Adoption conference triggers strong emotions
Monday, 29 August 2005, 7:57 am
Press Release: Word of Mouth Media
August 28, 2005
National adoption conference triggers strong emotions
Emotions spilled over at the national adoption conference in Christchurch today.
Hundreds of people who have been affected by the trauma of adoption heard world expert Nancy Verrier of California describing emotions they had experienced.
Organiser Julia Cantrell said the conference had reduced many people to tears but the weekend had produced a great deal of benefit to almost everyone.
"Adoption is a traumatic experience for a baby when it is separated from a mother....
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Born in USA; Adopted in Canada
Born In USA; Adopted In Canada
Lesley Stahl Reports On Controversial New Trend In Adoptions
July 24, 2005
(CBS) The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.
But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.
They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up....
click here for article
Lesley Stahl Reports On Controversial New Trend In Adoptions
July 24, 2005
(CBS) The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.
But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.
They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up....
click here for article
Russian-born adopted son starved to death
Russian-born adopted son starved to death. Fathers face charges
Two American Sunday school teachers are facing abuse and negligence
charges. Boy's older brother and two older sisters were also adopted by
the couple.
Two American Sunday school teachers are facing abuse and negligence
charges, after an autopsy revealed their Russian-born adopted son was
starved to death.
Officials say eight-year-old Dennis Merryman weighed only 37 pounds when
he died on January 22 (2005)....
click here for article
Two American Sunday school teachers are facing abuse and negligence
charges. Boy's older brother and two older sisters were also adopted by
the couple.
Two American Sunday school teachers are facing abuse and negligence
charges, after an autopsy revealed their Russian-born adopted son was
starved to death.
Officials say eight-year-old Dennis Merryman weighed only 37 pounds when
he died on January 22 (2005)....
click here for article
Parents Sentenced in Starvation Death of Boy
Release Date: April 17, 2008
PARENTS SENTNCED IN STARVATION DEATH OF BOY
The parents of Dennis Merryman, who was systematically abused and starved to death over four years, were sentenced for Child Abuse Resulting in a Death.
Samuel Merryman 40 and his wife Donna Merryman 45 were each sentenced by Judge Emory Plitt in Harford County to twenty-two years in the Diviion of Correction for causing the death of their adopted son. The Merrymans had plead guilty during the trial of the case.
The case was investiged by the Harford County Sheriff and prosecuted by Assistant State's Attorneys Diane Tobin and Lisa Marts. The judge in passing sentence said the message that should come out of this case is that courts will not tolerate the abuse of the most trusting, vulverable members of our society. The sentence exceeded the maximum suggested by the sentencing guidelines....
Father of 18 Charged with Sex Abuse
Father of 18 Charged With Sex Abuse
Holly Maynard (Henrietta, NY) 08/03/05 - William Every, a father of 18
from Henrietta, faces charges of sexual abuse.
Every was arrested Tuesday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to criminal
sexual act charges.
Neighbors say Bill Every is always around kids. He's adopted 14 of his
children from all around the world. Many of them have mental or physical
disabilities. Neighbors have known him as a true family man.
Neighbors said his big house seems like a place of happiness for the
kids, but police say it's also a house of abuse....
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Holly Maynard (Henrietta, NY) 08/03/05 - William Every, a father of 18
from Henrietta, faces charges of sexual abuse.
Every was arrested Tuesday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to criminal
sexual act charges.
Neighbors say Bill Every is always around kids. He's adopted 14 of his
children from all around the world. Many of them have mental or physical
disabilities. Neighbors have known him as a true family man.
Neighbors said his big house seems like a place of happiness for the
kids, but police say it's also a house of abuse....
click here for article
Parliament committee proposes banning foreign adoptions
Parliament committee proposes banning foreign adoptions
16:08
17/ 08/ 2005
MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The social policy committee of the Federation Council, parliament's upper chamber, has proposed prohibiting foreigners from adopting Russian children, committee chairperson Valentina Petrenko said Wednesday.
The committee has already asked the Prosecutor General's Office to ban foreign adoptions, she said.
"Many murders of children in adoptive families, mainly in the United States, caused our decision," Petrenko said.
Thirteen Russian children recently suffered from violence in foreign adoptive families, she said....
State Duma to amend foreign adoption rules to protect Russian children
State Duma to amend foreign adoption rules to protect Russian children
06/ 09/ 2005
MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, intends to discuss a draft parliamentary inquiry at a session on September 9 urging Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to take necessary measures to protect Russian children adopted by foreigners.
Vladimir Katrenko, vice speaker of the State Duma heading up this issue, said the instances of violence against children had become more frequent lately and parliamentarians were concerned over the fate of children adopted by foreigners and living outside Russia.....
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06/ 09/ 2005
MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, intends to discuss a draft parliamentary inquiry at a session on September 9 urging Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to take necessary measures to protect Russian children adopted by foreigners.
Vladimir Katrenko, vice speaker of the State Duma heading up this issue, said the instances of violence against children had become more frequent lately and parliamentarians were concerned over the fate of children adopted by foreigners and living outside Russia.....
click here for article
Russia's Orphans Sold to the Highest Bidders
Russia’s Orphans Sold to the Highest Bidders
Created: 18.04.2005 19:03 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:05 MSK
Legal proceedings against Irma Pavlis, who a Chicago jury found guilty
of involuntary manslaughter of her adopted son Alexei, was in the
Russian headlines last week. In the United States, the case did not get
as much publicity, with only the Chicago Tribune and the local media
paying attention.
But in Russia, logically enough — after all, a six-year-old boy was
killed nowhere else, but in the U.S. — the case received at least 50
publications a day. Most of them referred the reader to Chicago Tribune
articles and to AP materials. News editors cynically call the Pavlis
news “the anti-American sensation” and spent little time working on
them: anti-Americanism sells well both in Russia and out of it.
But what’s tragic is that behind the “Americans killing our children”
speculations few people can see the real problems....
click here for article
Created: 18.04.2005 19:03 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:05 MSK
Legal proceedings against Irma Pavlis, who a Chicago jury found guilty
of involuntary manslaughter of her adopted son Alexei, was in the
Russian headlines last week. In the United States, the case did not get
as much publicity, with only the Chicago Tribune and the local media
paying attention.
But in Russia, logically enough — after all, a six-year-old boy was
killed nowhere else, but in the U.S. — the case received at least 50
publications a day. Most of them referred the reader to Chicago Tribune
articles and to AP materials. News editors cynically call the Pavlis
news “the anti-American sensation” and spent little time working on
them: anti-Americanism sells well both in Russia and out of it.
But what’s tragic is that behind the “Americans killing our children”
speculations few people can see the real problems....
click here for article
Adopted Russian Girl Sees Father Convicted in Child Porn Case
Created: 24.08.2005 12:19
MSK (GMT +3),
Updated: 12:19
MSKMosNews
Pennsylvania State Court has found a father guilty on 11 charges including incest and the rape of his 12-year-old daughter adopted from Russia, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Matthew Alan Mancuso did not contest the charges that he had sexually abused the light-haired girl he adopted from a Russian orphanage when she was five or that he had posted hundreds of explicit photos on the Internet.
After police digitally erased the girl from the pictures and asked thepublic to help identify the locations last February, she became known asthe “Disney World Girl,” because one of the sites was a hotel at Disney World....
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MSK (GMT +3),
Updated: 12:19
MSKMosNews
Pennsylvania State Court has found a father guilty on 11 charges including incest and the rape of his 12-year-old daughter adopted from Russia, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Matthew Alan Mancuso did not contest the charges that he had sexually abused the light-haired girl he adopted from a Russian orphanage when she was five or that he had posted hundreds of explicit photos on the Internet.
After police digitally erased the girl from the pictures and asked thepublic to help identify the locations last February, she became known asthe “Disney World Girl,” because one of the sites was a hotel at Disney World....
click here for article
Claims adopted children were stolen
The Queensland government will cooperate with Indian investigators into claims children adopted from India may have been stolen.
At least 30 children adopted in Australia may have been stolen from their parents as part of a child trafficking network in India from 1998 to 1999, The Weekend Australian reported today.
Some children were stolen by gangs who sold them for 10,000 rupees or $280 each to the unscrupulous adoption agency Malaysian Social Services, which sent them to families in wealthy countries such as Australia.
In one case, a woman named Fatima claims her daughter Zabeen was snatched as a two-year-old as she played outside her family home in Chennai. Fatima said she recognised her daughter in an agency's brochure....
August 23, 2008 01:55pm
Russian government to better protect children adopted by foreigners
Russian government to better protect children adopted by foreigners
16:47 2005-09-09
Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday called on the government to
better protect children adopted by foreigners, in part by concluding
bilateral agreements with other countries that would help Moscow monitor
the children's treatment.
The State Duma said it was concerned over the fate of 64,000 Russian
children who have been adopted and are living abroad, and alleges the
foreign adoption process is accompanied by "a high level of
commercialization and criminalization at all stages of the process." ...
for remaining article
16:47 2005-09-09
Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday called on the government to
better protect children adopted by foreigners, in part by concluding
bilateral agreements with other countries that would help Moscow monitor
the children's treatment.
The State Duma said it was concerned over the fate of 64,000 Russian
children who have been adopted and are living abroad, and alleges the
foreign adoption process is accompanied by "a high level of
commercialization and criminalization at all stages of the process." ...
for remaining article
U.S. official apologizes for the death of Russian-born adopted children killed in the U.S.
