Environment and Heredity in Adoption

Heredity and Environment in 300 Adoptive Families: The Texas Adoption Project (Hardcover)
~ Joseph Horn (Author), John Loehlin (Author)

Most likely Gladney, though it doesn't say so in the description.

Product Description
This book presents the results of a thirty-five-year research project involving 300 families, each of whom adopted at least one child at birth from a Texas home for unwed mothers during the period of 1962-1970.

The book weaves together information about the birth parents of the adopted children; information about the adoptive parents; and information about the children in these families. Children adopted at birth have two sets of parents. Birth parents provide their adopted-away child with a genetic
endowment, but do not participate in shaping the child's environment. Adoptive parents do not contribute genetically, but are otherwise in charge of directing the child's development.

If adopted children grow up to resemble birth parents they have never seen, the clear inference is that hereditary factors have had an influence. Environmental factors are implicated whenever children resemble their adoptive parents, but not the birth parents. The Texas Adoption Project was designed to investigate the impact of genetic and environmental factors. This unique and innovative longitudinal study is written for specialists and the educated public.

An introductory guide is provided for the non-specialist reader explaining the form and statistical content of the tables. Additional technical material for specialists is contained in appendices. This important contribution to the literature on adoption will also be of interest to those interested in the relative weight of genetics and environment in human development.

__._

Joseph M. Horn is an American psychology professor known for his work on adoption studies.
Horn received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. Research interests include intellectual and personality development, behavior genetics, personality, individual differences, and vocational behavior.

Horn is a Pioneer Fund grantee. Of interest to the Pioneer Fund is Horn's Texas Adoption Project started in 1972, a longitudinal study of over 500 adopted children, their biological mothers, and adoptive parents and siblings. The controversial Pioneer Fund claims that Horn's work is evidence of a hereditarian influence:

The first phase of the study tested the personality and intelligence of adopted children between three and fourteen years-old; then the study re-tested them again as adolescents and young adults ten years later. Not only were the adoptees much more like their biological mothers than their adoptive mothers, but as they grew older, they became increasingly more similar to the biological parents they had not seen since shortly after their birth, and the less like the adopting parents who had raised them.

By adolescence, the adoptees showed virtually no similarity to their adopting parents or the adoptive siblings with whom they had been raised. The study concluded that about fifty percent of the individual differences in IQ and personality were due to heredity and the remainder to environmental influences.

*****
As for J. C. Loehlin, he has published substantial material on the
intelligence component of the nature/nurture studies.

The study abstract is here and here.

Thanks to Jo Ann Swanson for finding this yet unreleased book we will all be looking for.

MORE Updates on the Predators Arrested in Haiti

Updated 1/31/10  11:19PM

Here is the scoop on the ten arrested for trafficking kids out of Haiti, reported here yesterday.

The misguided souls are from the  Central Vally Baptist Church, Meridian, ID. They created New Life Children’s Refuge for the purpose of "rescuing" Haitian "orphans" and bring them to 
Cabarete, 
Dominican 
Republic as an interim stop before they are adopted out.

NLCR 
is 
in 
the 
process 
of 
buying 
land 
and
 building 
an 
orphanage, 
school
 and 
church 
in 
Magante
 on 
the 
northern 
coast 
of 
the
 Dominican 
Republic. 



The Associated Press reported:  

The church group's own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government. Whatever its intentions, other child welfare organizations in Haiti called the plan reckless.


Laura Silsby, told the AP at Haiti's judicial police headquarters, where she and others were taken after their arrest Friday night trying to cross the border into the Dominican Republic in a bus....she had not obtained the proper Haitian documents for the children, whose names were written on pink tape on their shirts.

"One (8-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that," SOS Children's Villages, where spokesman George Willeit said.

As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is in a difficult spot - it needs aid, but deeply resents foreign meddling. Many have mixed feelings toward Christian groups that funnel hundreds of millions into missions in Haiti.

"There are many who come here with religious ideas that belong more in the time of the inquisition," said Max Beauvoir, head of Haiti's Voodoo Priest's Association, which represents thousands of priests and priestesses. "These types of people believe they need to save our souls and our bodies from ourselves. We need compassion, not proselytizing now, and we need aid - not just aid going to people of the Christian faith."

Silsby told the AP that she hadn't been following news reports while in Haiti, and didn't think she needed Haitian permission to take them out of the country. 


The Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, also involved, are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is America's largest Protestant denomination and has extensive humanitarian programs worldwide.

Their plans include Villas for adopting parents to stay while fulfilling 
requirement 
for
 60‐90 
day 
visit as 
well 
as Christian
 volunteers/vacationing
 families, as well as a seaside/beachfront cafe. 

They will also provide grants and work with U.S. adoption agencies.

All this money sent to take kids away instead of helping families keep their kids!  And they call it God's calling! It is so sad when Christians mis-hear the voices and mis-interpret God's message.

But God works in mysterious ways and sometimes puts offenders in jail.

It's intersteing that the church's webpage is mute on the subject. No findraisers for attornyes to bail them out of this misbegotten mess.

NY Times reports: The Haitian prime minister told Reuters that “we did not arrest Americans, we arrested kidnappers,” and he said the missionaries could face serious charges.

Letter to President Obama

Mailed Monday, Feb 22, 2010

TO: President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius

RE: Adoption Practices

FROM: The Adoption Community:
62 Adoptees, 61 first/natural/ birth mothers and fathers, 18 adoptive parents and 8 others touched by adoption.

Despite the Haitian moratorium on the post quake rush to adopt its children, we must continue to protect the Haitian - and all - children from being labeled "orphans" because they are housed in orphanages and then being snatched for adoption by predatory groups, no matter how well-intentioned.

We need to use this time to reflect on the course of future adoption practices. Those of us whose lives have been irrevocably shaped by adoption ask you to listen to our voices and painfully gained wisdom.

Adoption can provide a caring and safe home, but must always put the best interests of children first. Adoption should always be about finding homes for orphans and children who have no family members able and willing to provide safe care. Unfortunately it has become more focused on finding babies or children to fill a demand of those able to pay high fees to obtain a child. Adoption is a multi-billion dollar industry, globally as well as a domestically.

Note some who have signed this letter are from outside the U.S. The world is watching U.S. adoption policy.

FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN:

• We beseech lawmakers to not be influenced by lobbyists for the multi-billion-dollar adoption industry or by the religiously based organizations and agencies, no matter how well-intentioned, who wish to use the redistribution of children for financial gain or to recruit members of their faith. Follow the advice of child welfare experts and NGOs with no motivation other than what is truly best for children.

• We call for an end to federal programs that promote and encourage adoption, e.g. tax credits. Children in foster care are being used as pawns to get such laws enacted and renewed and then be left behind while prospective parents use tax credits to adopt from elsewhere.

• We encourage the formation of a federal department of Family Preservation that would allocate funds to help families in temporary crisis, whether financial or otherwise, receive the assistance they need to remain intact. Programs such as in-home care have proven highly successful and more cost effective than foster care removals which put children into high risk situations.

• We seek federal protection of the constitutional right to parent one's own children that are currently being violated by state laws such as Putative Father Registries.

