What do we do in the meantime?

Adoption reform is absolutely necessary, I think everyone agrees with that. The change won't happen overnight, but we can already see some happening with China imposing stricter laws regarding adoption to the banning of adoption from certain countries (like Guatemala). I'm sure it's true that corruption has led these kids to orphanages but there still are those who are there because of being true orphans or taken away due to abuse/neglect.

My question is, while we try to reform the adoption process, what happens to those kids who are in orphanages for legit reasons? Should they stay there until they age out or should children who are already in the system be adopted first before banning adoption in a country whose doors will soon be closed?

When I see the reasons as being legit, I consider it to be no different from the US foster system. Kids who need homes. Everyone wants to get these kids a permanent home. But what about the kids in other countries? Are they less deserving?

A lot of people wonder why we don't help our own and I agree with that to a point but what happens to the philosophy that ALL children deserve homes and families?

How can you consider the needs of one child greater than the needs of another simply based on geography?

I think Americans sometimes are too oblivious to just how wealthy this country really is and it never crosses their minds that other countries just simply do not have the resources to take care of their own.

I love this country and all it stands for but I don't think politics should play a part in adoption.
Additional Details
In case the point was missed, I'm talking about kids who have no families to go to and therefore all options have been exhausted. Children whose mothers were forced by society to relinquish -- I don't include them in this scenario.

Kazi

China hasn't really imposed stricter laws regarding adoption, except for the implementation of Hague and new restrictions regarding potential parents (but that was really done to try and deal with the backlog).

Anyway, excellent question. As an adoptive mom of a daughter from China and a son from foster care, I too am concerned about what would happen to children if all programs simply closed their doors to IA.

Some seem to think that people in those countries would have no other choice but to adopt these children. Hmmmm, that hasn't exactly worked like gangbusters in North America. So why would it happen anywhere else?

Every child, everywhere deserves to have a family regardless of where they come from. Now, I am of the belief that before sending a child to a foreign land, all attempts to keep them in their country should be exhausted, whether that means with a family member or with another family in their home country. BUT... Life in an orphanage is NOT an option.

Do we need to examine reasons why children end up in orphanages in the first place? Absolutely. But we also need to keep in mind that these are soverign nations and ultimately they will decide what their laws and belief systems are. In countries like South Korea, the stigma of unwed parenthood is alive and well. Westerners are not going to change that. That is a cultural belief that needs to evolve through its own people.

There are also many countries where adoption itself is unpalatable, so therefore they are unlikely to adopt. In China, domestic adoption is on the rise, but the stigma attached to infertility and adoption is still in tact, so the likelihood that these children would ever be told they were adopted, will be quite small. Then you have a 3,000 year old cultural bias towards boys to deal with. And then of course, the lovely one-child policy.

Adopting one or 2 children will do nothing for the hundreds, if not thousands left behind, but that IMO is a ridiculous argument to end IA.You didn't say that, but it has been mentioned before. Anyway, I think IA parents can (and do) donate generously to charities that benefit their child's country, including Half The Sky (China) and also send care packages to their child's orphanages. And as distasteful as it is to some, the donation fee that is paid by adoptive parents when they pick up their child is sometimes the only funding that these orphanages receive. The conditions at my daughter's orphanage were humbling and shameful: concrete, cold, joyless, void of toys and music, not enough blankets, you name it.

Practical solutions need to be sussed out before IA can be ended. 2nd and 3rd world orphanages would knock you to your knees.

Serenity71

Take heart Jacki, America isn't the only country that does inter-country adoptions...Australia, Canada, England and other wealthy countries are part of the UN. It does increase an child chance of having a family. You do need politics in there at some point, they have to negotiate with the leaders of those countries to help them improve conditions and monitor the very things people demand- like protection for children against trafficking.

Edit;(Inter-country adoption is run by our government social services...not private agencies.)

Indian-vision

Excellent question Jackie !

I am all in favour for ban IA if people cite reasons that this will "compell" Americans to adopt from Foster care without a choice. May work a somewhat.

Also those countries that are not following Hague convention shouldnt be adopted from.

But to say all IA are unethical and should stop is as riddicules as all Germans are Nazis.

If the West says that this will make third world countries adopt more domestically if we send aid and stop IA.Then they are wrong and again generalising.

I only speak for India. So let me say this will not work in India. Monetary aid may help some what with better facilities with existing kids ,but is it all right to tell the kids in the orphanage you are better off in orphanage than with a loving adoptive family.

As for will this monetary assistance stop people from abandoning babies due to gender bias or out of wedlock taboo. Never !!! Its cultural and exists for several centuries.

I recently met an adoptee who told me her birth parents are very rich people.When she was the second girl born they had plans to leave her in an orphanage with charity to support the orphanage.She feels lucky when her Aunt and Uncle stepped in and adopted her then. So this is the example of gender bias in my country that has no relation with monetary aid.

Nor can any other assistance from the first world nations help India with their biases and taboos. As for if some one is wondering what isIndia doing about these taboos. The goverment has many many programmes and awareness drives and schemes for girl child. How successfull are these?

Sadly not enough to make a dent in the Indian mind set.

Till then millions in the orphanage will graduate from it, with no family and home,only to be known as a discard and reject but with identity intact as an Indian. How sad !

Sophie

This is what is happening to children who are not given the opportunity of a good family home via international adoption: http://www.toyboxcharity.org.uk/street_children_in_guatemala.html

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