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Children who are in institutions may not be true full or double orphans at all. Their remaining parent may be out there, looking to be reunited with their institutionized child, but the rush to adopt foreign-born "orphans" many times overlook the reality: these children have real families and real names.
The United Nations Conventionof the Rights of the Child should be upheld.
Children who are in institutions may not be true full or double orphans at all. Their remaining parent may be out there, looking to be reunited with their institutionized child, but the rush to adopt foreign-born "orphans" many times overlook the reality: these children have real families and real names.
The United Nations Conventionof the Rights of the Child should be upheld.
That is true. the majority are "Social Orphans". They were removed from their homes in most cases.
Many times they don't have real families. Or any type of family. In Asia, girls are not highly regarded.
In Eastern Europe it's boys.
Our U.S. standards of what constitutes child abuse are much more stringent then theirs. So when a child is removed something very bad is going on.
When we were going to adopt a six year old from Vladmir Russia, we were given a description of the conditions in the house. There was no "fire wood" to heat the home. Several of the children were burned with cigarets and a toddler was hit by a car because his mother was drunk in the hall way of the house.
The reality is that there is no happy family waiting to embrace them - anywhere. real or not real.
I read the second link and it's just an anti-American article. No solutions are mentioned, it's anti-US but doesn't mention that these other countries are allowing children to be sold to brothels -- no condemnatioon there.
It's all just an attack on the way trafficking is defined. Apparently the author wants American who would adopt a foreign child arrested as human traffickers. The USA obviously cannot change the laws in these other countries, and can only define these adoptions from the USA side of it.
And if the parents turned over their children to these institutions, are the parents involved in trafficking also? What was described actually looks more like fraud and even parents selling their own children but not to slavery or sex rings but because they want the money that was offered but also the belief that their children won't be slaves but living a good life in the USA.
If anything, the Americans who want to adopt are the more likely victims other than the children. Many are willing to take on all the issues that institutionalization and parental neglect have caused these poor children. It's easy for everyone to condemn the woman who sent that child back -- and it was certainly wrong how she handled it but she probably was not prepared to deal with the serious issues -- and some of these orphanages certainly create serious issues for the children.
I know a couple with a failed adoption, they were perfectly happy to take an older child but were unprepared for his emotional issues and when he came into their room with a knife, it got to be more than they could handle. They had been lied to, and the child was more likely 14 rather than 12 as they had been told, and the child probably had witnessed his mother being killed by his father -- from some things the boy would say. They were just a normal couple who wanted to love a child -- they were not told the complete story. It was a sad ending for all -- but the boy needed more help than they could give him.
In many cases, it is probably best to reform these institutions -- the governments of those countries are failing in that. And it's up to those governments to address any "payments" being made from their staff to parents -- but a parent who accepts money in exchange for his/her child is no kind of parent in reality, and those governments need to stop any fraud that goes on. If parents in those countries are dumping off their kids at orphanages, it really is their duty to investigate the conditions of the orphanages and demand reform.
As for the American parents, if our government is going to allow these adoptions, the parents need to be as educated as possible about the histories of their children. There should be some kind of counseling available, how to manage severely autistic children for example, or children who have suffered terrible abuse and neglect. Sometimes love isn't enough, sometimes it is -- and problems can be overcome.
Human trafficking implies a financial benefit -- certainly no one can think the American adopting these kids to love are making a profit -- not with the high costs of raising kids and the added costs of international adoptions.
There are international adoption clinics at many major hospitals around the country, many of them
university-affiliated. Such clinics deal not only with physical health concerns, but also with psychological health issues which sadly, are all too common with many neglected children adopted from orphanages and institutions in the developing world. Parents who are adopting internationally, especially if they plan to adopt children with special needs, would be well-advised to make full use of such clinics, and good adoption agencies should make this information available to their clients and urge them to consult international adoption clinics, in the best interests of the children's well-being.
There is just such a clinic at the Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, TN - just up the road from the home of the woman who sent the little boy back to Russia by himself. She was made aware of this clinic, which does excellent work, but never made use of it.
The articles cited do not deal with the present situation in Russia, and only refer to Russian orphanages tangentially (nor do they deal with the recent situation, prior to the excluding of Americans from adoption from Russia).
