Ethical Adoption (original) (raw)
I'm a mom whose daughter came to through a domestic open adoption and I wanted to invite community members to check out OpenAdoptionSupport.com, a social networking site I put together.
This is from the About Us page:
Those of us who are in open adoptions know how hard it is to get answers when the inevitable conflicts arise. If we talk to friends and family who don't share our commitment to openness we hear, "It's time you moved on" or "You should just close the adoption." Even fellow members in our respective adoption communities may not be much help. If we are first parents, other first parents in closed adoptions may not be able to understand what we're going through. If we're adoptive parents, we may hear the same tired "close the adoption" from families who don't support openness.
I built this site so that we can find each other, learn from each other and support each other.
Not all of us are living open adoptions -- we may not have access to our kids or we may not have access to their other parents -- but we are living in the belief that open adoption is important to our children.
One thing I want to make clear is that this site, as an entity, does not promote one way to have a healthy open adoption. Open adoption looks like a lot of different things for different families and what works for one family may not work for another. We also understand that sometimes our belief in open adoption is not shared by our children's other parents. If you are put of a closed adoption that you wish were open, know that you are welcome here.
What we have in common is the understanding that our children have two families and that both families matter because they matter to our children. We may disagree on the details but that's the central value that drives this site.
Hope you'll check it out!
Hello ~
I just wanted to share the following article with you for your opinions and input.
I am saddened and angered by the situation descibed below. I don't think that adoptive parents are being screened well enough, nor are they given proper preparation for special-needs children, nor post-adoption counseling and assistance. Having a barren womb or the desire to be "charitable" should not qualify people to adopt children who have been institutionalized and have special needs.
I know this is not the only case of its kind...
I have put together a support site for families who are in open adoptions (including those who are seeking more openness and those who had an adoption close against their wishes). The site is hopefully a way to find in real life support through local support groups put together by community members. This idea is based on the open adoption support group that's been going on for 18+ years at The Kinship Center in California.
Open adoption -- like any relationship -- can be challenging and those of us who are committed to it can have a hard time finding support. Not everyone understands the value of openness and not everyone (including adoption professionals) understands how to persevere through tough times. My hope is that by creating a grassroots effort to demand post-adoption services through local support groups we can help families build open adoption relationships that work for everyone.
I want it to be a collaborative effort. If you register at the site and want to be able to contribute more than links, just give me a heads up and I’ll give you editor privileges. I want a variety of experiences reflected there so it’ll be welcoming (not just the sugar cookie happy info but also the hard realities from a pro-openness perspective).
Also, you are welcome to copy and paste blog entries there if you think they ought to be available for people who wander by looking for open adoption info. If you put your web site in your profile then registrants will be able to click on your author name and find where you live online. And you are welcome to submit your own blog (as well as other favorite open adoption sites) to the links list as well.
Remember, experience with open adoption is not limited to people who are right now living in a fully open adoption. Those of us who have had adoptions close against our wishes, who want to open up semi-open adoptions or who wish they had more contact with their child’s other family are welcome to share info there. If what you have to say is informative, encouraging, or important for people to know (for example, what happens when openness is truncated) then please come say it.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY — if you would like to try to put together an open adoption support group in your hometown, please come say so on the boards. Remember, your contact info will be anonymous (people will only be able to email you through the site).
Adoption chief used Vietnam fraudster as a tour guide
Tuesday July 11th 2006
THE registrar of the Irish Adoption Board employed corrupt adoption
facilitator My Linh Soland to act as a guide last week - despite the
fact that she was under investigation by his organisation and the
gardai.
Kiernan Gildea travelled to Vietnam with a scout group on a
volunteering holiday which also included sightseeing excursions.
September 04, 2005
Tristan and real mother are reunited
Jan Battles
IN a quiet city park in Jakarta, on a sunny day late last month,
Tristan Dowse was reunited with his natural mother.
The four-year-old boy, who has been living in an Indonesian orphanage
since being abandoned there two years ago by his adoptive Irish
father, met his mother for the first time since his birth.
Tristan and his birth mother, Suranyi, have spent the past three weeks
re-establishing their relationship after they were brought together by
an RTE documentary team.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4189558.stm
Ukraine baby theft claims probed
Pregnant mother (generic)
The mothers of the babies were said to be all in excellent health
Harrowing reports of babies stolen at birth and human organ removal in an Ukrainian city are to be investigated by a top European political body.
The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is sending a rapporteur to Kharkiv as Ukraine's prosecutors delve into the cases of three mothers.
"People are afraid to even give birth now," Kharkiv campaigner Tatyana Zakharova told the BBC News website.
The main hospital under scrutiny has dismissed accusations against it.
In Shadow Of Adoption
By JULIE PACE jpace@tampatrib.com
Published: Aug 21, 2005
TAMPA - They went to Vietnam for the same reason - two women trying to find homes for abandoned children.
Mai-Ly Latrace, 32, of St. Petersburg, arranges international adoptions and says working with orphans is a calling from God. Her heart breaks when she sees a child in need, she says, and she has worked tirelessly to place children with loving parents overseas.