• We insist on restoration of the rights of all adopted persons in regard to the discrimination they face in accessing their own birth certificate. We demand that the Federal government prevent states from issuing falsified birth certificates that state that adopted children are born to their adoptive parents, and that often change not just their names but their date and place of birth. This is state committed fraud and violates the basic right of every human to their identity. Note that

Signed:

1. Mirah Riben, South Brunswick, NJ 08852. Mother who lost a child to adoption in NY in 1968 because I was told it would be in my child's best interest - not that my child would be forever denied her human rights and that I would be forever refused copies of anything I signed.

2. Gaye Tannenbaum, Adoptee born 1953 reunited 2009, currently residing in Piriápolis, Uruguay

3. Caroline Collins, adult adoptee currently living in Texas

4. Aileen Brown, Mother that lost her baby to the adoption industry at 16 years old and ignorant of the effects adoption would do to herself and lost child, who would like to prevent it from happening to other families, Wisconsin

5. Rosalind Maya Lama, Mother. Lost a child to the foster care and adoption industry in New York
currently reside in California

6. Cathi Robinson, Natural Mother, Missouri

7. Roe Ruggerio Callahan, Philadelphia, PA. 66 year old adoptee, final adoption took place June 1947. Proceedings took place at the BUrlington County Court House, Mount Holly, NJ. Philadelphia born.

8. Amanda Woolston, Tennessee Adoptee residing in Pennsylvania

9. Bonnie Taylor, WV. Adoptee. Birthname (Teresa Elaine McKinsey) Born in York PA, adopted in Baltimore, MD Found birthfather (Gary Lee McKinsey-deceased), still searching for birthmother (Juanita Carson-McKinsey-Dunkelbarger-?Brashear).

10. Hannah Hope, natural mother, Essex, UK

11. Amy L. Loring - Lima, NY - Natural Mother

12. Celeste Billhartz, adoptee, Ohio

13. Samantha Franklin, Reunited Adult Adoptee, Oklahoma

14. Janet Sousa, adoptee and search angel. Owner of The Eyes Wide Open Registry, an online Emergency Medical Locators for Adoptee's registry - Tampa, FL

15. Robert Wilson Harrington McCullough Haight, adopted person, Missouri, still denied access to his Original Birth Certificate

16. Lorraine Dusky, reunited natural mother in New York

17. Sandy Blais, Adoptee - Canada - please it is time to stop repeating the mistakes of the past that we should have already learned from.

18. Susan Gill, reunited natural mother, Nebraska

19. Laurie Staley, Michigan adoptee, adoptive mom

20. Alyce M. Jenkins, adoptive mother and adoptive/family rights advocate , NJ

21. Mari Steed, Intercountry adopted adult (Ireland, reunited); Birthmother, Pennsylvania sealed-records system (reunited)

22. Rupert Wolfe Murray, ACT, adoptee, Against Child Trafficking, Romania

23. Dana Lowrey, adopted person, mother to a son lost to adoption, Reunited with all family members, Roseville California

24. Theresa Hood, Pennsylvania-born adoptee residing in New York, denied access to my original birth certificate

25. Barbara Pasternak, CT. I'm a Mother who had no choice when I lost my son to adoption 50 years ago. An adoptee is not, should not, be a commodity.

26. Bonnie Parmelee, mother to a son relinquished in late 80's, happily reunited. NY

27. Julie Kelly (reunited adult adoptee) Vancouver WA

28. Lori Trevino, reunited natural mother, Marshfield, Wisconsin

29. Ibbaanika Bond, a natural mother of a child on which an adoption was unsuccessfully attempted.
Kansas City, Mo.

30. Joan M Wheeler, birthname Doris M Sippel, New York Adoptee reunited 36 years, I’m a half orphan, but sealed and amended birth certificate laws are meant to hide illegitimacy. I did not need to be “legitimized” by adoption. I needed to be raised with full knowledge of, and socialization with, my siblings, and father. Guardianship, not adoption; Family Preservation, not family separation.

31. Mara Rigge, Trinidad, California, Adoptee, Reunited With Natural Mother.

32. Karen Lehner Dawber, First mom to Chris lost to illegal coerced adoption in April, 1970 in Wichita, KS. Also mom to Aaron and Brian Lawrence, KS

33. Reese V. Jenkins. Adoptive father of two adult children and advocate for family rights and for adoptees' right to know names and background of natural mother and father. NJ.

34. Karen Belanger, 08/24/59 Springfield, MO, adoptee still denied access to her original birth certificate from Missouri! Currently in Dallas, TX

35. Triona Guidry, Adult adoptee, Chicago, Illinois. Please support family preservation and the restoration of adult adoptee identities.

36. Vanessa Mary Pearce, I am an adoptee stolen from my home country India for the purpose of adoption.I live in British Columbia, Canada

37. Andrea Kelley, Kansas City, MO, adoptive mom.

38. Gina Maniscalco, reunited adult adoptee, NC

39. Amy Klatzkin, San Francisco, adoptive mother

40. Kate Reinke, adoptee, Melbourne, Australia

41. Laura A. Beall, Mother, lost son to adoption, Oakton, VA 22124

42. Nancy Peuraharju - natural mother (Arkansas), search angel and co-owner of Emergency Medical Locators for Adoptees

43. Sheila Ganz, first mother, documentary filmmaker, San Francisco, California

44. Susan Schnirring, mother of twin sons taken by coercion in 1968. Wood River, IL

45. Mary Kathleen Trumm, natural mother to my son, Andrew, lost to the manipulative, unprotected industry of adoption in 1976, author of "The Andrew Rights" Legislation in 1992, presented to the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee, Nov. 4, 1993, given to Hillary Clinton.

46. Kim Eun Mi Young, Korean adoptee, San Antonio, TX

47. Denise Roessle, natural mother to a son relinquished in California, 1970, resident of Arizona

48. Msgr. John W. Sweeley, Th.D., Adoptee; Adoptive Father of Three Adopted Sons, Life Member: Bastard Nation; The Adoptee Rights Organization

49. June Taglianetti, MILLSTONE, N.J. 08510. I totally agree and i am a birthmother.

50. Denise Schnelle, Original Mother Reunited with her Adult Son. Los Angeles CA

51. Carla Marie Rupp, Mother. New York, NY 10013. I agree with the letter in full.

52, Carla Moquin, Mother of a daughter adopted through fraud, Salt Lake City, Utah

53. Teresa Triplett, reunited natural mother in Downers Grove, Illinois

54. David Kruchkow, Adoptive Parent, Florida

55. Daniel Harris, adoptee living in Brighton, MI, Born in Detroit MI 1962, searching for the truth of my birth. I don't seek to disrupt, only seek the TRUTH

56. Cheryl Horning, Adoptee, separated from birth family at 9 months in 1958. Reunited 2009. Greenwich, N.Y. 12834

57. Elizabeth Dudley, Virginia, USA, Reunited 48 year old Adult Adoptee and faithful Adult Voter, Business owner, Wife of 25 years and Mom to two children in college, and another illegitimate CHILD who is still kept from her Original Birth Record and Original Family by the antique laws of the state of WV.

