Profit, not care: The ugly side of overseas adoptions

Date: 2011-06-05

Lax regulation and an endless demand by childless couples in the West has created an often exploitative market in babies born in the developing world

By Laurie Penny
Sunday, 5 June 2011

In rural Nepal, where the going rate for a healthy orphan is $5,000 (£3,000), some 600 children are missing. They were taken by agents who came to the villages promising that they would educate the children and give them a better life in the capital, sometimes for a steep fee. The children never returned. (more…)

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The scandal of orphanages in tourist resorts and disaster zones that rent children to fleece gullible Westerners

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk 
By IAN BIRRELL
10th April 2011

As a child welfare expert who has worked amid bullets and bombs in some of the world’s toughest war zones, Jennifer Morgan is not someone easily shaken. But even she admits she was shocked by some of the orphanages she visited recently in Haiti.
‘Outside it is a sunny day. Then you step inside the walls of an orphanage and realise that the children there have been exposed to rapes, severe beatings, emotional and mental trauma,’ she said. It was even more disturbing, she added, than the damaged children she came across amid the deadly mayhem of Darfur.
But perhaps the most troubling thing is that these tragic scenes in Haiti are not unusual. In dozens of places around the world, unregulated orphanages have become a boom business trading off Western guilt. Our desire to help is backfiring in the most dreadful fashion. (more…)

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The International Adoption Working Group urges better adoption process

This article was published on the website www.thehimalayantimes.com
 2010-02-24

KATHMANDU: The ad hoc International Adoption Working Group (IAWG) on Wednesday urged the Government of Nepal to act swiftly to strengthen the adoption process. (more…)

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Israel mulling Haiti adoptions

Welfare minister orders officials to look into possibility of adopting Haitian orphans; ‘We will work vis-à-vis authorities in Haiti to determine number of children to be adopted,’ Isaac Herzog tells Ynet
Roni Sofer
Published: 01.23.10, 18:59 / Israel News
Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog has ordered officials to look into the possibility of adopting dozens of orphaned Haitian children.

In a conversation with Ynet, Herzog said: “The orphaned children in Haiti are a grave humanitarian issue. I ordered an examination into the possibility of adopting orphans in Israel in line with international and Israeli law, in order to offer help in the face of this terrible distress.” (more…)

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Egg scandal: Doctor uses son’s adoption as line of defense

Defense attorney for Dr. Harry Miron, who is held by Romanian authorities on suspicion of egg trafficking, claims his client was never motivated by greed, but rather by his wife’s experience with IVF
Attila SomfalviPublished: 07.27.09, 14:08 / Israel News

Dr. Harry Miron, the Israeli owner of the Sabyc Fertility Clinic in Bucharest, claimed Monday that his actions were never motivated by greed, but rather based on “personal drama,” namely his wife’s experience with IVF.
 
Harry Miron, along with his son and 30 of their employees were arrested by Romanian authorities last week on suspicion of human egg and stem cell trafficking.
 
According to reports in the Romanian media, Sabyc Clinic is said to have grossed nearly €20 million in its years of operation. (more…)

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High Court rules that parental age no impediment to adoption

Source: www.haaretz.com
Date: 2008-03-26

By Ofra Edelman

The High Court of Justice ruled yesterday that children from abroad can be adopted by parents more than 48 years their senior if special circumstances justify it.

The court ruled that when such adoptions are denied due to the age gap, the decision can be reconsidered by an appeals committee. The case was filed by the organization New Family, which hailed the ruling as a breakthrough. Advertisement

Court President Dorit Beinisch noted, however, that the opinion is not a wide-open door to make use of the exception. “It can be assumed that the appeals committee will formulate criteria for granting an exception to the rule, and will limit the exception to special, unusual cases that merit this exception,” Beinisch said. (more…)

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Adoption shakedown – childless couple left without money and without baby

Source: www.haaretz.com 
Last update – 11:32 13/03/2008

By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent

They were married 10 years ago. When the wife couldn’t get pregnant she began fertility treatments.

“We underwent numerous treatments. Every time we asked about adoption we were told to try another treatment,” the husband says bitterly.

When they despaired and finally decided to adopt, they found that in Israel they would have to wait five years unless they agreed to adopt an older or handicapped child.

“We agonized over this and finally accepted the idea of adopting a foreign child,” the husband says. (more…)

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52 children adopted have gone

01 Oct 2007
Mariana Iancu

County Department of Child Protection Constanta advertising do not know anything of the fate of 52 children who
been adopted internationally in the period 1997-2000.
Chief Directorate, Peter Dinica, said the Romanian Office for Adoption (ORA) has not submitted any report
postadoptie, as was the procedure. The 52 children are only part of the total 422 that were adopted internationally
in the range noted. They arrived in Canada (1), Cyprus (1), France (3), Greece (6), Israel (27), U.S. (7) and Italy (7).
Representatives of the Romanian Office for Adoption confirmed that these reports were received, despite insistence by
countries where children were adopted. (more…)

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Romania’s orphans – millions of euro at stake

from: sfin.ro
October 9, 2006
Many European organizations involved in a forceful lobby for the resumption of international adoptionsIt isn’t charity, it is business. The European Parliament’s resolution – adopted on the 10th of July 2006 and signed by 407 MEPs that asked the Romanian Government to authorize international adoptions for 1,092 children – is generated by the necessity to cut a deal. It is the result of the lobby promoted by NGOs and lawyers that used to win or that are going (or not going) to win almost 20 million euro – depending on the success of their actions. The spearhead of these interest groups is a very important person: Francois de Combret. (more…)
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Israelis Can Now Adopt Children from India.

Publication: Israel Faxx
Date: Wednesday, November 12 2003
By Ruth Sinai, Ha’aretz Correspondent

Israelis may now adopt children from India, according to an agreement reached about a month ago between the two countries. It is expected to help many Israeli families, as there are few states from which children can be adopted.

initially objected to the Israeli demand to convert the adopted children to Judaism in Israel. However, they were eventually persuaded to agree. Amatzia, a non-profit organization under the National Religious Party’s Emunah women’s movement, is one of some 10 agencies licensed to bring foreign children here for adoption. Amatzia initiated the contact with India after most existing foreign adoption sources dried up. (more…)

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