U.S. official apologizes for the death of Russian-born adopted children killed in the U.S
09.09.2005
Representatives of U.S. nongovernmental organizations share the concern of the Russian authorities regarding the death of Russian adoptees Representatives of U.S. nongovernmental organizations share the concern of the Russian authorities regarding the death of Russian adoptees in the U.S. However, they believe that international adoption should be continued.
“We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Russian government and Russian people with regard to the death of several Russian adopted children in the U.S. Meanwhile, international adoption should not be shut down due to those facts,” said President and CEO of the National Council for Adoption Thomas Atwood at the end of a Moscow meeting with Russia's General Prosecutor Deputy Sergei Fridinsky....
click here for article
09.09.2005
Representatives of U.S. nongovernmental organizations share the concern of the Russian authorities regarding the death of Russian adoptees Representatives of U.S. nongovernmental organizations share the concern of the Russian authorities regarding the death of Russian adoptees in the U.S. However, they believe that international adoption should be continued.
“We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the Russian government and Russian people with regard to the death of several Russian adopted children in the U.S. Meanwhile, international adoption should not be shut down due to those facts,” said President and CEO of the National Council for Adoption Thomas Atwood at the end of a Moscow meeting with Russia's General Prosecutor Deputy Sergei Fridinsky....
click here for article
Exposing Hidden Truths in Adoption
http://antiadoption.wordpress.com/
Exposing hidden truths in adoption….
This blog has everything about adoption! Be sure to check it out and then bookmark it for future reference!
Exposing hidden truths in adoption….
This blog has everything about adoption! Be sure to check it out and then bookmark it for future reference!
World expert lifts lid on adoption fallacies
World expert lifts lid on adoption fallacies
Wednesday, 24 August 2005,
10:45 am
Press Release: Word of Mouth Media
Media release – August 24, 2005
World renowned expert Nancy Verrier today lifted the lid on adoption fallacies and perceptions on the eve of the national adoption conference in Christchurch.
There were many misconceptions in society about adoption, Verrier said today.
One is that adopted people should feel grateful for having been adopted. A little baby would never choose to be separated from his own mother.....
click here for article
Wednesday, 24 August 2005,
10:45 am
Press Release: Word of Mouth Media
Media release – August 24, 2005
World renowned expert Nancy Verrier today lifted the lid on adoption fallacies and perceptions on the eve of the national adoption conference in Christchurch.
There were many misconceptions in society about adoption, Verrier said today.
One is that adopted people should feel grateful for having been adopted. A little baby would never choose to be separated from his own mother.....
click here for article
Couple gives adopted child back to orphanage
Couple gives adopted child back to orphanage
12:00AM Monday August 08, 2005
Two years after proudly telling friends they'd adopted a newborn baby in Indonesia, an Irishman and his Azerbaijani wife decided things weren't working out.
The adoptive father, Joseph Dowse, drove to an orphanage on the outskirts of Jakarta with his son and left him there with a box of clothes and toys....
click here for article
12:00AM Monday August 08, 2005
Two years after proudly telling friends they'd adopted a newborn baby in Indonesia, an Irishman and his Azerbaijani wife decided things weren't working out.
The adoptive father, Joseph Dowse, drove to an orphanage on the outskirts of Jakarta with his son and left him there with a box of clothes and toys....
click here for article
Inside China: Chinese Takeaways
INSIDE CHINA: CHINESE TAKEAWAYS
From Anton Antonowicz In Guangzhou,
China 9/08/2005
Day 1 .. the American child adoption factory
BREAKFAST ends at the White Swan Hotel and it is time for a group photograph. There are 21 adults, all beaming. And 11 baby girls, all Chinese.
Instant families courtesy of the White Swan Express.
From the outside this place looks like any other swanky, five-star, business stopover. Yet inside, you hear babies cry. Scores of babies. Nearly all girls.
And the voices of their new parents, all American.
More than 4,000 orphans are adopted here each year. Since this astonishing trade in human Chinese takeaways began 10 years ago, more than 50,000 kids have left here for a new life in the United States. Instant Americans.
There is no disguising Matt and Shari Neiberg's unadulterated joy. The couple, both physiotherapists from Peoria, Arizona, have just picked up their new daughter.
She is 10 months old and her name is Yang Mei Jai. At least it was.
"She's Kiana now," says Shari, 36. "We've paid the money and she's part of our 'forever family'."
As she tends the baby, Matt, 35, dandles their three-year-old on his knee. "She was Mao Huan Xia. Now she's Jaida," he says. "And she's suddenly got a little sister.
"We were trying for kids of our own, but the doctors said that Shari may have needed surgery to conceive. So, it's a no-brainer.
"We heard about the White Swan's revolving door and came right over. First for Jaida when she was 10 months and now this little kitten. Cute, ain't she?"
Indeed she is. Like all kids. Except she comes with a price tag - $21,025 (£11,800), the cost of taking a baby back to the States.
"It's a little cheaper and easier to adopt if the baby is a special- needs child," Matt adds. "But we decided to go for regular ones." ....
click here for article
From Anton Antonowicz In Guangzhou,
China 9/08/2005
Day 1 .. the American child adoption factory
BREAKFAST ends at the White Swan Hotel and it is time for a group photograph. There are 21 adults, all beaming. And 11 baby girls, all Chinese.
Instant families courtesy of the White Swan Express.
From the outside this place looks like any other swanky, five-star, business stopover. Yet inside, you hear babies cry. Scores of babies. Nearly all girls.
And the voices of their new parents, all American.
More than 4,000 orphans are adopted here each year. Since this astonishing trade in human Chinese takeaways began 10 years ago, more than 50,000 kids have left here for a new life in the United States. Instant Americans.
There is no disguising Matt and Shari Neiberg's unadulterated joy. The couple, both physiotherapists from Peoria, Arizona, have just picked up their new daughter.
She is 10 months old and her name is Yang Mei Jai. At least it was.
"She's Kiana now," says Shari, 36. "We've paid the money and she's part of our 'forever family'."
As she tends the baby, Matt, 35, dandles their three-year-old on his knee. "She was Mao Huan Xia. Now she's Jaida," he says. "And she's suddenly got a little sister.
"We were trying for kids of our own, but the doctors said that Shari may have needed surgery to conceive. So, it's a no-brainer.
"We heard about the White Swan's revolving door and came right over. First for Jaida when she was 10 months and now this little kitten. Cute, ain't she?"
Indeed she is. Like all kids. Except she comes with a price tag - $21,025 (£11,800), the cost of taking a baby back to the States.
"It's a little cheaper and easier to adopt if the baby is a special- needs child," Matt adds. "But we decided to go for regular ones." ....
click here for article
Gravelles Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison
Gravelles Sentenced To 2 Years In Prison
POSTED: 4:35 pm EST February 15, 2007
UPDATED: 7:30 pm EST February 15, 2007
NORWALK, Ohio -- A Huron County couple accused of keeping some of their special needs children in cage-like enclosures were sentenced on Thursday.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle were each sentenced to two years in prison for their conviction on child abuse and endangering charges.
Caged Kids Parents Sentenced To Prison....
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POSTED: 4:35 pm EST February 15, 2007
UPDATED: 7:30 pm EST February 15, 2007
NORWALK, Ohio -- A Huron County couple accused of keeping some of their special needs children in cage-like enclosures were sentenced on Thursday.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle were each sentenced to two years in prison for their conviction on child abuse and endangering charges.
Caged Kids Parents Sentenced To Prison....
click here for article
Jail Time Suspended for Social Worker in Caged Kids Case
Jail Time Suspended For Social Worker In Caged Kids Case
POSTED: 7:49 am EDT April 10, 2007
UPDATED: 12:58 pm EDT April 10, 2007
ELYRIA, Ohio -- A social worker was sentenced in connection with her role in the caged kids case.
Elaine Thompson, 64, who was supposed to oversee the care of the children, pleaded guilty to failing to report a crime.
Thompson was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but that time was suspended. She also received a $2,200 fine and 500 hours of community service. She will be on probation for five years and during this time she is not allowed to work as a social worker....
click here for article
POSTED: 7:49 am EDT April 10, 2007
UPDATED: 12:58 pm EDT April 10, 2007
ELYRIA, Ohio -- A social worker was sentenced in connection with her role in the caged kids case.
Elaine Thompson, 64, who was supposed to oversee the care of the children, pleaded guilty to failing to report a crime.
Thompson was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but that time was suspended. She also received a $2,200 fine and 500 hours of community service. She will be on probation for five years and during this time she is not allowed to work as a social worker....
click here for article
Gravelles Trying to Raise $50,000 to Get Kids Back
Gravelles Trying To Raise $50,000 To Get Kids Back
Convicted Couple To Hold Benefit Auction To Help Pay For Appeal
POSTED: 4:46 pm EDT July 11, 2007
UPDATED: 4:59 pm EDT July 11, 2007
NORWALK, Ohio -- A Huron County couple convicted of keeping their adopted special-needs kids in cages is back in the news.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle held a news conference Wednesday in which they said they won't stop trying to get their children back until they have exhausted every option, but it's going to cost $50,000....