58. Roberta B Beavers: Mother. First born son conceived in rape (NJ) in 1965, lost to adoption (WA) in 1966, happily reunited in 1996. Co-authored the 2007 Maine adoptee human rights law (access to original birth certificates). I have live in Maine since 2001.

59. Stephanie Kim, Mother who needlessly lost daughter to adoption, Austin, TX

60. Joan DeGroot, birthmother, met daughter at age 26 after the adoptive parents had refused contact with her at age 19, Spokane WA.

61. Yvonne Johnson: Grandmother who lost grandson to a so called open-adoption...We have never seen him. GA

62. Mary Provance-Garvens, Mother of one child lost to a coerced adoption, mother of three raised children, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53188

63. Kathy Taylor, Duluth, GA 30097 Adult Missouri-born adoptee residing in Georgia, denied access to my original birth certificate and the identities of my birth mother and birth father.

64. Cyn Bird, Florida black market adoptee, Emerson, NJ. Please support access to open records; adoptees should not be discriminated against; everyone has a right to know their identity.

65. Jamie Richards, adoptee from Missouri

66. Cat Clark - Millersburg, Ohio adoptee, denied original birth certificate.

67. Priscilla Sharp, First mother ’64, AZ, reunited ‘86. Now search angel/adoptee rights advocate

68. Jamieson Scott, NYC NY 10003. I am a birth mother in reunion with the son I lost to adoption.

69. Laurie Chatman, Portland, Ore. Reunited birthmother. I agree with the letter

70. Elizbeth Porter. Mother reunited with two grown children who searched and found me in 2006. Hampton, Virginia

71. Karen Ciandella, mother who lost her twins to adoption in 1973. Signing on behalf of them and my grandchildren who may never know me.

72. Joe Soll, Adoptee, psychotherapist, author, Congers, New York

73. Jennifer Cox adoptive mother to 3 young children from Korea now living in Ballston Spa, NY and I believe that adoptees need to have their rights reinstated to have access to their original birth certificates and for First Moms to not be coerced into losing their children no matter where in the world they are living

74. Cully Ray, NV, Adoptee, Adoption Reform Advocate

75. Kimberly Correa, adoptee, Springfield, IL

76. Harry Kuhn, MSW, Edsion, NJ, paternal grand-uncle to grand-niece in WI open adoption but closed-off from any contact by adoptive parents.

77. Sarah Wrather, Canal Winchester, Ohio. Adoptee, Reunited with my birth family in 2008

78. Patricia Holman, Adoptee, 1972, Elizabeth, New Jersey

79. Sylvia Ackerson, Reunited BirthMom, Boiling Springs, NC. Adoptees deserve the sme tights as a person who is not adopted!

80. James Mandenberg, Traverse City MI, A Michigan adoptee denied a copy of my own original birth certificate.

81. Annette Baran, MSW, author, noted adoption expert, Santa Monica CA

82. Susan Webb. Reunited adoptee, Upstate Ny who was given bogus nonid information and told in writing I had no right to my birth info. Through Mutual search on numerous registries online I found my birth family and it was confirmed by DNA test (although I was told in writing that my birth mom was dead etc). Facts on my birth certificate were changed (not just left out). For 40 years I had no medical history to share with my doctors or my own 5 children.

83. Velia Calcara, wife of an adoptee, l live in Missouri. It makes me feel so bad that adoptees in this country do not have their basic civil right of identity.

84. Hanne Andersen, Vancouver, BC, Canada Mother who was coerced and lost her only child to adoption. Reunited since 2006.

85. Maureen L. Roy, Adoptee, Marlborough, MA 01752

86. Stephanie Curtis, reunited natural mother in California

87. Mary A. Cook, Adoptee age 63, denied access to my original birth certificate by New York State.I currently live in Melbourne, Florida.

88. Carole Whitehead, reunited natural//first/birth mother, Plainview, NY

89. Jacquetta Page, trans-racially adopted adult Indigenous Native/African American, Mishawaka, IN. Support what is just and true for all children!

90. Kate Dahlquist, Foster-Adoptive Sister and First Mother. Please stop the adoption lies. Unethical adoption hurts families. The ripple effect of adoption is deep and wide throughout our society please educate our communities about adoption truth!

91. Laura Barnes-Marsden Washington State adoptee, and mother to a son lost to adoption. I want my original birth certificate. I currently live in British Columbia, Canada.

92. Marsha Roberts - reunited adoptee and adoptive mother in Houston, TX

93. Carol Barbieri, Adoptee, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716

94. Connie Hawkins, natural mother, Larwill, Indiana

95. Amy Luettgen, Wisconsin Adoptee - birth mother refused access to original birth certificate and medical information

96. Joy, Former Prospective Adoptive Parent who believes that children should stay with their natural families unless it's not possible, and if children must be raised away from their families, it should be with people in their own land, who understand their culture and language, and can reflect their physical characteristics. Oregon.

97, Elizabeth Case - Adoptive Mother to a boy from Bulgaria. Walden, New York

98. Catherine Wagner-NS, Canada, adoptive mother and volunteer with Against Child Trafficking (ACT)

99. Mary Schmit, Pompano Beach, FL. Birthmother of daughter born 1968 in Milwaukee, WI
Reunited in 1998 and currently in a strong relationship. Biology is crucial to a person's development. Unscrupulous adoption destroys people.

100. Peg Livingston, Tulsa, OK. first mother who gave up 2 sons. I have been reunited with them, but want to make the lie about being promised confidentiality GO AWAY. first mother who gave up 2 sons. I have been reunited with them, but want to make the lie about being promised confidentiality GO AWAY.

101. Daniel Case, Walden, NY. Adoptive father.

102. Linda Orozco, Sacramento CA - Birthmother to my first child born 1967. Relinquishment based on intimidation, lies and no resources for a single mom in 67. I was never promised confidentiality

103. Desiree Smolin, Alabama, adoptive parent to a sibling group of two older girls from India, stolen from their first parents and sold for $$$ in international adoption without their parents' consent.

104. Pamela Veazie, adoptive mom, Carmel, Indiana

105. Karen Moline, adoptive mother, New York, NY

106. David Kohler, adoptee. Indianapolis, IN.

107. Christina Worthington, Reunited Adoptee, Leominster, Massachusetts

108. Margie Perscheid, Adoptive parent, Alexandria, VA

109. Kim DeCrow, Mother. in 1977, at age 17 I lost my only child to adoption. Was able to file with Tennessee courts requesting info on my adult child, I was notified he deceased in 2004. Memphis, TN

110. Eileen McCarthy, New York mother who was forced to surrender two sons in 1965 and 1967. I have never recovered from this violent separation.

