我会报警，他们10分钟后到。
Jack：你本应该现在就做，你知道你为什么不那么做？因为你想到这可能是个不可挽回的错误，因为在你心灵深处你知道法规怎么说都不重要。当你熄灭灯光扪心自问：“她在那更好还是在这更好？”你知道答案，而且你将一直坚持这个答案。你……你有机会做正确的事，一件善事――有人活一辈子都没有这样的机会，你却放弃了。可能你回家的时候不会觉得后悔，也可能一整年都不后悔，但是当你像我这么老的时候，我保证你会后悔。我会离世，你会老去，但她……她自己会拖着一群衣衫褴褛脏乱不堪的孩子，你会是那个不得不和她说对不起的人。
Patrick：你知道吗？那些事可能会发生，如果发生了，我会道歉，我会承受一切。但是有件事永远不会发生，我也不想做，那就是对一个长大了的女士道歉。她过来对我说：“我小时候被绑架了，我舅妈雇了你来找我，你找到了，你发现我在一个陌生的家庭，但是你违背了诺言，把我丢在那里。为什么？为什么你不带我回家？所有的零食、服装和旅游都不重要，他们偷走了我，那不是我的家庭，你知道的，你全都知道，但你却什么都没做。”也许那个长大了的女士会原谅我，但是我永远不会原谅我自己。
Jack：我做我该做的事，为了孩子。好吧，也为了我。但是现在，我求你看在孩子的份上，我恳求你，你考虑一下。
Patrick : I'm calling state police in five minutes. They'll be here in ten.
Capt. Jack Doyle: Thought you would've done that by now. You know why you haven't? Because you think this might be an irreparable mistake. Because deep inside you, you know it doesn't matter what the rules say. When the lights go out, and you ask yourself "is she better off here or better off there", you know the answer. And you always will. You... you could do a right thing here. A good thing. Men live their whole lives without getting this chance. You walk away from it, you may not regret it when you get home. You may not regret it for a year, but when you get to where I am, I promise you, you will. I'll be dead, you'll be old. But she... she'll be dragging around a couple of tattered, damaged children of her own, and you'll be the one who has to tell them you're sorry.
Patrick : You know what? Maybe that'll happen. And if it does, I'll tell them I'm sorry and I'll live with it. But what's never gonna happen and what I'm not gonna do is have to apologize to a grown woman who comes to me and says: "I was kidnapped when I was a little girl, and my aunt hired you to find me. And you did, you found me with some strange family. But you broke your promise and you left me there. Why? Why didn't you bring me home? Because all the snacks and the outfits and the family trips don't matter. They stole me. It wasn't my family and you knew about it and you knew better and you did nothing". And maybe that grown woman will forgive me, but I'll never forgive myself.
Capt. Jack Doyle: I did what I did for the sake of the child. All right. For me, too. But now, I'm asking you for the sake of the child. I'm begging you. You think about it.
Patrick的搭档和女友Angie也恳求他不要报警，但他还是报警把小孩送回到母亲身边，Angie为此也离他而去。
导演Ben Affleck并没有试图给出问题的答案，相反，他只是展示了问题本身。影片开始的这段独白，似乎在昭示着，孩子的命运在某种程度上并非自己决定的，而恰恰是那些自以为是的大人们，那些孩子自己无法选择的大人们决定的。
我总相信，是那些你无法选择的事物造就了你。你的城市，你的邻里，你的家庭。这里的人总是为这些事物骄傲，好像那是他们的成就。他们的灵魂包裹在皮囊里，然后又被城市笼罩。
我这辈子一直住在这个街区，这些人多数也一样，既然我的工作是寻找失踪者，知道他们的老家在哪里总是有帮助的。我找的是那些从地缝里钻出来，又钻进地缝不见的人。这座城市或许很残酷。
小时候我问牧师，怎样才能既保证自己上天堂又不被世上的各种邪恶力量吞噬，他告诉我，上帝是这么对自己的孩子说的：“你们是狼群中的羔羊，既要像毒蛇一样精明，也要像鸽子一样清白。”
I always believed it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are. Your city, your neighborhood, your family. People here take pride in these things, like it was something they'd accomplished. The bodies around their souls, the cities wrapped around those.
I lived on this block my whole life; most of these people have. When your job is to find people who are missing, it helps to know where they started. I find the people who started in the cracks and then fell through. This city can be hard.
When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. "You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves."
