In the United States, the number of children adopted internationally has fallen 52 percent -- from a high of 22,991 in 2004 to 11,058 last year. In comparison, 25,000-30,000 children were adopted through private agencies and about 50,000 were adopted through the foster care system in 2009, the most recent year for which those numbers are available.
Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor and international adoption expert, said those numbers are "pretty stunning. I see it as a crisis for international adoption, which I think is a crisis for children worldwide."
But others say a needed transition is under way, and that international adoption should be the last resort for finding homes for unparented children. Loose regulations and the large sums of money changing hands have spawned corrupt practices, they say, and as abuses are exposed, many countries have shut down or severely limited inter-country adoption.
"Which is as it should be," said Julie Gilbert Rosicky, executive director of the American branch of the International Social Service, a nonprofit active in 140 countries. "We should not be adopting children when children are being bought and sold or being stolen."
Adoption Initiative Conference 2022
2 years ago
6 comments:
The post stated the following:
Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor and international adoption expert, said those numbers are "pretty stunning. I see it as a crisis for international adoption, which I think is a crisis for children worldwide."
Obviously Ms. Bartholet is clueless about adoption from China and the corruption involved. To me, there is a simple reason why adoption from China is decreasing and that is because birth parents are either keeping their children, either because they can afford the fine or the recent scandals in China in Hunan and Zhenyuan have caused family planning and orphanage officials to stop doing "nasty things" (saving face is SOOOOO important in China) or keeping their children within China (informal adoption.) This should be celebrated and is certainly not a crisis, at least not in China.
Glad to see that the so-called "experts" really don't know that much. I apologize for my sarcasm.
You missed the funniest part of the article...
"DiFilipo's organization advocates for laws, funding and aggressive prosecution aimed at halting corrupt adoption practices.
"No one is saying that international adoption is the only or even the primary solution. The solution is in-country," said DiFilipo, whose organization has promoted domestic adoption in Albania, Russia, China and Africa. "But until we get to that point, adoption internationally might be the most viable (alternative)."
So Tom where are those laws you say you have worked so hard for to prosecute the bad guys - all I see is petitions to the Ethiopian government to not slow down in Ethipia and fluff that there is no corruption there...funny how silent they have been about all those pipeline orphanages that have been closed by the Ethiopian government in the last couple of weeks...and where is all that promotion of domestic adoption Tom talks about in the article???
"UNICEF defines an orphan as a child who has lost one or more parents. It estimates there were 132 million such children in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in 2005. Of those, 13 million had lost both parents."
Also find it humorous that all you hear about is the 132 or 143 or whatever number is currently bandied about but the reality is only 13 Million actually are true orphans and even then a fair percentage most likely have relatives...
Have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gnlIqLSsjk8
He fails to acknowledge that international adoption should go away and that supply and demand does play a role.
We adopted from Kazakhstan in 2003 and took our son back for a visit in 2009 to his orphanage. The number of children there had substantially diminished. A month after we returned home it shut down all together and the few children remaining were transferred to the only other orphanage in the city.
Domestic adoption and more government support for single mothers is happening in many countries. It bothers me how this organization implies that they want to help the children but it comes across more as international adoption needs to continue for the parent's sake.
Tom Di Filpio is a blazing fool, he has his OWN self interests of JSCIS to think about. JSCIS is the trade organization for Adoption Agencies which pay a FEE to be a member. This FEE is what pays Filipo's $100K+ salary.
This is clearly a conflict of interest and Di Flipout or whatever his name is inflates the world orphan numbers substantially. Less than 1% of the world's orphans have relinquished proper paperwork that defines them as an adoptable orphan by the US State Department.
But I guess I would talk in riddles too if my job and funding was on the line.
If this debate strikes passion within you, read There is No Me Without You by Melissa Greene.
I think the process of adoption are changing on this days. Many couples adopt a child of their relatives instead of adopting in legal way.
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