What's Wrong With Surrogacy

To Americans of means - especially celebs - how one chooses to have a child is a matter of choosing selections from a menu: chow mien or lo mien; red car or blue. "It's just another option."

But it is NOT. Not for the women who risks their lives to serve as Handmaids for those who use them as human incubators.

Renting out her womb to a US couple cost Amraiwadi resident Premila Vaghela, 36, her life. Trying to give a child to the couple, she died on Monday leaving her two sons motherless. But, her family has refused to demand compensation for her death.

Doctors at Pulse Hospital, where Premila was undergoing treatment, said that they would request the biological and adopting/contractual parents  -- who are overjoyed with their new baby that costs his mother her life -- to give more compensation to Premila's family.  Guess they hadn't thought to offer on their own, or were just too busy celebrating their good news.

Premila's mother, however, , more than 80 years old, had anger in her voice. "I have lost my daughter. Now, we don't want anything from anybody," she said. 

Dr Pravin Patel said that she was admitted in the hospital for four days after complaint of pain in the stomach. While she was waiting with her husband for a routine check-up, she got a sudden convulsion and had to be shifted to the operation theatre. "We controlled her fluctuating blood pressure twice and also revived her," he said. Premila's blood pressure was low and the fetus received less blood and oxygen but is OK.

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE, so you can reference it when someone lauds surrogacy as a fine "choice" or asks what's wrong with it!

And to Oprah Winfrey who hailed Indian surrogacy as a win-win, I hope you've seen this news article and make a  public retraction. It was shameful watching Winfrey chuckle about a photo of tiny little Indian woman carrying a child for a huge hulking six-foot plus man without a thought to the RISK. 

Tighter Rules for Adoption from India

MUMBAI: Foreign adoptive parents may soon have to seek permission from the Indian government before they can put their adopted children in another home or with other foster parents if any problem arises. They may even have to spend some time with the child in India before taking him or her abroad and have to agree to set aside $5000 as defray costs of a failed adoption, in case the child has to be sent back to India.

In a slew of recommendations that are going to be finalised by the Bombay high court next week, the Government of India and the Central Adoption Regulatory Authority have imposed obligations on foreign adoption agencies, while laying down the formalities to be followed for inter-country adoptions. Once the guidelines are finalised, agencies specialising in inter-country adoptions will be made more accountable for their act than they are now.

During a hearing in a case of a 14-year-old girl who was adopted by foreign parents only to be abandoned later, Justice D Y Chandrachud had initiated the process of framing guidelines to ensure a safety net for all international adoptions. During a series of hearings, the judge had earlier expressed its displeasure at the Centre for not acting in a responsible manner. The government finally has now come out with draft guidelines which additional solicitor general Darius Khambata read out in the judge's chamber on Friday.

The guidelines state that in case of children with special needs, the adoptive parents must spend at least two weeks with the child in India prior to adoption. They should also be prepared to shell out more than $5000, so that in case of a failed adoption, the child can be looked after till he or she turns 18. If a child is sent back to India, $5000 must be sent immediately, the draft guidelines stipulate.

Rules for foreign adoptions soon - Mumbai - City - The Times of India

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As I read this, my first reaction was of course, good. Clamp down. make it tougher to adopt transnationally.

But when I completed the article i was left thinking how bureaucrats see things incorrectly in several major ways:

First they try to patch holes in an already patch-ridden ship instead of ditching it and considering taking a plane to get to where they want to be...or better still, consider staying right where you are and improving life there!

Secondly, from their standpoint its all about finances. If a child being returned then costs them dollars to support, the adopters who committed to the child's care should bear the burden, not he state. I agree. I have stated many times that Torry Hansen, for instance, should pay support for the life - or minor years - of Artyem, just as a parent in a divorce does.

 

However, no amount of money will repair the damage done to a child who is tossed aside, unwanted in the most blatant way that is unexplainable in terms of his family's poverty.  

I see nowhere in these plans to provide increase screening and pre-adoption education.

And, I see no effort on the part of India to care for their own and set aside funds to encourage domestic adoptions.

Only punitive emasures, after the horse is out of the barn.

Sad. Very sad.

Human Trafficking in International Adoption

"Adoption is already steeped in the legacy of loss for the child and his family. Add to this the recent revelations of the selling of babies for adoption in countries like Vietnam and India, and one needs only to reconsider who exactly is benefiting from adoption.," says Kevin Minh Allen in his recent Conducive article, The Price We All Pay: Human Trafficking in International Adoption which explores move to change the definition of the word "orphan" to increase intercountry adoption.

"The underlying assumption is that the exportation of a child, regardless of context or circumstances, to a more affluent environment is a 'humanitarian act'. "

"The kidnapping and abduction, coercion and intimidation, and buying and selling of children for adoption are an abomination not just to American values, but also to anyone who takes human rights seriously. Regardless of best intentions and relative (relative being the optimal word here) affluence that many adopted children have experienced, the exposure and punishment of people who engage in fraud and profiteering under the pretense of adoption should be vigorously pursued."

