American parents send adopted 8-year old back to Russia – by himself
An 8-year old boy arrived at a Moscow airport from the United States on Saturday morning. “I refuse him”, read the note the boy carried with him.
The Russian internet daily Gazeta.ru quoted the Russian representative on children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, as saying the child had been earlier adopted in Russia by an American couple. The boy was adopted six months ago.
The fact that an 8-year old arrived by plane without accompanying adults was revealed only at immigration control. Astakhov learned that the boy had been adopted earlier from the care taking bodies. As of Thursday evening the boy was taken to a police station in Moscow and the hearing representative went there, too, to clarify the situation.
Later in the day Astakhov spoke on the Ekho Moskvy radio station and said the boy’s name is Artyom (aka Artem) Justin Hanson. The boy was born in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, and arrived in Moscow from Washington.
“That's the letter the boy had with him, where his adopted mother says that she is disappointed, that she is sorry, that she sees that the child is unstable and in order not to ruin her own family, herself and relations with her friends, she wants to give up the child,” Astakhov said. “The American Consul confirms that there is a procedure to give up a child; it's not that easy, it's not a pet that you can take and then give away.”
Further, Astakhov said he would ask the authorities to suspend the practice of Russian children’s adoption by Americans. “We must tighten the control over candidates for international adoption. I will raise this question now as it is possible that we must even suspend American adoptions to clarify how many similar cases we have there,” the Russian official said.
Now Artyom is being treated at one of the hospitals in the Russian capital. According to a preliminary examination by doctors, his condition is satisfactory.
This latest case is just one of many adoption scandals with Russian orphans and American adoptive parents being involved.
According to officials, the boy does not speak in Russian, but does understand Russian. The children's ombudsman, located in the police department, said the boy was named Artem. American parents gave him the name Artem Justin Hanson. He was adopted six months ago.
The American consulate has tried to acknowledge that they will take care of the boy but Russian police found a Russian passport on him and that gives Russia the ability to control the destiny of the child. As this is not the first time that Americans are having problems with the adoption of Russian children, and it seems that Russia is seeing a need to have tighter controls in the process of adoption.
See: 3/5 post; 3/15 post; 3/16 post
People like this need to be punished to the fulle extent of the law to send message to others that children do not come with warranties or gauarantees and are not "returnable." This is egregious and will likely cause international consequences as well as simply being immoral to take the adoption of a child so cavlerly and selfshly cause lifelong harm to this child.
10 comments:
'International consequences'...I do hope so!It is time assessments were done properly, better suppost was provided for mothers who relinquish and the adoption industry was stopped from making vast profits.I'll say no more before I get disrespectful, make personal attacks,offend or get accused of flaming.
This is just absolutely horrible and I can't believe someone would do this to a child.
There are no words to adequately describe how horrendous this is! That poor child. The adoptive parents should be charged & punished with every charge imaginable. I pray the adopters have no other children.
Susie
That sounds like a made up story. Just because someone "said it" doesn't mean it's true. The parents could get in all kinds of jailtime type trouble in the US for abandoning a child.
http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-04-08/adopted-russian-child-returns.html
When children are adopted from Russia, the adoptive parents are not told anything about the childs problems. I have become acquainted with an adoptive parent who spent thousands of dollars to adopt a child from Russia. She was told nothing. He suffer's from many psychiatric disorders.He has been in and out of hospitals since the adoption, five years ago. He has tried to kill the mother and his sister several times. He admits he doesn't want a family and plans to hurt his family if he's sent home again. He has done much more to harm the people around him, too much to list. The Russian government should be held accountable for the dishonesty they practice adopting out their un-adoptable children.
There is lots of accountability to go around. How naive can anyone be to think a SEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD - no matter where he is coming form is going to be problem free...or that all can vbe solved within SIX MONTHS!
Children who have bene institutionalized it goes without saying they are troubled as result.
Children from Eastern Europe are known to have high rates of FAS.
Why do people ignore these realities and then act shocked when the child has difficulty attaching??
And who gives up on a child after just six months? And who treats a child like a returnable piece of merchandise??
I don't agree with how the parents reacted but until you understand what happens with many IA (internationally adopted) and traumatized children, don't be so quick to demonize the parents. Agencies need to emphasize post placement support services and of course it goes without saying education on the front end is extremely important. If perspective parents knew the truth about some of the childrens' trauma and abandonment histories, there would be less parents willing to take some of the children on but better stability for the children. Read more on my blog
http://inciid.blogspot.com/2010/04/adoptions-good-bad-and-ugly.html
INCID Inc.,
With all the talk about children in foster care being "too old" and "damaged" it seems one would have to living in a cave not to understand the risks of adopting an older institutionalized child.
Do issues of race and distance between birth family make prospective adopters so eager they loose their common senses?
People do far more research before buying a new camera or an electric toothbrush than it seems Hansen did. She's a single mother, for goodness sake, and new reports claim she tried to adopt a SECOND child before ending this adoption...and she never told the agency there was a problem!
Why should anyone have compassion for such stupidity and inhumanity? Does a child's behavior ever warrant or justify abuse or neglect or make it understandable?
Yes, part of the onus is on the orphanages and agencies eager to seal a deal. But in the end everyone is responsible for themselves and for the children they INTENTIONALLY take responsibility of.
Anyone would be outraged at a natural mother who abandoned her child. In fact there was public outrage when nebraska left the age limit on their "safe haven" open ended and people were dumping their unruly teens!
Whatever the law says - what Hansen did was abandonment. She did not seek out social service assistance but took matters into her own hands and did something despicable....an act of abuse that will permanently traumatize a child she committed to care for. Not acceptable.
Institutionalizing a child after exhausting all other options _ which she had nOT after only six months - is sometimes the only avenue for parents, biological and adoptive. But there is a difference in finding out of home care and giving up all your rights and responsibilities to a child.
Public scorn against the dumping of unruly teens in Nebraska's age-unlimited "Safe Haven" got them stopped.
Public scorn against the doctor who inseminated Nadya Suleman is getting those regulations looked at.
Public scorn will hopefully stand to make others think more carefully before committing acts of child abuse like Hansen and Tedaldi.
I "understand" what drives people to snap and commit many acts of abuse and murder against children, spouses, etc. But not after six months and not while trying to adopt another child against the advise of your adoption agency...etc., etc.
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