...."There's people out there that have walked up to us, complete strangers, and handed us money for this cause," said Michael Gravelle. "Here, $600. A man turned me on to $700 worth of aluminum. Yes, they will. There's people out there that want to help this cause. I really believe there is." .... click here for article
Convicted Couple To Hold Benefit Auction To Help Pay For Appeal
POSTED: 4:46 pm EDT July 11, 2007
UPDATED: 4:59 pm EDT July 11, 2007
NORWALK, Ohio -- A Huron County couple convicted of keeping their adopted special-needs kids in cages is back in the news.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle held a news conference Wednesday in which they said they won't stop trying to get their children back until they have exhausted every option, but it's going to cost $50,000....
...."There's people out there that have walked up to us, complete strangers, and handed us money for this cause," said Michael Gravelle. "Here, $600. A man turned me on to $700 worth of aluminum. Yes, they will. There's people out there that want to help this cause. I really believe there is." .... click here for article
Judge Rules Against Prosecutor In Gravelle Case
Judge Rules Against Prosecutor In Gravelle Case
POSTED: 9:11 am EDT August 10, 2008
HURON, Ohio -- There was a small legal victory for a Huron County couple convicted of keeping their adopted special-needs kids in cages.
An Ohio appeals judge ruled against one of the Huron County prosecutors who's handling the case against Michael and Sharen Gravelle, NewsChannel5 reported.
The Gravelles were found guilty on 11 charges in connection with keeping their children in cages.
The judge ruled six of the charges should remain dismissed.
The Gravelles have said they won't stop trying to get their children back until they have exhausted every option. The children are still in the custody of Huron County.... click here for article
POSTED: 9:11 am EDT August 10, 2008
HURON, Ohio -- There was a small legal victory for a Huron County couple convicted of keeping their adopted special-needs kids in cages.
An Ohio appeals judge ruled against one of the Huron County prosecutors who's handling the case against Michael and Sharen Gravelle, NewsChannel5 reported.
The Gravelles were found guilty on 11 charges in connection with keeping their children in cages.
The judge ruled six of the charges should remain dismissed.
The Gravelles have said they won't stop trying to get their children back until they have exhausted every option. The children are still in the custody of Huron County.... click here for article
Nurse Sentenced for beating daughter
Nurse Sentenced For Beating Daughter Forced To Give Up Parental Rights
McMinnville, Ore.
A nurse practitioner in McMinnville has been sentenced to four months in jail after admitting she beat her daughter with an aluminum baseball bat.
Anna Rufo pleaded guilty to assault in exchange for dismissal of a criminal mistreatment charge - and to avoid mandatory sentencing that could have sent her to prison for nearly six years.
The 66-year-old Rufo was charged last May, after school officials discovered welts and bruises on the legs and arms of the 13-year-old daughter she adopted from a Chinese orphanage in 1997....
click here for article
McMinnville, Ore.
A nurse practitioner in McMinnville has been sentenced to four months in jail after admitting she beat her daughter with an aluminum baseball bat.
Anna Rufo pleaded guilty to assault in exchange for dismissal of a criminal mistreatment charge - and to avoid mandatory sentencing that could have sent her to prison for nearly six years.
The 66-year-old Rufo was charged last May, after school officials discovered welts and bruises on the legs and arms of the 13-year-old daughter she adopted from a Chinese orphanage in 1997....
click here for article
A Canadian haven for black U.S. babies
A Canadian haven for black U.S. babies
By JANE ARMSTRONG
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Posted at 2:42 AM EDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The United States is exporting newborns by the hundreds and Canada is a preferred destination.
Most of the infants are African American or biracial; their birthmothers want them to be raised outside the United States and believe Canada is a land of little racial strife.
Although there are no officials figures, an estimated 500 African-American babies are adopted abroad each year. In the past 20 years, about 300 have come to British Columbia, where blacks account for less than 0.7 per cent of the population.
The Open Door, a private adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., has placed about 200 children in British Columbia, including Dave and Juanita Alexander's two sons, Elias and Keiran....
click here for article
By JANE ARMSTRONG
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Posted at 2:42 AM EDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The United States is exporting newborns by the hundreds and Canada is a preferred destination.
Most of the infants are African American or biracial; their birthmothers want them to be raised outside the United States and believe Canada is a land of little racial strife.
Although there are no officials figures, an estimated 500 African-American babies are adopted abroad each year. In the past 20 years, about 300 have come to British Columbia, where blacks account for less than 0.7 per cent of the population.
The Open Door, a private adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., has placed about 200 children in British Columbia, including Dave and Juanita Alexander's two sons, Elias and Keiran....
click here for article
European Parliament resolution on Guatemala
European Parliament resolution on Guatemala
The European Parliament ,
– having regard to its earlier resolutions on Guatemala, in particular that of 10 April 2003(1) ,
– having regard to its firm and permanent commitment to the peace process and to human rights in Guatemala,
– having regard to the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, adopted in the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law,
– having regard to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Governments of Guatemala and Mexico to address the crossborder trafficking issues that plague the region,
– having regard to the Final Act of the XVIIth European Union/Latin America Interparliamentary Conference, which took place in Lima from 14 to 16 June 2005,
– having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. having regard to the UN special rapporteur's report on the sale and trafficking of children, which states that Guatemala's laws on adoption are among the least stringent in the region, while trafficking in children is not even classified as a crime,
B. whereas, according to the Office of the Counsel for Human Rights, the abuses occurring in Guatemala include forced or surrogate pregnancies, removal of children from their real mothers, substitution of documents, alteration of public records, and the existence of clandestine 'nurseries'; whereas abuses are also committed by those authorising adoptions, while an increasing number of international adoption agencies are offering children for sale,
C. whereas Guatemala is a source, transit and destination country for women and children from Guatemala and other Central American countries who are trafficked for purposes of sexual and labour exploitation,
D. whereas in 2004, according to official records, 527 women were murdered, 81% of them in deaths involving firearms....click here for article
The European Parliament ,
– having regard to its earlier resolutions on Guatemala, in particular that of 10 April 2003(1) ,
– having regard to its firm and permanent commitment to the peace process and to human rights in Guatemala,
– having regard to the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, adopted in the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law,
– having regard to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Governments of Guatemala and Mexico to address the crossborder trafficking issues that plague the region,
– having regard to the Final Act of the XVIIth European Union/Latin America Interparliamentary Conference, which took place in Lima from 14 to 16 June 2005,
– having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. having regard to the UN special rapporteur's report on the sale and trafficking of children, which states that Guatemala's laws on adoption are among the least stringent in the region, while trafficking in children is not even classified as a crime,
B. whereas, according to the Office of the Counsel for Human Rights, the abuses occurring in Guatemala include forced or surrogate pregnancies, removal of children from their real mothers, substitution of documents, alteration of public records, and the existence of clandestine 'nurseries'; whereas abuses are also committed by those authorising adoptions, while an increasing number of international adoption agencies are offering children for sale,
C. whereas Guatemala is a source, transit and destination country for women and children from Guatemala and other Central American countries who are trafficked for purposes of sexual and labour exploitation,
D. whereas in 2004, according to official records, 527 women were murdered, 81% of them in deaths involving firearms....click here for article
Adoptee finds her heritage
Adoptee finds her heritage, identity
By ALICE L. CHANG
Posted: Sept. 30, 2005
When Rita Pyrillis was a child, others would hurl racial slurs at her, because they thought she was black. Or Latino. Or Asian. Pyrillis would generally stay quiet. But if pressed, she'd assert, "I'm Greek."
Never mind that Pyrillis never thought she was Greek - she just didn't know what else to say.
Pyrillis, 5-foot-9-inches, with freckles, full lips, large, almond-shaped eyes and wavy black hair, was adopted when she was 3 months old.
Now 44 and an adjunct faculty member of the communications department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Pyrillis grew up in Chicago's Jefferson Park, a working-class, Irish and Polish immigrant neighborhood. Her father owned a coffee shop in Wicker Park, and her mother was a waitress there.
At the time of Pyrillis' adoption in the 1960s, the process was closed.
"Children were a blank slate to imprint your culture on," she said.
Only after years of passionate searching would she discover that she was one of thousands of people like herself who were adopted or placed in foster homes between the 1950s and the 1970s....click here for story
Unwed Mothers' Home, Kansas City, Missouri
Episode 11,2005:
Unwed Mothers’ Home, Kansas City, Missouri
Gwen: Our first story investigates teenage pregnancy in the 1950s and ‘60s. It’s 1961. A young unmarried woman somewhere near Kansas City, Missouri, discovers she is pregnant. It’s an era when unwed mothers are stigmatized and shunned by society. She gives birth to a girl and puts her up for adoption. The baby’s adoptive parents name her Dodie and never reveal her mother and father’s names or where she was born. It’s a mystery that has haunted her since she was a child. Now in her 40s, Dodie Jacobi has an object that she hopes will solve the mystery of her birth.
Dodie Jacobi: I was an infant adopted from a home for unwed mothers in 1961, and my only connection to that home is a dainty medal that was pinned to my diaper when I was adopted. I wore that medal for about 10 years until the gold plating wore off, and I’ve always wondered who gave me that medal and where was I adopted.
Gwen: I’m Gwen Wright, and I’ve come to Kansas City, Missouri, to look into Dodie’s story....