*E.J. Graff is not anti-american
*E.J. Graff is an adoptive parent
*E.J. Graff notes the new ban for the US on Russian adoption simply, as a way to highlight the difference.
Quote:
"But today I want to discuss an entirely different kind of problem in international adoption, at the opposite end of the spectrum: wrongful adoptions, in which children who—unlike those in Russia—do not need new families are defrauded, coerced, purchased, or even abducted away from their birth families, or at a minimum, are wrongly declared abandoned when their families have simply left them in an institution temporarily because of illness or poverty."
(bolding mine)
It is true that the US legal definition of trafficking does not include wrongful adoptions where the child may have been put into the adoption pipeline wrongfully.
It is also true that another group of adoptive parents called Ethica tried unsuccessfully (last year?) to get the US definition of trafficking to include wrongful adoption, where in the sending country, the child wrongly was put into the adoption pipeline. Sadly Ethica has closed now due to lack of funding.
Without the US definition of trafficking for wrongful adoptions (see above, it has nothing to do with the adopting parents actions) there is no teeth in the US law to punish the bad actors in the US to stop fraudulent actions in the sending country. That is the problem - no accountability on the US soil for those who willingly turn a blind eye to corruption on the ground in the sending country in international adoption.
E.J. Graff an adoptive parent is reporting on corruption in countries in Africa in the article linked.
Not a single adopting parent I have talked to wants to take part in a wrongful adoption. That is the last thing they want to take part in, and imagine the life-long guilt and pain it causes them when they find out otherwise. IT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. Imagine being the child who shouldn't have been adopted. IT SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. It taints every single adoption from that country by casting suspicion. Just like my era where Black Market adoptions were rife - they tainted adoptions that were done correctly in the same era like mine.
The solution is clear in E.J. Graffs article. The US (like other countries have) should recognise wrongful adoption as trafficking. Until that happens there will not be any teeth in the US law to make agencies etc on the ground here willing to make sure their contacted individuals on the ground in the sending country ONLY work with children who truly are in need of international adoption and that things were done correctly.
Not enough blame and responsibility is being put on the American Adoption Agencies who withhold risks and information in order to complete an adoption. Pre adoption counseling and screening should be mandatory for adopting older children from orphanages. It would not be a bad idea for infants as well but that would cost the agencies money and affect their profit margin.
Actually some would say a home study counts as screening but I doubt that. We see too many cases of abuse and neglect which could have been discovered before placement. Does anybody actually know of people who were denied adoption during a home study? As long as they have the money it seems people are approved and this is wrong.
Washington state recommendations for improvement re the severe abuse of adoptees addressed the home study process. They found that there were independent home study agencies without qualified staff, who just basically copied details provided and approved. They recommended specifics to be done and red flags to look for. They also recommended that every single home study be registered with the court so that there was a record of both positive and negative results on record so people could no longer "shop" for a home study that would provide them with approval.
It's a start and I remember reading in the report that a couple of other states had also investigated - Oregon (?) and another so perhaps change is coming.
I think that as long as home studies are performed by employees-either directly or indirectly- of the adoption agency you will have continued problems. All 3 of our homestudies -well both since we adopted 2 at a time- were conducted by employees of the agencies. Being totally naive and ignorant I never thought a thing of it but all they did was charge an exorbitant price to review letters of recommendation, interview us and tour our house. Of course nobody is going to cut off the hand that feeds it.
And no prospective parent is going to submit letters not recommending them either.. ..and I see some asking if CC debt is part of the process and told it isn't which to me seems crazy because CC debt can be massive and indicitive of wider problems in regards to a secure home...
Of course the judge is supposed to review everything, but I doubt that happens every time either - especially National Adoption Day when the process how many?
Note my era - the court appointed a friend of the court to investigate the family and the family paid the court for those services - perhaps that is the solution?
Right now it all falls on the the adoption agency, facilitator, broker, lawyer, whatever to ensure ethics are kept front and center. When it does not happen people must step forward and report to the state attorney general.
I think at the end of the day there is also the problem of people being naive and trusting the agency (etc.) in part or wholly because they have the stamp of approval being a member agency to the NCFA who doesn't actively monitor agencies compliance...
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..and I see some asking if CC debt is part of the process and told it isn't 
which to me seems crazy because CC debt can be massive and indicitive of wider problems in regards to a secure home...
