Barely a blip on most people’s radar, the United States joined 70 countries Wednesday in ratifying the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. With international adoption numbers falling because of a lack of regulation, the global community is working to lend some consistency to the process of saving children.
There’s no shortage of American and western families willing to adopt, despite huge fees, red tape and years of waiting. Many countries, however, are becoming more reticent to send abandoned children to a better life, some say out of fear that the children’s heritage and nationality will be lost. They say they are waiting to find homes for the children in-country.
“A drop in international adoptions is sad for children,†Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption, told Associated Press. “National boundaries and national pride shouldn’t get in the way of children having families.â€
Posted by Kristin Mehler
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8 Comments
I’d say, adopt those children from Central Asia, save them from radical madrassahs!
Most seem to come from Asia, from my experience.Purely anecdotal, but I know some families that have been through the process.
We are extremely happy about the Hague Convention’s work on intercountry adoption. Unfortunately, the process has driven some countries to retard their policies and procedures in anticipation that they would need ‘wiggle room’ in the negotiations processes that will now follow. My wife an I adopted a little girl from China three years ago. China has sinced changed their adoption criterias and I am now “too old” to adopt in China again. Maybe the Hauge Convention’s work will help to change that again. Otherwise, our next adoption will likely be from Vietnam. If people only knew what children abandoned in some Asian countries go through throughout their lives (it’s unimagineable), I’m certain there would be many, many more intercountry adoptions than there currently are. Thanks, Ms. Mehler, for making editorial comment on such an important issue. Your last several comments have been examples of worthy journalism. Please keep up the good work!
“Abandoned” Not always true.”A better life” Says who, Kristin? Is life in the US always better? What makes a life ‘better’-an SUV and trips to Disney?
As an adult adoptee, I wish I’d had my mother instead–that would have been ‘better’.
Wouldn’t it be better if we worked to eliminate the conditions that led people to abandon their children? Wouldn’t it be better if we supported countries so that they could keep the children in their own culture and heritage? Why is adoption the first choice? It should be the absolute last choice.
It doesn’t go far enough to protect those children. In Indiana a woman was charged with child abuse. She killed her 13 month old Korean baby girl via shaken baby syndrome because the baby was fussy and wouldn’t listen. Then there comes the Dutch couple who disrupt their adoption seven years later because she would eat their food.
Its not going to be long before no country will allow Americans to adopt their children. Why? Because we abuse and kill the children that we bring to our country. This doesn’t go far enough.
“….some say out of fear that the children’s heritage and nationality will be lost.”Perhaps you should read what the adoptees themselves have to say about being adopted – instead of only reporting from an adoptive parent perspective – that gets all the ‘wins’ out of adoption. Many adoptees certainly do grieve over loss of country, culture and language. Too many are just wanting a child – not ever thinking about what that child will be losing. Who are we to say (in western countries) that we have better lives than anyone else? How arrogant! We often have more money – does that make us ‘better’. The children would have different lives – yes – but would it not be more compassionate to help families/counties in need – rather than taking their children from them? Where ever there is money in adoption – there are people who would profit from the miseries of others. I’m an adult adoptee – I’ve lived the pain of being separated from my family for 38 years. I had a good life – a different life – but no one can ever say that it was ‘better’.
“A drop in international adoptions is sad for children,” Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption, told Associated Press. “National boundaries and national pride shouldn’t get in the way of children having families.”
I find it amazing that Mr. Atwood appears to support the transparency required by the Hague Convention even though he has been extremely vocal in supporting sealed records for adult adoptees born and adopted in the US. Sealed records in most of the US (but NOT Kansas) stand in the way of adult adoptees knowing THEIR heritage and family medical history.
It’s all about how much money his adoption agency clients stand to make from supplying babies to their US clients. His clients don’t make any money if the children are placed within their own countries of birth.
Adult adoptees (of any nationality) are not his clients nor his client’s clients. However, if the adult adoptee, birthparents or adoptive parents were able find out that they had been LIED TO by an adoption agency – well, it’s better to keep those records sealed, right? So much for the transparency that he is espousing now.