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Dear Birthparent: What The Baby Brokers Don't Tell You About Adoptees
KeepYourBaby.Com
Natural Families
By Anne Patterson, an adoptee
For all the things that are written and told about adoption, few are the truth. As a reunited adult adoptee I hope to shed as much light on this issue as possible within my lifetime.
If asked by anyone considering adoption "Is adoption a good choice"? My answer unreservedly would be "NO". Adoption is NOT a healthy or a goodchoice. If you ask a baby if they want to be adopted they would say if they could talk a thousand times over "NO". Each year hundreds of people are lied to about adoption, it is time for those who are it's experts to come forward and share it's reality.
Adoption is a permanent solution to a temporary situation. It is important to stress that it is NOT the baby that is a problem, it is thecircumstances in one's life that is or could be presently challenging.
Adoption is a negative, punitive exercise of robbing babies and children from their mothers, their heritage, their roots, their identities, andtheir rights as human beings. Adoptees lose from the minute they are separated from their mothers. This loss is cloaked in lies, andillusions.
For those promoting adoption, the idea is that it is a gain for the baby or the child. Being surrendered for adoption is not a gain in the least. No amount of money, or a two parent family, nor anything can replace the real and natural mother for adoptees. Nothing can replace the heritage and connections with others in the natural family as well.They won't tell you this but I will - from day one we grieve and are sad to have lost our mothers and are not happy! Not only are babies sad they are also afraid. We know our mothers, we grow inside their wombs. We hear the music of their hearts, we know their smell, we trust and love them by nature. They are ours, our universe - all that we know, all that we feel, love and are attached to. Adoption takes our universe away. If someone took away all that you love and all that you know how would you feel?....
click here for story
Natural Families
By Anne Patterson, an adoptee
For all the things that are written and told about adoption, few are the truth. As a reunited adult adoptee I hope to shed as much light on this issue as possible within my lifetime.
If asked by anyone considering adoption "Is adoption a good choice"? My answer unreservedly would be "NO". Adoption is NOT a healthy or a goodchoice. If you ask a baby if they want to be adopted they would say if they could talk a thousand times over "NO". Each year hundreds of people are lied to about adoption, it is time for those who are it's experts to come forward and share it's reality.
Adoption is a permanent solution to a temporary situation. It is important to stress that it is NOT the baby that is a problem, it is thecircumstances in one's life that is or could be presently challenging.
Adoption is a negative, punitive exercise of robbing babies and children from their mothers, their heritage, their roots, their identities, andtheir rights as human beings. Adoptees lose from the minute they are separated from their mothers. This loss is cloaked in lies, andillusions.
For those promoting adoption, the idea is that it is a gain for the baby or the child. Being surrendered for adoption is not a gain in the least. No amount of money, or a two parent family, nor anything can replace the real and natural mother for adoptees. Nothing can replace the heritage and connections with others in the natural family as well.They won't tell you this but I will - from day one we grieve and are sad to have lost our mothers and are not happy! Not only are babies sad they are also afraid. We know our mothers, we grow inside their wombs. We hear the music of their hearts, we know their smell, we trust and love them by nature. They are ours, our universe - all that we know, all that we feel, love and are attached to. Adoption takes our universe away. If someone took away all that you love and all that you know how would you feel?....
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On the Adoption Dollar Trail
On the Adoption Dollar Trail
By Michael Montgomery
A tinge of guilt passed through me when I contemplated my new assignment: investigating the shadier side of international adoption. Certainly the topic was worthy. International adoption has rapidly expanded over the past decade as more U.S. families seek orphans in such far-flung countries as China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. We've heard a lot about how these children are changing the face of many communities in America. But there's been less attention to the skyrocketing cost of adoptions and the boom in for-profit adoption companies in the United States and overseas, often with little or no regulation.
The story looked fine. So what about the guilt? Well, as it happens, three years ago I traveled to Kazakhstan with my wife and seven-year-old daughter. There we adopted an 11-month-old boy, Bo. Our journey was more or less the typical adventure that adoptive parents love to tell (often at extreme length). Deep anxiety and exhaustion transformed into exhilaration at our first encounter, followed by more anxiety and exhaustion as we returned home with our new son.
One element of Bo's adoption bothered us, however, and prompted my sense of guilt. Like many adoptive parents, we were told by our agency to carry thousands of dollars in cash (and in clean, new currency) to Kazakhstan and hand the money to an agency representative as soon as possible after arrival. We were also told not to expect an itemized receipt for most of the cash....click here for story
By Michael Montgomery
A tinge of guilt passed through me when I contemplated my new assignment: investigating the shadier side of international adoption. Certainly the topic was worthy. International adoption has rapidly expanded over the past decade as more U.S. families seek orphans in such far-flung countries as China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. We've heard a lot about how these children are changing the face of many communities in America. But there's been less attention to the skyrocketing cost of adoptions and the boom in for-profit adoption companies in the United States and overseas, often with little or no regulation.
The story looked fine. So what about the guilt? Well, as it happens, three years ago I traveled to Kazakhstan with my wife and seven-year-old daughter. There we adopted an 11-month-old boy, Bo. Our journey was more or less the typical adventure that adoptive parents love to tell (often at extreme length). Deep anxiety and exhaustion transformed into exhilaration at our first encounter, followed by more anxiety and exhaustion as we returned home with our new son.
One element of Bo's adoption bothered us, however, and prompted my sense of guilt. Like many adoptive parents, we were told by our agency to carry thousands of dollars in cash (and in clean, new currency) to Kazakhstan and hand the money to an agency representative as soon as possible after arrival. We were also told not to expect an itemized receipt for most of the cash....click here for story
Preying on Parents
Preying on Parents
A Picture and a Promise
Update: This report, originally produced in October 2005, spurred California lawmakers to take action, and in September 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at curbing adoption fraud.
Four years ago Mary Perdue was contemplating her family's future. Perdue was 51, divorced and a machine operator in a factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Perdue had raised two daughters but the idea of having a son had always intrigued her. She considered foster care. But why bring a child into your home, she asked herself, if you were just going to show him the door one day? Then Mary and her daughters discovered international adoption. Expensive, yes. Risky, perhaps. But the child would be part of the Perdue family forever.
So like thousands of other Americans, Mary Perdue and her daughters
started trolling Web sites devoted to finding homes in America for
overseas orphans. The Perdues looked at photos of hundreds of orphans.
And then they saw Victor, a seven-year-old boy living in an orphanage in
Russia.
"He just struck me," Perdue says as she recalls seeing Victor's photo
for the first time. "The real thick head of hair, dimples. A smiley
happy little boy."
Kim Perdue, Mary's younger daughter, saw a future brother in Victor's
blurry digital image.
"He looked like a friend of mine," says Kim. "The write-up said he was
very bright and cheerful, eager to have a family. You fall in love with
the picture, and that's how they get you." .... click here for story
A Picture and a Promise
Update: This report, originally produced in October 2005, spurred California lawmakers to take action, and in September 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at curbing adoption fraud.
Four years ago Mary Perdue was contemplating her family's future. Perdue was 51, divorced and a machine operator in a factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Perdue had raised two daughters but the idea of having a son had always intrigued her. She considered foster care. But why bring a child into your home, she asked herself, if you were just going to show him the door one day? Then Mary and her daughters discovered international adoption. Expensive, yes. Risky, perhaps. But the child would be part of the Perdue family forever.
So like thousands of other Americans, Mary Perdue and her daughters
started trolling Web sites devoted to finding homes in America for
overseas orphans. The Perdues looked at photos of hundreds of orphans.
And then they saw Victor, a seven-year-old boy living in an orphanage in
Russia.
"He just struck me," Perdue says as she recalls seeing Victor's photo
for the first time. "The real thick head of hair, dimples. A smiley
happy little boy."
Kim Perdue, Mary's younger daughter, saw a future brother in Victor's
blurry digital image.
"He looked like a friend of mine," says Kim. "The write-up said he was
very bright and cheerful, eager to have a family. You fall in love with
the picture, and that's how they get you." .... click here for story
10-Year Sentence in Scheme to Bilk Adoption System
10-Year Sentence in Scheme to Bilk Adoption System
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: July 16, 2008
Calling a former Queens woman’s acts “diabolical in nature,” a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced her to more than 10 years in prison on Tuesday for a fraudulent scheme in which she adopted 11 disabled children under four aliases, while collecting $1.68 million meant for their care to support a lavish lifestyle.
The judge, Richard M. Berman of United States District Court, said he agreed with federal prosecutors that the woman, Judith Leekin, 63, used the children as pawns in the scheme, in which she received government adoption subsidies that continued after she moved to Florida a decade ago and lasted until 2007, when her fraud was discovered....
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'Disney Porn' Photographer Convicted
POSTED: 6:21 pm EDT August 23, 2005
UPDATED: 6:57 pm EDT August 23, 2005
A man who took pornographic pictures of his own adoptive daughter at a Walt Disney World resort and then posted them on the Internet has been found guilty of sexually abusing her for years.
Authorities spent months trying to identify the girl shown in a series of graphic photos.
In May, the WESH 2 I-Team found the 12-year-old girl known as Mea and broadcast her plea for justice.
Matthew Alan Mancuso, 46, was found guilty on 11 counts Tuesday, including rape of a child. His victim was a girl he adopted in Russia and brought back to his home in Pittsburgh, Pa. His attorney said Mancuso has already taken steps to pay for what he did.