111. Cheryl Chant, mother who lost a son to adoption in Ct., currently living in Fl.

112. Jennifer Yurfest, first mother 1969.Atlanta, GA

113. Margaret S LyBurtus, Bakersfield, Ca 93306. I am a mother who surrendered her child in 1966 in Michigan

114. John Stikeman, Phoenix, AZ, natural father who lost his child to adoption 44 years ago.

115. Jeff Hancock, Late-Discovery Adoptee, Avon, NY 14414

116. Janet Melbourne, First mother/ reunited, San Luis Obispo, CA

117. David Kelley, Adoptive father, Kansas City

118. Jodi McBride, adoptee, Olympia, WA

119. Dawn Young, Mother who lost a child to adoption 1965, UK, reunited 15 years can not replace what was lost though not fault our own. Couer d Alene, Idaho


120. Felicia Pirrone, birthmother, adoptive mother (of said birthchild) and plain ole mother. In Queensbury NY but the adoption occurred in Schenectady, NY. Her surrender was in Albany NY.


121. Shirley Murphy, adoptee - reunited but still suffering from the daily loss of knowing what it means to be part of a family. Boulder, Colorado.


122. Murray Legro 59 year old late discovery adoptee from Ballarat, Victoria Australia. Adoption affects everyone involved with lifetime consequences.




123. Linda Burns, San Antonio Birth Mother. Texas Cradle Society in San Antonio sent thousands of Anglo American children to Mexico, France, Spain for adoption without mother's knowledge. No one should lose their heritage unless there is no other way.

124. Scott Andersen, un-reunited adoptee, Tucson, AZ. I would love to be united with my natural mom, but in Texas (born and adopted there) I can get the Kennedy assassination files easier than my own birth records.

125. Kim Goudreau, Qc, Canada; adoptee. Reunited. I was adopted from Korea to Canada without my parents' consent through a so-called reputable agency in the USA.


126. Brandi Kersey, Murrells Inlet, S.C., Natural mother of an adoptee. I was pressured into it because of my age.


127. Alberta Sorensen, a very old adoptee! I now live in Walnut Creek, CA


128. Tracy Calmer, Adoptee, Santa Rosa, Ca. Reunited with natural parents for 17 years. Falsified birth certificate reflecting adoptive mother as giving birth to me. Denied access to my real birth certificate.

129. Cindy Wolfe Boynton, an adoptee from Milford, Connecticut, who believes that every state in the U.S. should allow adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates.


130. Abigail Lovett. New Hope, PA. I am an adult adoptee, who has searched and found birth family, served on the Joint State commission on adoption in PA; who went to the Clinton White House for National Adoption day; and who actively served on Adoption Forum of PA and the American Adoption Congress.


131. Sandra Elliott, Birthmother and Daughter of an Adoptee. Texas


132. Judith Scanlon, adult adoptee, Orleans MA. I live in a state that does grant adult adoptees born before 1974 access to their original birth certificates, but sadly I was born in NY, a state where I am still denied. I hope this helps to change this law nation-wide, so that we may all be equal, and allowed to have knowledge of our "roots".


133. Elma Stark, birth mother in search of daughter born 1948 and adopted out in NYC


134. Liberty Hultberg, adoptee, born in Illinois in 1981. In contact with both birth parents as well as foster parents.


135. Laurie Garland, natural mother, Liberty, Missouri


136. Mariette Henke: natural mother and reunited adoptee, Austin TX


137. Stephanie Van Loon, New York, New York. Natural mother who lost her son to a fraudulent "open adoption" that closed when my son was 7.


138. Vicki White, 64 year old adopted person, Santa Rosa, CA. 3 attempts to get my OBC from the Alameda County CA Court were all denied. My mother died 5 years before I searched for and found my birth family. I resent all the pain, time, and thousands of dollars I've spent to know my truth, which should be a birthright.


139. Marcus Baker. I'm a former caseworker in child protection services now a caseworker in a government welfare program and believe strongly in family preservation, especially for the Haitian children at this time as they are being treated like "Free Children." Boston, MA.


140. Kristine Bonagura, Kendall Park, NJ. I'm adopted and I found and my birth mother in 09/09 and I have 2 half sisters and three full cousins; they say I am family and I am fortunate enough to have 2 incredible families! Currently searching for my father.

141. Anne Elizabeth Britt, adoptee. Shreveport, Louisiana 71106

UPDATE: 

SEE the REPLY

that took more than a year!

Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian police have arrested 10 U.S. citizens caught trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country in a suspected illicit adoption scheme, authorities said on Saturday.

The five men and five women were in custody in the capital, Port-au-Prince after their arrests on Friday night. There are fears that traffickers could try to exploit the chaos and turmoil following Haiti's January 12 earthquake quake to engage in illegal adoptions.

One of the suspects, who says she is leader of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, denied they had done anything wrong.

The suspects were detained at Malpasse, Haiti's main border crossing with the Dominican Republic, after Haitian police conducted a routine search of their vehicle.

Authorities said the Americans had no documents to prove they had cleared the adoption of the 33 children -- aged 2 months to 12 years -- through any embassy and no papers showing they were made orphans by the quake in the impoverished Caribbean country.

"This is totally illegal," said Yves Cristalin, Haiti's social affairs minister. "No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization."

U.S. authorities could not be reached for immediate comment on the arrests.

But Laura Sillsby from the Idaho group told Reuters from a jail cell at Haiti's Judicial Police headquarters, "We had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there."

"We have a Baptist minister here (in Port-au-Prince) whose orphanage totally collapsed and he asked us to take the children to the orphanage in the Dominican Republic," Sillsby added.

"I was going to come back here to do the paperwork," Sillsby said. "They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong."
In addition to outright trafficking in children, authorities have voiced fears since the quake that legitimate aid groups may have flown earthquake orphans out of the country for adoption before efforts to find their parents had been exhausted.

As a result, the Haitian government halted many types of adoptions earlier this month.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of parentless and lost children at risk in Haiti's quake-shattered capital.

What do you think?

There are some real difficulties adopting from foster care. One is lack of interstate cooperation as outlined in this Huffington Post by Jeff Katz.

But clearly there are other reasons that phones in adoption agencies all across the country have been  "ringing off the hook" to adopt haitian orphans as reported: here, here, here, here, here...and here, to cite just  few.

All, while 129,000 kids in U.S. foster care - of a total of half a million - who COULD be adopted, are ignored.

Some reasons include:

• international adoption is romanticized and popularized by celebs

• a belief that younger children are avaulable transnationally

• a belief that they are less "damaged"

• worry about "bad blood"e.g. criminal tendencies, substance abuse, prostitution 

• more exotic to speak of your child being "rescued" from a foreign orphanage than from your home city

• more chic to learn Mandarin or become familiar with African culture than to learn Eubonics or share rap music

• certainly more classy to have an expensive import than an almost totally free domestic, one that might even come with subsidies and have others wonder if you are "poor" 

• more distance between you and your child's family is "safer" - avoids the possibility of a knock on your door and your kid (horrors) knowing the truth!

What do YOU think?

Adoptee of Color Roundtable: Statement on Haiti

This statement reflects the position of an international community of adoptees of color who wish to pose a critical intervention in the discourse and actions affecting the child victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. We are domestic and international adoptees with many years of research and both personal and professional experience in adoption studies and activism. We are a community of scholars, activists, professors, artists, lawyers, social workers and health care workers who speak with the knowledge that North Americans and Europeans are lining up to adopt the “orphaned children” of the Haitian earthquake, and who feel compelled to voice our opinion about what it means to be “saved” or “rescued” through adoption.