Parents such as Carrie West of Roswell, Ga. But West says her attempts to adopt in Vietnam were marred by lies and fraud. She places the blame on Latrace, who West says isn't building families but instead is trafficking children.
| Poster: |  karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-08-15 03:02 |
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http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch141.html
Sometimes, God has to remind us that he can use anyone. In the case of Baby Tamia, the African-American child who was given up for adoption by her young mother in Utah, God used just about everyone in sight to bring the baby home. When the baby's birth mother changed her mind about leaving the baby with a Utah couple, and the adoption agency refused to send the baby home, that could have been the end of the story.
But at 9:30 a.m. today at Sweet Holy Spirit Church on the South Side, Gov. Blagojevich will sign into law a sweeping adoption reform bill that is designed to prevent future "Baby Tamia" cases. The reforms will make it tougher for out-of-state agencies like Heart-to-Heart and A Cherished Child to get around adoption laws in Illinois.
| Poster: | karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-08-15 02:14 |
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| Security: | Public |
Blagojevich signs adoption reform legislation
Associated Press
CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Sunday that bars adoption profiteering and gives the state more control over adoption agencies.
The Adoption Reform Act will help prevent interstate custody battles like the one earlier this year involving a Chicago family, officials said.
In January, the mother and grandmother of Baby Tamia sued a for-profit suburban Salt Lake City adoption agency to get the child back. The family said the agency pressured Tamia's mother into signing away her parental rights.
The custody battle persisted until March when the agency declined to place the girl with prospective parents in Utah after they were arrested on drug charges. A Cook County judge also ruled the agency had violated federal law requiring paperwork to be completed in the state where a child is born. Tamia was reunited with her mother that week.
The state law signed Sunday creates a "bill of rights" for biological parents and adoptive parents and requires agencies to disclose policies, fees and basic information on a child's placement to prospective adoptive parents.
The law, which takes effect immediately, also stipulates that fees must be reasonable, and that agencies involved in adoptions in Illinois must become not-for-profit organizations within the next two years.
"Children given up for adoption should end up with families who love them and nurture them," Blagojevich said in a statement. "With these reforms, we're making sure that adoptions are about building families - not making a profit."
Just wanted to say hello. Atrix Daisy recommended this community to me and I see some other friends of mine are here as well.
I am a natural mom to a daughter born 1986. I surrendered to an agency in the States that was later found to be less than ethical. I am actively searching for my daughter and I have helped numerous others from my agency search and reunite.
Cheers.
Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0>
&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0
Five-member gang held for kidnapping children
Wednesday May 4 2005 10:18 IST
CHENNAI: A five-member gang, suspected to be involved in the kidnapping of
over 350 children over the last 15 years, was arrested by the city police on
Tuesday. The gang targeted street children, children from poor families and
those in the maternity wards of government hospitals and sold them to an
adoption centre at Madhuravedu, near Thiruverkadu, the police said.
The city police had been getting a number of complaints regarding missing
children over the past few years. They got a breakthrough after they nabbed
the main culprits, Varadharajan, 51, of Otteri, and Sheik Dawood, 42, of
Korukkupet. The duo used to kidnap children mainly from slum areas.
A child missing complaint was registered with the Otteri police station on
December 17, 1998, by Noorullah of Otteri. The complainant, on Tuesday
passed on a vital information about the abduction of his
one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Fathimma, to the police. He said the baby
was abducted by Varadharajan and Sheik Dawood.
The police swung into action and picked up Varadharajan, Sheik Dawood and
their aides Sabeetha, 55, of Pulianthopu, Navjeen, 32, of Korukkupet and
Manoharan, 49, of T P Chathiram. On further investigation, the police found
that the same gang had also kidnapped the three-and-a-half-year-old daughter
of Sabeen of Old Vannarapet and the two-and half-year-old daughter of
Kathirvelu of Pulianthoppu.
According to the police, these children were sold to an adoption centre for
prices ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 and they were later adopted by
both Indians and foreigners. Explaining the modus operandi, the police said
the gang members identified the kids first and then they slept on the
platforms close to their houses posing as beggars. They carried off the
children when everybody was asleep.
The adoption centre workers also had a role in this, the police said and
added that the gang had been operating for nearly 15 years. They even used
to steal children from maternity wards of Government General Hospitals, the
police sources said.
Investigation is on to find out the whereabouts of these kidnapped children.
Around 350 children could have been sold to the centre by this gang, they
said and added that it would be difficult to trace these children as they
would be anywhere between 10 and 15 years of age by now. The adoption centre
had also taken money from the adopting parents, they added.
However, the police said no case had been registered against 'Malaysian
Social Service', the adoption centre as of now and nobody had been picked up
from there.
| Poster: | karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-04-11 22:31 |
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| Security: | Public |
Unicef cites rising rate of child-trafficking
Monday, April 4, 2005 Updated at 9:10 AM EST
Associated Press
Manila — Unicef warned Monday that millions of children round the
globe are being trafficked annually in an illegal industry worth $10-
billion (U.S.) a year, rivalling the trade in illicit drugs and arms.