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UPDATED: 6:57 pm EDT August 23, 2005
A man who took pornographic pictures of his own adoptive daughter at a Walt Disney World resort and then posted them on the Internet has been found guilty of sexually abusing her for years.
Authorities spent months trying to identify the girl shown in a series of graphic photos.
In May, the WESH 2 I-Team found the 12-year-old girl known as Mea and broadcast her plea for justice.
Matthew Alan Mancuso, 46, was found guilty on 11 counts Tuesday, including rape of a child. His victim was a girl he adopted in Russia and brought back to his home in Pittsburgh, Pa. His attorney said Mancuso has already taken steps to pay for what he did.
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Man Sentenced For Raping Adopted Daughter
A man convicted of raping and photographing his own adopted daughter during Disney World vacations got a harsh sentence Thursday.
Matthew Alan Mancuso was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in prison, WESH 2 News reported.
That will be tacked onto the current 15-year federal sentence he's already serving.
The sentencing was for the years of abuse he heaped on the girl he adopted after his divorce and brought to the U.S. from Russia.
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Matthew Alan Mancuso was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in prison, WESH 2 News reported.
That will be tacked onto the current 15-year federal sentence he's already serving.
The sentencing was for the years of abuse he heaped on the girl he adopted after his divorce and brought to the U.S. from Russia.
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Child abuse 'monster' gets 35-70 years
18.11.2005
Child abuse 'monster' gets 35-70 years
When Matthew Alan Mancuso applied to adopt a child from Russia, the case worker who checked his background called him a "caring, loving man" and a "highly moral individual."
On Thursday, the retired engineer from Plum was called "perverse" and "dangerous" and "monster."
Mancuso, 47, whose sexual exploitation of his adopted daughter made international headlines, learned yesterday in Allegheny County court that he likely will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel imposed a 35- to 70-year sentence -- which will begin after he completes a 15 1/2-year federal sentence for possessing and distributing child porn -- for rapes and other sexual abuse that began the night he adopted the 5-year-old girl from a Russian orphanage in 1998....
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Child abuse 'monster' gets 35-70 years
When Matthew Alan Mancuso applied to adopt a child from Russia, the case worker who checked his background called him a "caring, loving man" and a "highly moral individual."
On Thursday, the retired engineer from Plum was called "perverse" and "dangerous" and "monster."
Mancuso, 47, whose sexual exploitation of his adopted daughter made international headlines, learned yesterday in Allegheny County court that he likely will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel imposed a 35- to 70-year sentence -- which will begin after he completes a 15 1/2-year federal sentence for possessing and distributing child porn -- for rapes and other sexual abuse that began the night he adopted the 5-year-old girl from a Russian orphanage in 1998....
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A Biological Cause of Behavior?
A biological cause of behavior?
BY JAMIE TALAN
STAFF WRITER
November 21, 2005
Scientists have found startling differences in a hormone linked to
social bonding in children who spent their first years in foreign orphanages. These changes remain two years after they have gone from an
environment of neglect to one of love and attention.
The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, suggests that early experience can leave a biochemical mark
and that, in turn, can shape lifetime experience.
The hormone, oxytocin, has been called the peptide of love. New mothers
and fathers release this hormone in abundance. So do their babies. It
bonds parent and child....
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BY JAMIE TALAN
STAFF WRITER
November 21, 2005
Scientists have found startling differences in a hormone linked to
social bonding in children who spent their first years in foreign orphanages. These changes remain two years after they have gone from an
environment of neglect to one of love and attention.
The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, suggests that early experience can leave a biochemical mark
and that, in turn, can shape lifetime experience.
The hormone, oxytocin, has been called the peptide of love. New mothers
and fathers release this hormone in abundance. So do their babies. It
bonds parent and child....
click here for article
Smuggling of babies in China raises fears in the West
By GREG MCARTHUR
Friday, December 16, 2005
Page A18
Allegations of a baby-smuggling ring in China have shaken NorthAmerican families, prompting them to question whether their childrenwere legitimately obtained and whether they should continue to donatethousands of dollars to Chinese orphanages....
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By GREG MCARTHUR
Friday, December 16, 2005
Page A18
Allegations of a baby-smuggling ring in China have shaken NorthAmerican families, prompting them to question whether their childrenwere legitimately obtained and whether they should continue to donatethousands of dollars to Chinese orphanages....
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Adoption association’s shock-value campaign to go off air soon
Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare’s latest public service message receives a thumbs down from ad fraternity.
Lalitha Suhasini
Mumbai, December 15:
A YOUNG mother lovingly kisses her baby on the forehead, as the camera zooms in. The baby isn’t in a cosy crib, but a garbage dump, and the next frame shows the mother abandoning her baby. The word ‘adopt’ is superimposed on the screen, before the contact details of the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (IAPA) and Child Welfare flash on screen.
Ironically, the Mumbai-based adoption NGO, which has won several advertising awards in the past for its public service campaigns created by Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, admits the campaign doesn’t live up to previous ones. ‘‘I’ve asked the agency to tell the channels to withdraw the campaign,’’ says Hansa Apparao, executive committee member, IAPA. ‘‘We believe that the ad is in poor taste.’’ ....
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Lalitha Suhasini
Mumbai, December 15:
A YOUNG mother lovingly kisses her baby on the forehead, as the camera zooms in. The baby isn’t in a cosy crib, but a garbage dump, and the next frame shows the mother abandoning her baby. The word ‘adopt’ is superimposed on the screen, before the contact details of the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (IAPA) and Child Welfare flash on screen.
Ironically, the Mumbai-based adoption NGO, which has won several advertising awards in the past for its public service campaigns created by Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, admits the campaign doesn’t live up to previous ones. ‘‘I’ve asked the agency to tell the channels to withdraw the campaign,’’ says Hansa Apparao, executive committee member, IAPA. ‘‘We believe that the ad is in poor taste.’’ ....
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How to spot an adoption scam
How to spot an adoption scam
Cost Of This Con Is Financial And Emotional
NEW YORK and CLOVER, S.C., Dec. 15, 2005
Every year, more than a million Americans try to adopt a child. Many face long waiting lists and lots of disappointment, and authorities say that makes them prime targets for scam artists who prey on their vulnerability.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports. Mark and Kim Pendleton couldn't have a child of their own, so they decided to adopt.
"We already had a family with me and my wife," Mark says, "and we wanted to complete that." Adds Kim, "I was very excited, couldn't wait to be a mom."
Through an adoption Web site, they were matched with someone who appeared to be their ideal birth mother: Bobbie Jo Quarzenski, a single mom in Pennsylvania, pregnant with a baby girl.....
click here for story
Cost Of This Con Is Financial And Emotional
NEW YORK and CLOVER, S.C., Dec. 15, 2005
Every year, more than a million Americans try to adopt a child. Many face long waiting lists and lots of disappointment, and authorities say that makes them prime targets for scam artists who prey on their vulnerability.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports. Mark and Kim Pendleton couldn't have a child of their own, so they decided to adopt.
"We already had a family with me and my wife," Mark says, "and we wanted to complete that." Adds Kim, "I was very excited, couldn't wait to be a mom."
Through an adoption Web site, they were matched with someone who appeared to be their ideal birth mother: Bobbie Jo Quarzenski, a single mom in Pennsylvania, pregnant with a baby girl.....
click here for story
Russian Officials Charged in Connection With Deaths of Adopted Children
....Peggy Sue Hilt was charged with killing her 2-year-old adoptive Russian daughter. She appeared in court last month. Another woman, Irma Pavlis was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May for killing her 6-year-old disabled adoptive son. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April but was acquitted of the more serious charge of first-degree murder. In Aug. 2005 the Pennsylvania State Court found adoptive father Matthew Alan Mancuso guilty of incest and the rape of his 12-year-old daughter adopted from Russia. Several days earlier an American couple was charged with manslaughter, first-degree child abuse resulting in death and reckless endangerment after their adoptive son from Russia died of starvation. Altogether, 13 Russian children have been killed in the United States.
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Officers raid Napa adoption agency
Officers raid Napa adoption agency
By CHRIS TRIBBEY and DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writers
Thursday, December 22, 2005 1:08 AM PST
Napa police served a search warrant on a Napa-based adoption agency
Wednesday morning, seizing computer hard drives and boxes of files.
The morning raid at 1612 Jefferson Street was a result of a month-long
investigation into Yunona USA, an organization that connects Americans who
want to adopt children, with orphans in other countries.
Police entered the facility at 10 a.m. and left by 1 p.m., according to
neighbors. No employees were present when police served the warrant, and the
complex landlord let them in, according to former Yunona Vice President Nick
Sims, 66.
Napa Police Sgt. Tim Cantillon said the warrant came about after a client of
Yunona accused the agency of taking money and not following through on an
adoption. "The client alleged that Yunona had accepted money to perform a
service, and (the search) is to see if there are any more like this,"
Cantillon said....
click here for article
By CHRIS TRIBBEY and DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writers
Thursday, December 22, 2005 1:08 AM PST
Napa police served a search warrant on a Napa-based adoption agency
Wednesday morning, seizing computer hard drives and boxes of files.
The morning raid at 1612 Jefferson Street was a result of a month-long
investigation into Yunona USA, an organization that connects Americans who
want to adopt children, with orphans in other countries.
Police entered the facility at 10 a.m. and left by 1 p.m., according to
neighbors. No employees were present when police served the warrant, and the
complex landlord let them in, according to former Yunona Vice President Nick
Sims, 66.