We understand that in a time of crisis there is a tendency to want to act quickly to support those considered the most vulnerable and directly affected, including children. However, we urge caution in determining how best to help. We have arrived at a time when the licenses of adoption agencies in various countries are being reviewed for the widespread practice of misrepresenting the social histories of children. There is evidence of the production of documents stating that a child is “available for adoption” based on a legal “paper” and not literal orphaning as seen in recent cases of intercountry adoption of children from Malawi, Guatemala, South Korea and China. We bear testimony to the ways in which the intercountry adoption industry has profited from and reinforced neo-liberal structural adjustment policies, aid dependency, population control policies, unsustainable development, corruption, and child trafficking.

For more than fifty years “orphaned children” have been shipped from areas of war, natural disasters, and poverty to supposedly better lives in Europe and North America. Our adoptions from Vietnam, South Korea, Guatemala and many other countries are no different from what is happening to the children of Haiti today. Like us, these “disaster orphans” will grow into adulthood and begin to grasp the magnitude of the abuse, fraud, negligence, suffering, and deprivation of human rights involved in their displacements.

We uphold that Haitian children have a right to a family and a history that is their own and that Haitians themselves have a right to determine what happens to their own children. We resist the racist, colonialist mentality that positions the Western nuclear family as superior to other conceptions of family, and we seek to challenge those who abuse the phrase “Every child deserves a family”  to rethink how this phrase is used to justify the removal of children from Haiti for the fulfillment of their own needs and desires. Western and Northern desire for ownership of Haitian children directly contributes to the destruction of existing family and community structures in Haiti. This individualistic desire is supported by the historical and global anti-African sentiment which negates the validity of black mothers and fathers and condones the separation of black children from their families, cultures, and countries of origin.

As adoptees of color many of us have inherited a history of dubious adoptions. We are dismayed to hear that Haitian adoptions may be “fast-tracked” due to the massive destruction of buildings in Haiti that hold important records and documents. We oppose this plan and argue that the loss of records requires slowing down of the processes of adoption while important information is gathered and re-documented for these children. Removing children from Haiti without proper documentation and without proper reunification efforts is a violation of their basic human rights and leaves any family members who may be searching for them with no recourse. We insist on the absolute necessity of taking the time required to conduct a thorough search, and we support an expanded set of methods for creating these records, including recording oral histories.

We urge the international community to remember that the children in question have suffered the overwhelming trauma of the earthquake and separation from their loved ones. We have learned first-hand that adoption (domestic or intercountry) itself as a process forces children to negate their true feelings of grief, anger, pain or loss, and to assimilate to meet the desires and expectations of strangers. Immediate removal of traumatized children for adoption—including children whose adoptions were finalized prior to the quake— compounds their trauma, and denies their right to mourn and heal with the support of their community.

We affirm the spirit of Cultural Sovereignty, Sovereignty and Self-determination embodied as rights for all peoples to determine their own economic, social and cultural development included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Charter of the United Nations; the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The mobilization of European and North American courts, legislative bodies, and social work practices to implement forced removal through intercountry adoption is a direct challenge to cultural sovereignty. We support the legal and policy application of cultural rights such as rights to language, rights to ways of being/religion, collective existence, and a representation of Haiti’s histories and existence using Haiti’s own terms.

We offer this statement in solidarity with the people of Haiti and with all those who are seeking ways to intentionally support the long-term sustainability and self-determination of the Haitian people. As adoptees of color we bear a unique understanding of the trauma, and the sense of loss and abandonment that are part of the adoptee experience, and we demand that our voices be heard. All adoptions from Haiti must be stopped and all efforts to help children be refocused on giving aid to organizations working toward family reunification and caring for children in their own communities. We urge you to join us in supporting Haitian children’s rights to life, survival, and development within their own families and communities.

Fight Corporate Domination if the U.S.A., Incorporated

"We deserve a country where our elected officials are not bought and paid for by Big Business," says CREDO.

Last week's Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United vs. FEC by five agenda driven right wing judges overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system, and gutted all restraints on corporate meddling in our elections.  The court's decision may even allow foreign corporations and large multinationals to manipulate our elections.

From Wikipedia:

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S.  (2010) is a landmark 5-to-4 decision by the United States Supreme Court that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited, because doing so would be in noncompliance with the First Amendment. The decision resulted from the non-profit corporation Citizens United's case before the court regarding whether the group's film critical of a political candidate could be defined as a campaign advertisement under the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act.^[2]
The decision reached the Supreme Court on appeal from a 2008 decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, which sided with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), holding that under the McCain-Feingold Act the film Hillary: The Movie could not be shown on television right before the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Attempts are being made to break the stranglehold that corporate influence has over our politics. There are TWO critical action pages related to this, which ask participants to submit and also pass on to everyone you know, which will send your message by fax to all your own members of Congress, and President Obama too. You do not need your own fax machine to participate, the action pages do all this for you automatically in real time.

Action Page: Corporations Are NOT The People

Action Page: Impeach The Supreme Court 5

Also contact CREDO.

New Australian Adoption Law: Bilateral with Waiver

New adoption laws to come into effect

DAVID BARBELER

January 28, 2010 - 6:34PM

AAP
New adoption laws coming into effect from Monday will allow more than 3,000 Queenslanders to view information they were previously banned from seeing.

However, according to adoption campaigners, the changes are a "band-aid solution to a broken leg", as adoptees who view the documents first must sign a waiver saying they will not contact their parents, or hold the government responsible for any past decisions.

Under the new laws, which will come into force on February 1, adopted people and birth parents will have the right to identifying information regardless of when the adoption took place.

Acting Child Safety Minister Karen Struthers said the Adoption Act would mark the most significant reform of Queensland's adoption laws in more than 45 years.

"The new laws balance peoples' right to information about their birth parents or son or daughter who was adopted, with the right of others to maintain their privacy," she said.

"More than 3,000 Queenslanders affected by an adoption that occurred before 1991 are prevented from obtaining identifying information about their birth parents or son or daughter who was adopted.
"The new Act will give these people the right to access information about their own identity or that of a son or daughter for the first time."

Jigsaw Queensland president Dr Trevor Jordan said he supported the changes, saying it will be a new era for adoption in Queensland.

"Currently just under 10 people a week apply for information about their birth relatives," he said.
"We support the new legislation, where people can still express a preference for no contact, but can't prevent a person from getting information."

However adoption campaigner Mick Gray says while being able to access information such as medical records will be beneficial the laws "still have a long way to go".

Mr Gray, 35, who is an adoptee himself, says the Act will still prevent him from locating his sister because his mother signed a veto to contact.

"To see the documents you've basically got to sign a waiver," he said.

"They are still treating us like second-class citizens. It's a natural birthright to know who we are.

"It makes the adoptee feel shameful."

HELP Haiti Recover

One important way to help Haitians build a better tomorrow is to convince global creditors to cancel Haiti's crushing $1 billion international debt. Doing so will help make sure that every possible future dollar goes towards rebuilding a stronger Haiti, not to servicing old debts.