UN Children's Fund executive director Carol Bellamy urged
legislators worldwide to ensure the protection of children by
instituting laws that stop their exploitation and abuse.
"Parliamentarians have a choice," Ms. Bellamy said at the launch of
a handbook to help legislators combat child trafficking that
coincides with the Inter-Parliamentary Association's annual meeting
in Manila, attended by hundreds of legislators from all over the
world.
"They can make decisions that ensure the protection of children, or
they can make decisions that leave children vulnerable to being
exploited and abused," she said.
She said legislators can enact laws to protect children, allocate
funds from national budgets and use the power of parliamentary
inquiry to hold governments, industries and civil society
accountable.
IPU President Sergio Paez said ensuring respect for the rights of
children "is part of our social responsibility" and calls "not only
for the expression of political will, but also for the establishment
of institutions, standards and a new international culture."
Ms. Bellamy said child-trafficking persists because criminal
syndicates are behind the illicit trade, tourism is sometimes
involved and victims often are afraid to come forward.
Curbing poverty and ensuring that children are in school would help
reduce the vulnerability of youngsters from marginalized
communities, she added.
There are no exact figures, but a U.S. government report suggests
that 50 per cent of all trafficked victims are children. Unicef says
the trend is on the rise in an industry worth $10-billion (U.S.) a
year.
International Labour Organization figures for 2000 estimate 1.8
million children are exploited in the commercial sex industry, while
Unicef estimates that child soldiers have been used in more than 30
ongoing or recent armed conflicts in almost every region of the
world.
Other forms of trafficking and abuse include girls sold as brides
and children sold or stolen for adoption, or recruited to beg for
their captors.
| Poster: | karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-04-07 22:53 |
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The orphanage system has long been viewed as a necessity based on the
lack of knowledge among Koreans. Until the year 2004, the majority of
Koreans were under the impression that adopting or foster caring a child
was unheard of as the child did not come from the same bloodline.
However, this impression began to change in the year 2004 by simply
putting programs on television which promote adoptions and foster care.
Now that Koreas common impression has changed towards adoptions and
foster care, I'd like to explain a few of the problems the government is
faced with, a few of the reasons for which orphanages continue to exist
and how your bank, business or cooperation can help build a more
efficient and solid social and welfare system within Korea.
Government: Till last year, Koreans have viewed the orphanage system as
necessity. Thus the government felt a need for an orphanage system as
well. In any society, the will of the citizens or the acceptance of a
problems necessity is reflected on the attitude of a government as
government personnel are also citizens. In addition, government
employees are hampered with the obstacle to please the majority of the
public as their jobs are basically dependant on the voting community.
| Poster: | karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-04-01 21:31 |
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| Security: | Public |
PRESS RELEASE
10th January, 2005: AdoptionIreland requests check on Irish child following tsunami
AdoptionIreland: The Adopted People's Association has informed the Department of Foreign Affairs of its concerns for the safety of an Irish child in Indonesia, following the recent tsunami. The APA has formally requested the Department to ascertain his whereabouts and wellbeing.
The child in question was first brought to the attention of the APA last year, when they received reports that he had been abandoned. It has emerged that the child is of Indonesian origin and was adopted by an Irish man and his wife.
The APA established that the child had been adopted under Indonesian law and that the adoption had subsequently been recognised by the Irish Adoption Board. He is therefore an Irish citizen and the APA understands that he was issued with an Irish passport.
Some time after the adoption, his parents apparently returned to Europe after abandoning him to the care of an Indonesian woman, who, unable to afford his continued care, placed him in an orphanage outside Jakarta.
The APA were pursuing this matter with the Irish Adoption Board, but following the tsunami, they have been unable to contact the woman in Indonesia who first alerted them to the case. Given the lack of information available and following media reports on the abduction of Indonesian children for adoption after the tsunami, they have thus requested the Department of Foreign Affairs to intervene.
| Poster: | karuna3 |
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| Date: | 2005-04-01 21:27 |
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| Security: | Public |
http://www.americanadoptioncongress.org/articles-archives/legislation-samuels.htm
The widely accepted account of when adoptions in America became cloaked in secrecy goes something like this. Early in the twentieth century, states began moving toward protecting the privacy of participants in the adoption process by closing court records to public inspection. [FN6] Then, in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s, virtually all states took the further step of imposing a unitary regime of secrecy under which adopting parents and birth parents who were unknown to one another would remain unknown and under which adult adoptees could never learn the identity of their birth parents. [FN7] While it is true that a small number of states closed original birth records to adult adoptees at approximately the same time they otherwise closed adoption records to the parties, [FN8] most states proceeded much more slowly with respect to adult adoptees' access to birth records. [FN9] In fact, as late as 1960, some forty percent of the states still had laws on the books recognizing an unrestricted right of adult adoptees to inspect their original birth certificates. [FN10] It was only in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that all but three of those states changed their laws to close birth records to adoptees. [FN11] At the same time that those states *370 were closing birth records, a growing national advocacy movement for greater openness in adoption was encouraging many states to establish passive and active registries through which adult adoptees and birth parents could attempt to seek information about and establish contact with one another. [FN12]