"Jane Jeong Trenka’s essay mentioned the crux of the problem here: In spite of adoption agencies’ contention that they wish they could heal the broken ties between mother and child, there is way too much money to be made off of those broken ties, and adoption agencies have no intention of getting out of the business of finding children for expectant parents."


"The nasty little secret about adoption is that most of the time it is steeped in unnecessary loss for the child and its family."

"...international adoption ... has become a lucrative market for unscrupulous people to exploit a vulnerable population in order to export children overseas to ostensibly satisfy a relatively well-off client class. This demand for healthy infants feeds the cycle of corruption that attempts to cater to its desire for children to build its family. An untold number of children have been either displaced or separated from their birth families, either through coercion, financial motivation or abduction and are now living in adoptive families who remain blissfully unaware or, worse, do not even care."

Could it be any clearer?

I am constantly called upon to defend words like "corrupt" exploitaion, coercion, trafficking and even industry and phrases like "supply and demand"...in regards to adoption by those who want to continue to see the world through rose-colored glasses and want to beleive that adoption rescues "unwanted" chidlren."

Could anything saying it clearer than this?

Nepal urged to focus on child rights in adoption
Fri Aug 29, 2008 7:02pm IST

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - The sale, abduction and trafficking of children is rife in Nepal and the government should do more to encourage adoption by domestic families, a U.N. study released on Friday said.

Nepal suspended adoption of its children by foreign families last year amid criticism that the practice involved corruption and some children were being sold for thousands of dollars.

But the government cleared most of the 442 pending applications for adoption early this year after preparing a new set of rules for foreigners wanting to adopt Nepali children, officials said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a Swiss child relief agency, Terre des hommes (Tdh), said in a report only four out of every 100 adopted children were adopted by Nepali families. Many were not orphaned and were separated from their families.

"An industry has grown up around adoption in which profit rather than the best interests of the child takes the centre stage," said Gillian Mellsop, chief of UNICEF in Nepal.

"Appropriate legal safeguards and a functioning alternative care to parental care can prevent abuse and allow intercountry adoption to continue for those who need it."

Prakash Kumar Adhikary, a senior official in the Nepali Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, said the Himalayan republic was trying to prepare comprehensive new laws in line with international conventions on adoption, and until then new requests from foreign families would not be considered.

"The existing rules are not comprehensive enough and we must create necessary legal and other infrastructure before accepting new requests," Adhikary said.

Joseph Aguettant, Nepal chief of Tdh, said the government should play a key role in adoption, which must not be left to the orphanages or other centres alone.

"Biological parents are often misled," he said. "Parents were led to believe that the child will return to them. But this is not the case."

Families from the United States and western Europe are increasingly turning to countries such Nepal for adoption.

Activists said hundreds of children from Nepal, among the world's poorest countries, have been adopted by foreign families in recent years.

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Sadly, Nepal is NOT the exception! A "racket" stealing and selling children for adoption in India has recently come to light...despite the long, hard work of David Smolin in reporting this. These countries are just the newest additions to the long list of countries exploited, as the vulture baby brokers follow poverty and social upheaval around the globe starting in Asia, to eastern Europe, South America, now back to southern Asia and Africa...with Ethiopia being the newest adoption marketplace.

The Hague is helping. According the most recent update (August 28th) from the U.S. State Department, the following agencies have bee DENIED accreditation:

A.A.C.
Berthoud, CO
April 2008
Colorado DHS

Adoption Blessings Worldwide
Macon, GA
April 2008
COA

Adoption From the Heart
Wynnewood, PA
May 2008
COA

Adopt International
Miami Beach, FL
May 2008
COA

Angel’s Haven Outreach
Indio, CA
May 2008
COA

Celebrate Children
Oviedo, FL
May 2008
COA

Children's House International
Ferndale, WA
May 2008
COA

Children's Hope International
St. Louis, MO
July 2008
COA

Commonwealth Adoptions International Inc.
Tuscon, AZ
May 2008
COA

Cradle of Hope Adoption Center
Silver Springs Maryland
May 2008
COA

DeColores Adoptions International
Lake Charles, LA
May 2008
COA

Florida Home Studies and Adoptions
arasota, FL
May 2008
COA

Focus on Children dba Focus on
Children of Wyoming
Cokeville, WY
May 2008
COA

Las Estrellas
dba Adoption Partners
Simpsonville, SC
March 2008
COA

Plan Loving Adoptions Now
McMinnville, OR
June 2008
COA

West Sands Adoption
St. George, Utah
July 2008
COA

World Partners Adoption
Lawrenceville, GA
June 2008
COA

Worldwide Adoption Services
Spartanburg, SC
June 2008
COA

But we need to do MORE!