Thankfully, the United States has already forgiven Haiti's past debts and now only gives assistance in the form of grants. We need Haiti's other creditors - the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and countries like Taiwan and Venezuela - to follow our lead and do the same.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the power to help make that happen.

Please tell Secretary Geithner to work to secure the cancellation of Haiti's $1 billion debt and ensure emergency assistance is provided in the forms of grants, not debt-incurring loans.

Even before the earthquake hit, Haiti - the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere - faced tremendous challenges. But there was also hope. Recent years have brought a more stable government and tenuous gains in the fight against poverty.

Haiti needs an international effort to make sure that, as it begins the long road to recovery, it is not burdened with unpayable debts. We must also be vigilant that any new aid from the IMF and other sources doesn't come in the form of loans that would create new debt for Haiti.

It all starts by calling on Secretary Geithner to use his influence to persuade international lending institutions and countries to do the right thing and drop Haiti's debt.

To find out how, click Change.org here.

Calling All NJ Adoption Reformrs

Just Announced: "Mother and Child" Sneak Preview Film Screening to benefit the Count Basie Theatre

April 26. 

Three women's lives share a common core: they have all been profoundly affected by adoption. KAREN (Annette Bening) had a baby at 14, gave her up at birth, and has been haunted ever since by the daughter she never knew. ELIZABETH (Naomi Watts) grew up as an adopted child; she's a bright and ambitious lawyer, but a flinty loner in her personal life. LUCY (Kerry Washington) is just embarking with her husband on the adoption odyssey, looking for a baby to become their own.

We are planning to have a table with literature. Please join us!

"Call The Box office for tickets -- I hear they are moving quickly."

Count Basie Theatre
www.countbasietheatre.org

99 Monmouth Street
Red Bank, NJ 07701
(732) 842-9000

A Hauntingly Poignant Video: A Soul Saving Reunion

Son Documents Search for Homeless Mom

Doug Shimell Marty Vargas walked the streets of Philadelphia to find his birth mother. With luck, he found her, but the meeting isn't exactly how he pictured it. Now he's documenting the entire experience.

From time to time we hear of life saving reunions involving transplants and bone marrow donations. When Marty Met Rachel documents  mother returned from decades on the brink of despair by the love of her son.

Haiti: Adoption Not The Solution

I LOVE Dr. Aaronson's suggestion:  

How to Fix the Haiti Adoption Process

By Nicole Allan on January 27, 2010 9:54am

The chaos of post-earthquake Haiti poses many dangers for children, not least among them human traffickers posing as prospective adoptive parents. The Haitian government and aid agencies hope to thwart this exploitation--and the adoption of children temporarily separated from their families--by tightening the adoption process. But how will this impact prospective parents who filed adoption applications years ago? Or those who, moved by images of suffering children, wish to adopt as a form of aid?

• We Must Speed up the System, urge senators like Mary Landrieu and Kit Bond, who have penned a bill that would expedite the adoption of Haitian orphans by U.S. families. "The old regular process, the old regular bureaucracy, is not going to work," Landrieu said. The bill would establish an adoption office within the State Department and focus on reuniting Haitian children with family members while reducing red tape for the adoption of confirmed orphans.

• No--We Should Slow it Down, argues Elizabeth Foy Larsen (an adoptive mother herself) at The Daily Beast. The U.S. has eased visa requirements for children who had been matched with American families before the earthquake, which is all well and good. But we shouldn't let our desire to help drown out the wisdom of working to verify the backgrounds of children and prospective families, however long this may take: "While it may feel counterintuitive, the best way to help the children of Haiti is not to move heaven and earth to bring them into American homes... As any adoptive family knows, adoption lasts a lifetime. Haitian parents, children, and potential adoptive parents deserve more than a quick fix."

• Build an 'Army of Grannies' Instead, suggests adoption expert Dr. Jane Aronson at Lisa Belkin's Motherlode blog. "Adoption is not the way to solve absolutely massive, tragic issues of vulnerable children," Aronson explains. Instead, she proposes "conscripting an army of grannies," or Haitian women who would be given aid money to care for orphaned children.

• Don't Repeat 'Operation Baby-Lift,' writes Mirah Riben in the Times of Trenton, referring to the lawsuit resulting from U.S.'s post-war relocation of 2,500 Vietnamese children. After they've survived an earthquake and the deaths or disappearances of family members, she argues, the last thing children need is the psychological trauma of cultural displacement. Overseas sympathizers should instead "respect those most suited to provide a non-biased response and help them to help the children of Haiti without fear of exploitation by donating to reputable organizations."
  

Adoption Halted in Haiti?

Haiti Halts Departures of Orphans

The Haitian government has halted the departure of all orphans from the earthquake-ravaged country until it can guarantee that only legitimate adoptions are being approved, according to U.S. government officials.

The government only will allow the departure of orphaned children whose paperwork it has examined and approved, the officials said.

The decision temporarily suspends the arrival to the U.S. of Haitian orphans under a policy announced last week by Washington. The so-called humanitarian parole was introduced to expedite the adoption of children in orphanages who had been assigned to U.S. families before the Jan. 12 earthquake occurred.

One U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had been holding discussions in Montreal during a Haiti reconstruction conference to ensure that U.S. departures resume within days. "We are working on details to get these approvals from Haiti as soon as possible," the official said.

The Haitian government is concerned that some children are being removed from the country without proper oversight and risk winding up in the hands of child traffickers. Other children might be removed even though they may still have relatives in the country who could care for them.
"There is evidence that children have been removed from Haiti with no due process at all," said Diana Boni, Haiti adoption coordinator for Kentucky Adoption Services, a non-profit adoption agency in Owensburo, Ky. "The Haitian government in the past has looked over the paperwork of each child leaving the country with adoptive parents."

Many children released from hospitals have no one to care for them, one reason why orphanages are eager to fly out children who were already matched to U.S. and European families before the earthquake.

"Orphanages are trying to make preparations to take in more children," said Kim Harmon, president of His Glory Adoption Outreach of Florida, a ministry that funds an orphanage in Haiti. "We have been contacted to receive many more children."

The United Nations has begun erecting special tent camps for thousands of Haitian girls and boys separated from their parents by the earthquake and at risk of falling prey to child-traffickers. U.N. Children's Fund has said children are being removed from the country without appropriate approvals.
Even before the earthquake, economic hardship drove many Haitian families to relinquish their children to orphanages. About 380,000 Haitian children were orphans even before the earthquake struck, according to Unicef.

Washington has identified about 1,000 children [this number keeps jumping! It was 900 a week ago.] who already had been approved for adoption by U.S. families before the quake struck. Several planeloads of these orphans arrived in the U.S. in recent days, and the children were united with their previously assigned American families, some who had been waiting several years to adopt a particular child.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of children who have been separated from their families or orphaned since the earthquake. However, homeless minors are believed to number in the tens of thousands, according to aid organizations.

Mrs. Harmon of His Glory Adoption Outreach said that 79 of the 106 children at the Children of the House of God arrived in the U.S. on Saturday after receiving humanitarian parole. However, the remaining 27, including a boy she is adopting herself, are now stuck in Haiti.