Napa Police Sgt. Tim Cantillon said the warrant came about after a client of
Yunona accused the agency of taking money and not following through on an
adoption. "The client alleged that Yunona had accepted money to perform a
service, and (the search) is to see if there are any more like this,"
Cantillon said....
click here for article
President Roh proposes a society encouraging childbirths
January 12, 2006
President Roh Moo-hyun proposed Tuesday (Jan. 10) a Korean society in which childbirth should not be something to fear but to facilitate, and that heading for such facilitation should be one of this year's greatest preparations for the future.
“Now that we have overcome a bout of crises, we have to prepare for the future, most important of which will be to cope with an aging society and the era of a low-birth rate,” said Roh at an opening ceremony for feminist causes held at the Korean Women's Development Institute.
Noting that since having a child or not pertains to an individual's view of values and social culture, Roh said one can hardly force people to, but they should not get off with the excuses of the fear of rearing and educating children....
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President Roh Moo-hyun proposed Tuesday (Jan. 10) a Korean society in which childbirth should not be something to fear but to facilitate, and that heading for such facilitation should be one of this year's greatest preparations for the future.
“Now that we have overcome a bout of crises, we have to prepare for the future, most important of which will be to cope with an aging society and the era of a low-birth rate,” said Roh at an opening ceremony for feminist causes held at the Korean Women's Development Institute.
Noting that since having a child or not pertains to an individual's view of values and social culture, Roh said one can hardly force people to, but they should not get off with the excuses of the fear of rearing and educating children....
click here for article
Illegal adoption network dismantled
Illegal adoption network dismantled
Published: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006,
09:56 AM Doha Time
MOSCOW: Russian and US police have dismantled a network they accuse of posing as a US adoption agency in order to illegally smuggle children, the Russian authorities announced yesterday.
“The prosecutor’s office, in co-operation with US law enforcement, have put an end to the illegal activities of an international criminal group which, under the guise of various service agencies, trafficked in children,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
Earning $10,000 to $20,000 per child, the Yunona Orphan Relief Fund, based in Napa, California, paid intermediaries in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Guatemala to gather information about children in orphanages “in exchange for bribes”, the statement said.
The Yunona agency came under scrutiny after six-year-old Alexi Geiko, placed by the agency in 2003, was beaten to death by his adoptive mother, Irma Pavlis, in the US....
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Published: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006,
09:56 AM Doha Time
MOSCOW: Russian and US police have dismantled a network they accuse of posing as a US adoption agency in order to illegally smuggle children, the Russian authorities announced yesterday.
“The prosecutor’s office, in co-operation with US law enforcement, have put an end to the illegal activities of an international criminal group which, under the guise of various service agencies, trafficked in children,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
Earning $10,000 to $20,000 per child, the Yunona Orphan Relief Fund, based in Napa, California, paid intermediaries in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Guatemala to gather information about children in orphanages “in exchange for bribes”, the statement said.
The Yunona agency came under scrutiny after six-year-old Alexi Geiko, placed by the agency in 2003, was beaten to death by his adoptive mother, Irma Pavlis, in the US....
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U.S. Ambassador Taubman speaks out on adoption and crime
U.S. Ambassador Taubman speaks out on adoption and crime
Alecs Iancu
Romania must respect its pledge to resolve inter-country adoption cases, in spite of the virtual ban of all inter-country adoptions after new laws came in effect last year, said the U.S. ambassador.
"The American government believes the Romanian government has made several promises regarding the adoption of children by American familiesand this promise (...) must be respected," said U.S. Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman during a press conference yesterday.
After new adoption laws came in effect at the beginning of last year, Romania banned international adoptions except in cases when the adopting couple and the child are closely blood related. The move, which came following EU criticism of previous, "too permissive" laws, angered several countries whose residents had begun adoption procedures of Romanian orphans. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized the new legislation and asked authorities to review it in order to allow a favorable solution at least to the requests filed by U.S. couples before the ban came in effect....
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Alecs Iancu
Romania must respect its pledge to resolve inter-country adoption cases, in spite of the virtual ban of all inter-country adoptions after new laws came in effect last year, said the U.S. ambassador.
"The American government believes the Romanian government has made several promises regarding the adoption of children by American familiesand this promise (...) must be respected," said U.S. Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman during a press conference yesterday.
After new adoption laws came in effect at the beginning of last year, Romania banned international adoptions except in cases when the adopting couple and the child are closely blood related. The move, which came following EU criticism of previous, "too permissive" laws, angered several countries whose residents had begun adoption procedures of Romanian orphans. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized the new legislation and asked authorities to review it in order to allow a favorable solution at least to the requests filed by U.S. couples before the ban came in effect....
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Enclosed beds cause controversy
Posted 1/17/2006
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Is it a cage or bed? Cruel or therapeutic? Two large families have recently been accused of child abuse, in part for putting kids in completely enclosed structures. They say they did so for the safety of the children and others in the home.
In Ohio, Michael and Sharen Gravelle abused several of their 11 adoptive children by forcing them to sleep in cagelike enclosures, a judge ruled last month in a custody hearing. A hearing today may decide whether the couple regains custody of the children, now in foster care.
In Tennessee, Debra and Tom Schmitz are charged with putting children in a metal crib — without a mattress, blanket or sheets — for sleep or punishment. Their case goes to trial Jan. 30....
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By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Is it a cage or bed? Cruel or therapeutic? Two large families have recently been accused of child abuse, in part for putting kids in completely enclosed structures. They say they did so for the safety of the children and others in the home.
In Ohio, Michael and Sharen Gravelle abused several of their 11 adoptive children by forcing them to sleep in cagelike enclosures, a judge ruled last month in a custody hearing. A hearing today may decide whether the couple regains custody of the children, now in foster care.
In Tennessee, Debra and Tom Schmitz are charged with putting children in a metal crib — without a mattress, blanket or sheets — for sleep or punishment. Their case goes to trial Jan. 30....
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Internet Adoption
Jan. 25, 2006
Internet Adoption
Ivan Zherdev, president of the U.S. Yunona Charitable Fund, has been detained in Russia on suspected infringement of child’s privacy right and on suspected fraud. According to Krasnodar investigators, Yunona’s business was to illegally gather and sell to adoption agencies the data on private lives of children from Russia’s orphan homes or boarding schools. Exactly Yunona helped adopt Alex Geiko, who was killed by his adoptive mother Irma Pavlis just in a few months after leaving for the United States.
Ivan Zherdev of Russia set up Yunona Charitable Fund in California in 1994 to cover Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and to extend to Guatemala, Vietnam and some other countries. Krasnodar office of Yunona was founded by Ivan Zherdev in tandem with his brother Vladimir....
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Internet Adoption
Ivan Zherdev, president of the U.S. Yunona Charitable Fund, has been detained in Russia on suspected infringement of child’s privacy right and on suspected fraud. According to Krasnodar investigators, Yunona’s business was to illegally gather and sell to adoption agencies the data on private lives of children from Russia’s orphan homes or boarding schools. Exactly Yunona helped adopt Alex Geiko, who was killed by his adoptive mother Irma Pavlis just in a few months after leaving for the United States.
Ivan Zherdev of Russia set up Yunona Charitable Fund in California in 1994 to cover Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and to extend to Guatemala, Vietnam and some other countries. Krasnodar office of Yunona was founded by Ivan Zherdev in tandem with his brother Vladimir....
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Crete arrests linked to illegal adoption ring
Crete arrests linked to illegal adoption ring
Kathimerini English Edition
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Two Bulgarian women — a mother and her daughter — were yesterday charged by a prosecutor in Crete of being involved in an illegal child adoption ring, court sources said....
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Kathimerini English Edition
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Two Bulgarian women — a mother and her daughter — were yesterday charged by a prosecutor in Crete of being involved in an illegal child adoption ring, court sources said....
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Ring Selling Adoption Information Is Busted
The Moscow Times
Ring Selling Adoption Information Is Busted
25 January 2006
U.S. and Russian law enforcement agencies have cracked a ring that illegally gathered confidential information on orphaned children and sold it to prospective adoptive parents or adoption agencies, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said Tuesday....
click here
Ring Selling Adoption Information Is Busted
25 January 2006
U.S. and Russian law enforcement agencies have cracked a ring that illegally gathered confidential information on orphaned children and sold it to prospective adoptive parents or adoption agencies, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said Tuesday....
click here
Underground Adoption
Underground Adoption
Story aired: Friday, January 20, 2006
A story in USA Today cast a spotlight on a largely unknown aspect of adoption. The report reveals an underground network of families taking in children adoptive parents no longer want, without the participation of any child agencies.
For remaining article:
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/01/20060123_9.asp
Story aired: Friday, January 20, 2006
A story in USA Today cast a spotlight on a largely unknown aspect of adoption. The report reveals an underground network of families taking in children adoptive parents no longer want, without the participation of any child agencies.
For remaining article:
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/01/20060123_9.asp
Underground network moves children from home to home
Underground network moves children from home to home
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
TRENTON, Tenn. — At the end of a long tree-lined driveway, amid 18 acres that include a greenhouse and gazebo, sits a historic plantation home where, a state indictment says, children were beaten and forced to sleep in a totally enclosed baby crib.
