14 April 2014
Today’s news from Ireland. New information came to light following a request under the Freedom for Information ACT:
Just months before Ireland signed an adoption agreement with the US, the Adoption Authority (AAI) admitted there were wide ranging “difficulties” with the “practice and ethics” of adoptions from Florida.
Responding to concerns from social workers, Celia Loftus, the AAI’s principal social worker, acknowledged “a number of ethical issues” in relation to adopting from Florida.
Principle among these was that domestic adoption was not used when available in Florida, a key requirement of the Hague Convention which Ireland ratified in 2010, and that the adoptive parents were chosen by the natural mother while she was still pregnant.
Same issue was brought up in the Netherlands in 2009.
Netherlands limits adoption of US children
Huge pressure was put on the Dutch Parliament, by the Gay community, and by those desperate to adopt newborn babies (only available in the US!)
Including a TV show the evening before the Parliamentary Debate:
Still high on Amsterdam trip, Landrieu promotes adoption of Dutch model (part one)
Overnight, the Dutch parliamentarians collectively changed their mind, as well as the Minister of Justice.
Adoptions from the US continued. Just some cosmetic changes were done to the adoption procedure.
Last year ACT sent a letter to Hague Conference, requesting clarification on the subsidiarity principle and US mother’s preference for intercountry adoption. And even after a reminder: No reply.
Let’s be clear: the birth mother’s preference for intercountry adoption cannot override the subsidiarity principle.
The Hague Conference wrote that very clearly to the Dutch Central Authority. Read for yourself, end of paeg 2:
LETTER HAGUE CONFERENCE TO THE DUTCH MINISTRY OF JUSTICE – DECEMBER 2008
Still, business continues.