"We saw this glimmer of hope that our child would come home," said Mrs. Harmon. "But now we are just in a waiting process."

EARTHQUAKE HALTS NEW ADOPTIONS IN HAITI
 
BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor

 
(Jan. 26, 2010)   The Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake has halted new adoptions in Haiti. Government offices are in ruins; records are destroyed. (CNN reported that the country's top adoption official, Judge Rock Cadet, was killed when the courthouse collapsed.) For now it is extremely hard to know if children are truly orphans, or if they have some family in the country.
With services in disarray, it may take several years before Haitian authorities are able to follow the prescribed steps: try to re-unite a child with family members, ensure the child is an orphan and allow for possible domestic adoption. International adoption could start again only when authorities in Haiti can eliminate the possibility of families caring for orphans within Haitian borders.
As for adoptions already in progress, some are being fast-tracked. Countries are struggling to rescue those children already established as orphans and eligible for foreign adoption before the earthquake. Emergency airlifts are carrying out children who were already matched with parents abroad. Where the paperwork is not complete, emergency visas are issued and the process is finished abroad, supervised by foreign authorities.
RESCUE EFFORTS
Here are some examples of efforts made to bring adoptees out of Haiti:
Canada -- As of Jan. 25, 2010, 217 Haitian adoptees had permission to leave. 24 adoptees flew to Ottawa on Jan. 24.
France -- 904 French families have applied to adopt from Haiti. France will immediately take in 276 children already matched with French parents.
Netherlands -- 123 adopted Haitian children reached Eindhoven on Jan. 21.
U.S. -- State Department said it's working on nearly 300 cases of Americans adopting Haitian children; 200 of those cases are being accelerated. 53 children rescued from the damaged Bresma Orphanage in Port-au-Prince arrived in Pittsburgh on Jan. 19.
For more news, see Haiti Update.
THE RULE
After the 2005 Asian tsunami disaster many people wanted to adopt "orphan" children. The same rule applies to Haiti as applied then: "Accepted international practice is to try to find a home for orphaned children in their own country before uprooting them to a foreign country and culture."

Will we repeat a sad history in Haiti?

Will we repeat a sad history in Haiti?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Haiti's earthquake has resulted in demands to airlift many of the children to new homes and new families. A U.S. military transport brought 53 Haitian children, already in the process of being adopted, to Pittsburgh, and a Dutch plane took another 106 to the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Concern is being raised among child welfare experts, however, that some are using this tragedy to rush in too quickly and grab up children who have family. UNICEF and other nongovernmental organizations are well aware that nearly 90 percent of children in orphanages worldwide are not orphans but have one living parent or extended family who visit and hope to regain custody.

In order to know what really is in these children's best interests, examine the motivation of those pushing for airlifting hundreds or thousands of children out of Haiti. Even nonprofit and religious child adoption agencies are dependent upon the redistribution of children to pay salaries and other operating costs. The fees paid to adopt -- up to $40,000 -- motivate their "concerns." Adoption industry lobbyists pressure legislators, who eagerly approve "feel-good" bills and "child rescue" projects, often in opposition to experts' concerns for the children and their families of origin.

Nonprofit child advocate organizations, such as SOS Children's Village, The U.N., International Social Services and the International Rescue Committee, which have no financial gain in the outcome of the children's situations, all favor extreme caution before removing children from their families, their homelands and their cultures. They advocate what is best for the children, mindful that adoption is about finding homes for children who are orphaned, not finding children to fill empty arms, and certainly not to fill the pockets of unscrupulous baby brokers.

It is also important to reflect on history. Following the Vietnam War, America enacted a mass rescue of more than 2,500 war orphans in 1975, called Operation Baby Lift. The now infamous evangelistic rescue led to a class action suit on behalf of Vietnamese children brought to the U.S. for adoption. The suit claims that several of the children labeled as orphans in fact were not. The plaintiffs seek to determine if their Vietnamese parents or extended family can be found and whether they had consented to their placements.

In 2004, the tsunami left more than 5 million homeless in and around Sri Lanka, including about 1.5 million children, most of whom, according to the U.N., "became" orphaned. With people clamoring to adopt the young victims, Save the Children stated: "Adoptions, especially inter-country ones, are inappropriate during the emergency phase ... ." Sri Lanka banned adoptions, fearing orphans would be targeted by criminal gangs and trafficked in the wake of the floods.

UNICEF expresses concern about "efforts to speed international adoptions of Haitian children in the aftermath of the disaster," when children need their families more then ever. In Haiti, it is working to find, identify and register children. It favors family reunification, and said that "international adoption should be the "last resort' for children orphaned by [the] catastrophic earthquake in Haiti." They note that "family includes uncles and aunts, cousins, grandparents and more distant relatives" who should be traced before transnational adoption is considered as an option.

The ISS and the IRC concur, stating: "Any operation to adopt or to evacuate children who are victims of the earthquake to another country must be absolutely avoided." Their concerns include the psychological impact of "a sudden shift to a new country and a new family" at this time of upheaval.

Amalia Fawcett, specialist in child protection in emergencies for Plan International Australia, who was in the Solomon Islands in response to the tsunami, said, "Based on a wealth of international knowledge about child development and resilience during disasters, we know that children best recover from shock, stress and grief when they are in familiar surroundings and with loved ones. Even during emergencies, a child's right to be cared for in a family unit of some form, and a family's right to look after their children, must be preserved."

Countries, including the U.S., that have ratified The Hague Conference on International Law are obligated to its provision that "evacuation should not be confused with intercountry adoption, which is a more radical measure changing the parenthood of a child."

Unless you were already considering adoption, it is best not to yield to a sudden, almost instinctive desire to help in that manner, but rather to respect those most suited to provide a non-biased response and help them to help the children of Haiti without fear of exploitation by donating to reputable organizations.

Mirah Riben

Haitian Crisis Brings Out Hate

If you think you've heard it all...and if you have a strong tolerance for intolerance...read on.

The following are comments to an article entitled, "Adoption is only hope for Haitian children."

Don't ya think we should provide more birth control information/services to these countries and maybe they wouldn't be so much starvation and so many orphans?? The Bush administration's abstenance programs are always a failure...1/24/2010 3:14:55 PM

The Haitians have always been poor. But, they know how to make babies. They do that very well and will ruin themselves and the people who try to help. They should control their population growth as a major step for recovery and their future. 1/24/2010 5:22:00 PM 

Birth control in haiti? Are you kidding. The generational welfare machine has been going strong for years. Why change it now? Seems to work pretty well as it is.  Does that make me a racist? 1/24/2010 5:26:11 PM

"Adoption is the ONLY HOPE." Yes that's true, because no one has the foresight to PREVENT a poor nation like Haiti from its own worst-enemy, having babies they can't feed or care for. So although over-populating the planet to the point of extinction is the Rightwing policy, it would be a lot better for EVERYONE if we offered $1000 sterilize-before-you-populate stipends. What are these orphans going to cost us now? Just getting them here was probably lkike $10,000. 1/25/2010 10:21:09 AM

Right on! Why can't this country see that STERILIZATION is a positive move for our country and other countries. In our country we would be much farther ahead to offer $5000 to ANYONE who agreed to be sterilized; one sterilization would save how much in welfare?...hundreds of thousands of dolllars! So what if the individual went out and blew the money on crack...that's irrelevant. The US should EXPECT sterilization contracts in exchange for aid to these poor, overpopulated countries that cannot feed their own. 1/25/2010 10:30:22 PM 


Excuse me while I shower...BTW, the commenter who asks is he's a racist, really uses the confederate flag as his or her avatar.