Tennessee is charging the owners, Debra and Tom Schmitz, with abusing some of their 18 children, most of them disabled. The state says Debra Schmitz threw a knife at one child, held two children underwater for punishment and forced five to dig holes in the ground that would be their graves....
click here for remaining article
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
TRENTON, Tenn. — At the end of a long tree-lined driveway, amid 18 acres that include a greenhouse and gazebo, sits a historic plantation home where, a state indictment says, children were beaten and forced to sleep in a totally enclosed baby crib.
Tennessee is charging the owners, Debra and Tom Schmitz, with abusing some of their 18 children, most of them disabled. The state says Debra Schmitz threw a knife at one child, held two children underwater for punishment and forced five to dig holes in the ground that would be their graves....
click here for remaining article
Underground adoption: Part Two
Underground Adoption: Part Two Story aired: Monday, January 23, 2006
On Friday we brought you a story about a largely unknown aspect of adoption. USA Today reported on an underground network of families taking in children who are no longer wanted by their adoptive parents. Much of the networking between parents takes place online.Today we'll hear from an adoptive parent. Sharon Meyer is an adoptive mother of 30 children in Florida and the founder of the Foundation for Large Families. One of her children is a Ukrainian child who is no longer wanted by her first adoptive parents.
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/01/20060123_9.asp
On Friday we brought you a story about a largely unknown aspect of adoption. USA Today reported on an underground network of families taking in children who are no longer wanted by their adoptive parents. Much of the networking between parents takes place online.Today we'll hear from an adoptive parent. Sharon Meyer is an adoptive mother of 30 children in Florida and the founder of the Foundation for Large Families. One of her children is a Ukrainian child who is no longer wanted by her first adoptive parents.
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/01/20060123_9.asp
Child Trafficking, Slavery and Domestic Infant Adoption
Child Trafficking, Slavery and Domestic Infant Adoption
"Is it illegal for a parent to sell their child?" people sometimes ask. I guess with all the adoption agencies around selling "adoptionservices" designed to get babies for customers, these people think it must be OK for parents to cash in on the trade in human babies as well. In some countries, poor families may have no legal protection and parents do often feel so pressured that they sell one child just to keep the rest of the family fed. The parents may be lured in by seemingly friendly "professionals" who tell them their child will be "better off". But once the child is out of reach of family, the kids may be used for sexual purposes, medically butchered and used as a source of organs for transplants, used as slaves or sold for adoption. Sometimes the "adoption" is a disguise and the child is actually being sold for slavery or as a sex slave. What better ploy to get a child for kiddie porn or even a "snuff" film? Once in the possession of "adoptive parents" it will be assumed a child is safe and no one checks up. Athough completely unrelated to the child they purchase (or otherwise acquire), "adoptive parents" have a reputation as being "loving couples" and "angels". To question this belief is considered some sort of blasphemy, as if the man-made construct of adoption itself were a god....
http://www.exiledmothers.com/adoption_facts/child_trafficking.htm
"Is it illegal for a parent to sell their child?" people sometimes ask. I guess with all the adoption agencies around selling "adoptionservices" designed to get babies for customers, these people think it must be OK for parents to cash in on the trade in human babies as well. In some countries, poor families may have no legal protection and parents do often feel so pressured that they sell one child just to keep the rest of the family fed. The parents may be lured in by seemingly friendly "professionals" who tell them their child will be "better off". But once the child is out of reach of family, the kids may be used for sexual purposes, medically butchered and used as a source of organs for transplants, used as slaves or sold for adoption. Sometimes the "adoption" is a disguise and the child is actually being sold for slavery or as a sex slave. What better ploy to get a child for kiddie porn or even a "snuff" film? Once in the possession of "adoptive parents" it will be assumed a child is safe and no one checks up. Athough completely unrelated to the child they purchase (or otherwise acquire), "adoptive parents" have a reputation as being "loving couples" and "angels". To question this belief is considered some sort of blasphemy, as if the man-made construct of adoption itself were a god....
http://www.exiledmothers.com/adoption_facts/child_trafficking.htm
William Peckenpaugh convicted for sexually abusing adopted Romanian boy
WILLIAM D. PECKENPAUGH, AKA WILLIAM DELOS PECKENPAUGH, W.D. OR BILL PECKENPAUGH, Rev Bill Pedkenpaugh and WDPECK on many internet message boards. ON DEC 1, 2004 WAS CHARGED WITH SIX COUNTS OF FIRST-DEGREE SODOMY, TWO COUNTS OF SEX ABUSE, AND ONE COUNT OF USING A CHILD FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEXUAL DISPLAY. Dec of 2005 Peckenpaugh plead guilty to 33 charges, including nine counts of sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse....
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Peckenpaugh.html
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Peckenpaugh.html
Woman accused of killing adopted daughter pleads not guilty
Woman accused of killing adopted daughter pleads not guilty
FRANKLIN, Tenn. Copyright 2005
The Associated Press.
A woman accused of murdering her adopted Chinese daughter has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect and reckless homicide.
Jennifer Alvey, 34, waived her right to appear at her arraignment Monday, court officials said.
The Spring Hill woman is accused in the death of her 20-month-old daughter, Emma Alvey. Authorities said on Oct. 19 she shook the baby, striking her head on a coffee table, then neglected to immediately get help for the baby.
For remaining article: http://www.southernstandard.net/news.php?viewStory=26546
FRANKLIN, Tenn. Copyright 2005
The Associated Press.
A woman accused of murdering her adopted Chinese daughter has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect and reckless homicide.
Jennifer Alvey, 34, waived her right to appear at her arraignment Monday, court officials said.
The Spring Hill woman is accused in the death of her 20-month-old daughter, Emma Alvey. Authorities said on Oct. 19 she shook the baby, striking her head on a coffee table, then neglected to immediately get help for the baby.
For remaining article: http://www.southernstandard.net/news.php?viewStory=26546
Adoption providers are not included in current U.S. trafficking laws
Now, each state has its own laws and licensing regulations. The laws area patchwork and consumers are often not protected by the state they live in. Adoption providers are not included in current U.S. trafficking laws. If a child is illegally procured for an adoption, our law does not apply, and these people can't be prosecuted. Trafficking laws only provide prosecution for people who procure for the purpose of sex or labor. If a consumer has a problem with a provider, he may complain to the state licensing board. Unless the complaint is a licensing issue, the complaint is usually not registered.
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/13446967.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/13446967.htm
Couple charged with endangering 4-year-old disabled son
Couple charged with endangering 4-year-old disabled son
February 2, 2006, 2:49 PM
ESTALFRED, N.Y. (AP)
A woman repeatedly beat her 4-year-old disabled son, cut his ear with scissors and threatened to cut out his tongue before turning to a priest with a warning that "you have to take him or I will kill him," a prosecutor said.
The child, who was born with one arm and was adopted in Russia, was placed in protective custody Thursday after his mother, Jane Cochran, 43, was charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfareof a child.
Cochran's husband, Timothy, an associate professor of electrical engineering technology at Alfred State College in this southwestern NewYork town, also was charged with endangering the boy.
The boy did not speak English well and was allegedly beaten over andover with a belt one evening last month for not reading his prayers correctly in English, investigators told the Wellsville Daily Reporter....
For remaining article: http://www.wellsvilledaily.com or
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--couple-abuse0202feb02,0,2118053.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
February 2, 2006, 2:49 PM
ESTALFRED, N.Y. (AP)
A woman repeatedly beat her 4-year-old disabled son, cut his ear with scissors and threatened to cut out his tongue before turning to a priest with a warning that "you have to take him or I will kill him," a prosecutor said.
The child, who was born with one arm and was adopted in Russia, was placed in protective custody Thursday after his mother, Jane Cochran, 43, was charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfareof a child.
Cochran's husband, Timothy, an associate professor of electrical engineering technology at Alfred State College in this southwestern NewYork town, also was charged with endangering the boy.
The boy did not speak English well and was allegedly beaten over andover with a belt one evening last month for not reading his prayers correctly in English, investigators told the Wellsville Daily Reporter....
For remaining article: http://www.wellsvilledaily.com or
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--couple-abuse0202feb02,0,2118053.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Woman Charged for Beating Adopted Russian Handicapped Child
Woman Charged for Beating Adopted Russian Handicapped Child
Created: 09.02.2006 12:51 MSK (GMT +3),
Updated: 13:18 MSK,
MosNews
43-year-old woman from the city of Alfred (ME) has been charged with assault for allegedly beating her four-year-old adopted son from Russia and cutting his ear with a pair of scissors.
Jane Cochran was charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Her husband, Tim Cochran, 48, was also charged with endangering the child’s welfare, Olean Times Herald reported.
The boy’s physical handicap was that he was born without one arm, the newspaper quoted Alfred state police chief Scott A. Cicirello as saying. He said it was the worst case of child abuse he had seen in 13 years as a police officer.
The woman was arrested after she brought her son to see Father GeneUlrich, pastor of a local church. The pastor called a child abusehotline after he saw the boy’s bruises and other signs of abuse.
For remaining article:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/02/09/adoptioncharge.shtml
Created: 09.02.2006 12:51 MSK (GMT +3),
Updated: 13:18 MSK,
MosNews
43-year-old woman from the city of Alfred (ME) has been charged with assault for allegedly beating her four-year-old adopted son from Russia and cutting his ear with a pair of scissors.
