MUST READ!

"Open adoption and open records are important byways. But they are not the most compelling route. Family preservation is."
Dr. Randolph Severson, The Soul of Family Preservation

“Regrettably, in many cases, the emphasis has changed from the desire to provide a needy child with a home, to that of providing a needy parent with a child. As a result, a whole industry has grown, generating millions of dollars of revenues each year . . .”
The Special Rapporteur, United Nations, Commission on Human Rights, 2003.

"Over the past 30 years, the number of families from wealthy countries wanting to adopt children from other countries has grown substantially. At the same time, lack of regulation and oversight, particularly in the countries of origin, coupled with the potential for financial gain, has spurred the growth of an industry around adoption, where profit, rather than the best interests of children, takes centre stage. Abuses include the sale and abduction of children, coercion of parents, and bribery."
UNICEF's position on Inter-country adoption.

"...overseas adoption is a kind of child abuse by the state. ....Overseas adoption is the forced expulsion of children from the society where they are supposed to live. In this sense, overseas adoption is a social violence against children. As humans, we exist as part of a gigantic ecosystem. The existence of the biological parents of adoptees can never be annihilated nor denied.
"Overseas adoption is a forced separation of children from their natural ecosystems, as well as a way of forcing them into compulsory unity with settings different from and unnatural to their genetic and original social systems. Through this forced separation and compulsory unity, not only the adoptees, but also their biological parents, adoptive parents and their family members suffer trauma." Pastor Kim Do-hyun, director of KoRoot

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Biggest, Best, Stupidest and Worst of 2009


Biggest (and quietest) adoption scandal of 2009:
ABC revealed at least thirty Indian children kidnapped for adoption!

Didn't even make Wikipedia's list of international adoption scandals for 2009 - which also omitted my second place nominee, Guatemala:
  • China - "Six government officials in southwest China have been punished over an orphanage scandal when three children were taken away from their families who could not afford fines for violating family planning regulations. The orphanage sent the children overseas for adoption from 2004 to 2006, a Guizhou-based newspaper reported today."[4]
  • Samoa - Four Sentenced in Scheme, prosecutors say adoption agency tricked Samoan parents into giving their own children up for adoption[5]
  • Ethiopia - Canadian Broadcasting Company reports Canadian families "claim that CAFAC has informed them their child is an orphan when the parents in fact exist... (and) that sometimes the children's ages are wildly off and the health of these kids varies greatly from what they have been told before travelling to Addis Ababa to pick them up."[6] Andrew Goeghegan reports that "At least 70 adoption agencies have set up business in Ethiopia. Almost half are unregistered, but there’s scant regulation anyway and fraud and deception are rife. Some agencies actively recruit children in a process known as harvesting.[7] This has prompted on Dutch agency to stop adoptions from Ethiopia "as a result recent reports about abuse of the system by the government in Ethiopia and local adoption agencies. Research done by the adoption agency, shows that the information about the children on file does not match with their actual back ground. In several cases the mothers of the children were still alive, while being listed as deceased."[8]
  • Vietnam - "A court in northern Vietnam has put 16 people on trial for allegedly selling more than 250 babies for foreign adoption. The head of two social welfare centres in Nam Dinh province as well as several doctors and nurses at village clinics went on trial yesterday, said Dang Viet Hung, the chief judge at the court hearing the case. The defendants are charged with "abuse of power and authority" and could face prison terms of five to 10 years." [9]

Best Book of 2009: Fugitive Visions by Jane Jeong Trenka

Best Blog for scooping and exposing - not just reporting - adoption news: PoundPup Legacy

Most Blogged about adoption issue: Anita Tedaldi's adoption termination

Most commented blog post on FamilyPreservation, 2009: Is Adoption Natural?

Biggest Deal Made Over Nothing: The movie, Orphan

Best conference?

Best conference presentation?

Best article?

Worst case of adoption abuse 2009?

Best adoption news 2009?  Ontario?


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