But then again we have people in office who are just as ignorant. Take for instance, South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer - candidate for governor of SC - who compared reduced lunch program in public schools to feeding stray animals. "You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said.

I'm just surprised that none of these creeps have suggested that the earthquake is God's birth control!

After all, Pat Robertson thinks its punishment for their voodoo.

Soledad O'Brien's Eyewitness Report on the Haitian Relief Effort and Adoption

Soledad O'Brien "The Haiti Relief Effort" Interview with Kam Williams 

By Kam Williams, Syndicated at many news outlets where you can rad the entire story. Following are intro and some excerpts:

In the wake of the Haitian earthquake, CNN's Soledad O'Brien rushed to the region to deliver the same sort of high-quality, eyewitness coverage that she has dependably broadcast in the past on location after location from such disasters area as the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

KW: I told my readers I'd be speaking with you, and they sent in a lot of questions.

KW: Mirah Riben, author of a couple books on adoption asks, what you think of the people rushing to adopt Haitian babies?

SO: I think anybody who is willing to adopt a child in any situation is amazing. That's really a very selfless thing to do. However, I agree with those who say that adoption should not be rushed. The adoption process in Haiti normally takes several years, and it should. It would be terrible to risk an adoption by someone who should not be adopting a child. Still, what I find frustrating is that so many people see it as an either/or situation. You can do an airlift for kids who are dying, feed them, and return them without adopting them out. It doesn't have to be either snatching babies out of their parents' arms or leaving them there to die. There's a middle ground in there, and what's made me really angry is how the question has been posed as one or the other. Plus, there are plenty of orphanages that don't offer kids for adoption, but just take care of kids for people who can't afford to raise them. In a way, those kids are currently the most desperate, since they're totally under the radar. You get a sense that their situation is very dire and that no one is keeping track of them. So, it sort of annoys me that there isn't a sense of urgency about trying to save them, too.

KW: Mirah also feels that people inclined to adopt on impulse ought to be encouraged instead to donate money so the kids can be raised right there by relatives and grow up in Haiti in their own culture.

SO: Yeah, the impulse to adopt is coming from a great place. I felt the same way when I encountered a truck with about 25 babies lying in the back. I wanted to grab as many as I could hold and run for the border. They had diarrhea and started puking all over me. I can't tell you how many of my personal friends have asked, "What do I have to do to help one of those babies?" Their thinking is, if they're going to die, it's worth trying to save them, no matter what's involved. That's a wonderful impulse. But I think there's a vast middle ground between adoption and doing nothing. I've spoken to bureaucrats who say, "Well, you know, we don't want to rush anything," and I've responded, "But human beings are literally dying, and it really disturbs me that you're waiting." I had parents handing me their kids. They were like, "Please take this child and educate him."

KW: This reminds me that Mirah was wondering whether you're aware of the controversy suggesting that children are being taken out of the country before their relatives can be located.

SO: Absolutely! That's not a controversy. It's a fact. You should never want to adopt children out and give them a new set of parents before you've done your due diligence to find their biological parents. What I would suggest is that instead of adopting them out, you make sure they're safe and fed. You just take care of them. We certainly have the resources to do it in Haiti, once the infrastructure is fixed.

Israeli Social Service: Take Care of Our Own Kids Before Haiti's

Aid groups oppose adoption of Haitian orphans

Following Social Affairs Ministry's intention to promote adoption of Haitian children left without families, aid organizations say idea is noble, yet needs of foreign workers' children living in Israel should be addressed first

Yael Branovsky

Published:

01.24.10, 21:02 / Israel News

Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog announced Saturday the Ministry's intention to promote the adoption of Haitian orphans, and noted that many Israelis have already expressed willingness to join the effort. However, Israeli aid organizations expressed uneasiness following the announcement, and claimed that despite the important moral gesture, there was a need to first find a solution to the thousands of foreign workers' children who are living in Israel without a regulated status, and with constant fear of deportation. "We laud the moral decision to adopt Haitian children, but call on Israel's government to show the same compassion and humanity toward the 1,200 immigrant workers who live in Israel," founder of Israeli Children Organization Rotem Ilan told Ynet. Surprisingly, the Israel National Council for the Child (NCC) also expressed its fierce objection. "Children of foreign workers and offspring of asylum seekers live under very dire conditions in Israel, while the government and Welfare Ministry refuses to address their issues," said Executive Director of the NCC Dr. Yitzhak Kadman in a conversation with Ynet. According to Kadman, "It's good that Israel opens its heart to the hardship of children from the third world, but first it must take care of those that are already living among us." Kadman warned that transferring orphans from Haiti to Israel might cause them great damage: "Although the intention shows good will and concern, it is the wrong solution. If there are resources that can be allocated to the children of Haiti – they should be allocated toward aiding them and their country. Extracting children that have gone through major trauma to a far away country where they will be detached from their culture and extended families is a dire mistake," said Kadman. Israelis willing to adopt The adoption of children from Haiti, if indeed carried out, is dependent on the approval of The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The organization's spokesperson said that they will first conduct thorough investigations in an attempt to locate the orphans' relatives – and only if those are not found – the children can be adopted. "After we finish the process of reuniting families in Haiti, there are likely to be children left without a home, and we will be glad to assist the welfare authorities in Israel and in the other countries that wish to adopt," said Chairman of UNICEF Israel, attorney Muriel Matalon. According to Matalon, "at this point we must act to locate and reunite families and only after all efforts have been exhausted, we can start to promote international adoption in accordance with the Hague Convention." Orna Hirshfield, who is in charge of adoption services at the Welfare and Social Services Ministry said that even prior to Minister Herzog's announcement, the ministry received over 100 requests from families that showed an interest in adopting orphans from Haiti. "The adoption process will begin only after potential parents go through parental adequacy testing, and the State of Israel settles the matter with Haitian authorities – a process that might take several months," she said. Meanwhile...an Israeli blogger friend of mine hit the nail on the head. HAITIAN EARTHQUAKE, MADE IN USA? Ya' gotta click the link just to see the great graphic!  Haiti: opportunity knocks Richard Seymour You want to hear about chutzpah? You want to hear about sheer gravity-defying audacity? Well, ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, prepare to catch your lower jaw. Forget Limbaugh’s racist anxieties. Forget about Pat Robertson drooling about Haiti’s ‘pact with the devil’. He’s a senile old bigot, and his sick provocations are familiar by now. This is the Heritage Foundation on the Haiti earthquake, which is estimated to have killed 100,000 people: Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region… While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally. Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue.