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.