Jane Cochran was charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Her husband, Tim Cochran, 48, was also charged with endangering the child’s welfare, Olean Times Herald reported.
The boy’s physical handicap was that he was born without one arm, the newspaper quoted Alfred state police chief Scott A. Cicirello as saying. He said it was the worst case of child abuse he had seen in 13 years as a police officer.
The woman was arrested after she brought her son to see Father GeneUlrich, pastor of a local church. The pastor called a child abusehotline after he saw the boy’s bruises and other signs of abuse.
For remaining article:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/02/09/adoptioncharge.shtml
Russia Probes Adoption by U.S. Couple Charged With Child Abuse
Russia Probes Adoption by U.S. Couple Charged With Child Abuse
Created: 11.02.2006
16:10 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:09
MSKMos
News Russian prosecutors are investigating the legality of the adoption of a disabled Russian boy by a western New York couple who have been accused of abuse, the Interfax news agency reported Friday. The 4-year old was repeatedly beaten by his adoptive mother, who cut his ear with scissors and threatened to cut out his tongue for not reading his prayers correctly in English, according to prosecutors in Allegany County, The Associated Press reported....
For more: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/02/11/adoptionprobe.shtml
Created: 11.02.2006
16:10 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:09
MSKMos
News Russian prosecutors are investigating the legality of the adoption of a disabled Russian boy by a western New York couple who have been accused of abuse, the Interfax news agency reported Friday. The 4-year old was repeatedly beaten by his adoptive mother, who cut his ear with scissors and threatened to cut out his tongue for not reading his prayers correctly in English, according to prosecutors in Allegany County, The Associated Press reported....
For more: http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/02/11/adoptionprobe.shtml
Woman finds out she was kidnapped as a child
Woman finds out she was kidnapped as a child
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Updated: 10:45 AM
A young woman, kidnapped more than twenty years ago, is now looking forward to a reunion with her biological mother.
23-year-old Vanessa Atilano, who grew up in Mexico, was told by her adopted father that she was never adopted. In fact, she was kidnapped from her biological mother.
When Vanessa learned the truth, she hopped on a bus and headed north tothe Valley in search of her biological family. They live inPhiladelphia....
For more:
http://www.newschannel5.tv/2006/2/11/6298/Woman-finds-out-she-was-kidnapped-as-a-child
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Updated: 10:45 AM
A young woman, kidnapped more than twenty years ago, is now looking forward to a reunion with her biological mother.
23-year-old Vanessa Atilano, who grew up in Mexico, was told by her adopted father that she was never adopted. In fact, she was kidnapped from her biological mother.
When Vanessa learned the truth, she hopped on a bus and headed north tothe Valley in search of her biological family. They live inPhiladelphia....
For more:
http://www.newschannel5.tv/2006/2/11/6298/Woman-finds-out-she-was-kidnapped-as-a-child
Russian emigre charged in alleged adoption scheme
Russian emigre charged in alleged adoption scheme
Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis, February 14
A local Russian emigrant known for her international connections to Olympic medalist Olga Korbut is now under federal indictment. Forty-two-year-old Victoria Farahan of Carmel is accused of taking more than $97,000 from couples in a failed adoption program.
Tim Morrison with the U.S. Attorney's Office explains. "She representedherself as one who had connections with international adoption agencies and that's how she put the scheme out."
The FBI says six unsuspecting church couples took Victoria Farahan ather word. She promised to place orphaned Russian children in their homesfor a fee. Morrison says they lost substantial amounts money. "Five of them were(out) $15,000. One of the couples was supposedly adopting twins and theypaid $22,500."....
For remaining article: http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4504275&nav=9Tai
Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis, February 14
A local Russian emigrant known for her international connections to Olympic medalist Olga Korbut is now under federal indictment. Forty-two-year-old Victoria Farahan of Carmel is accused of taking more than $97,000 from couples in a failed adoption program.
Tim Morrison with the U.S. Attorney's Office explains. "She representedherself as one who had connections with international adoption agencies and that's how she put the scheme out."
The FBI says six unsuspecting church couples took Victoria Farahan ather word. She promised to place orphaned Russian children in their homesfor a fee. Morrison says they lost substantial amounts money. "Five of them were(out) $15,000. One of the couples was supposedly adopting twins and theypaid $22,500."....
For remaining article: http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=4504275&nav=9Tai
Bertha and Harry Holt
In 1955, a special act of Congress allowed Bertha and Harry Holt, an evangelical couple from rural Oregon, to adopt eight Korean War orphans. The Holts had a large family before the adoptions, but they were so moved by their experience that they became pioneers of international adoptions and arranged hundreds for other American couples. They relied on proxy adoptions and overlooked the minimum standards and investigatory practices endorsed by social workers. They honored adopters' specifications for age and sex, gave priority to couples with one or no children, and asked only that applicants be “saved persons” who could pay the cost of children’s airfare from Korea. They paid close attention to race-matching for children whose fathers were African-American, but otherwise ignored it entirely. They were happy to accept couples who had been rejected, for a variety of reasons, by conventional adoption agencies.
The Holts believed they were doing God’s work, but they became lightning rods for controversy about how adoptive families should be made. In the press, the Holts were portrayed as heroic, selfless figures. In Congress, Oregon Senator Richard Neuberger called them incarnations of “the Biblical Good Samaritan.” In Christian communities around the country, their work was held up as a model to be emulated. But many professionals and policy-makers in the U.S. Children’s Bureau, the Child Welfare League of America, and the International Social Service devoted themselves (unsuccessfully) to putting the Holts out of business. They considered the Holts dangerous amateurs, throwbacks to the bad old days of charity and sentiment. Their placements threatened child welfare by substituting religious zeal and haphazard methods for professional skill and supervision....
For more from The Adoption History Project:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~adoption/people/holt.htm
The Holts believed they were doing God’s work, but they became lightning rods for controversy about how adoptive families should be made. In the press, the Holts were portrayed as heroic, selfless figures. In Congress, Oregon Senator Richard Neuberger called them incarnations of “the Biblical Good Samaritan.” In Christian communities around the country, their work was held up as a model to be emulated. But many professionals and policy-makers in the U.S. Children’s Bureau, the Child Welfare League of America, and the International Social Service devoted themselves (unsuccessfully) to putting the Holts out of business. They considered the Holts dangerous amateurs, throwbacks to the bad old days of charity and sentiment. Their placements threatened child welfare by substituting religious zeal and haphazard methods for professional skill and supervision....
For more from The Adoption History Project:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~adoption/people/holt.htm
We gave him up to save his life
We gave him up to save his life
For five increasingly horrific years, the adoption agencies insisted that Chad Ostrowski's memory of a father in Korea was fantasy. When Anne Marie and John finally learned the truth about their beloved boy, they made the ultimate sacrifice.
By Peg Tyre
Published Feb 22, 1999
On August 11, 1989, a pale, anxious 8-year-old boy wearing a thin cotton T-shirt and shorts walked through the arrivals gate at Kennedy airport and into the arms of John and Anne Marie Ostrowski. They held balloons inscribed mom and dad in Korean, the only language their new son, whom they had already named Chad, understood. A shy, skinny boy with liquid brown eyes, his gleaming hair teeming with lice, Chad had no luggage, no toys to occupy him for the 24-hour journey.
"He didn't carry a teddy bear, a blanket, a stuffed animal, nothing," recalls Anne Marie, a slight, intense woman with the physical exuberance of an aerobics instructor. "Not even a jacket for a flight halfway around the world."
Chad had been placed with the Westchester couple by New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, a Mineola, Long Island, agency specializing in the adoption of foreign-born children. His birth mother was unmarried, New Beginnings had told the Ostrowskis, whose first son, John II, was 10 years old. Chad had no other family, they were told, and his mother, too poor to raise him, had abandoned him at an orphanage near the southern tip of Korea.
Chad, who was soon wearing spanking-new jeans and a black Members Only jacket -- the late-eighties uniform of every suburban kid -- immediately began to struggle with English. It wasn't long before he was able to make himself understood. But what he told his American parents in his halting English shocked the Ostrowskis and launched them on a painful journey that would stretch over a turbulent decade. Before it was over, their dream family would be in tatters. And Chad, their beautiful, bright child, would be on the brink of self-destruction.
"You say you are my family, but I already have a family," Chad told Anne Marie and John. "I have a father, brothers, and sisters back in Korea. Aunts and uncles, too. My father loves me, and I want to know what happened to him." ....
For remaining article:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/family/features/975/
For five increasingly horrific years, the adoption agencies insisted that Chad Ostrowski's memory of a father in Korea was fantasy. When Anne Marie and John finally learned the truth about their beloved boy, they made the ultimate sacrifice.
By Peg Tyre
Published Feb 22, 1999
On August 11, 1989, a pale, anxious 8-year-old boy wearing a thin cotton T-shirt and shorts walked through the arrivals gate at Kennedy airport and into the arms of John and Anne Marie Ostrowski. They held balloons inscribed mom and dad in Korean, the only language their new son, whom they had already named Chad, understood. A shy, skinny boy with liquid brown eyes, his gleaming hair teeming with lice, Chad had no luggage, no toys to occupy him for the 24-hour journey.
"He didn't carry a teddy bear, a blanket, a stuffed animal, nothing," recalls Anne Marie, a slight, intense woman with the physical exuberance of an aerobics instructor. "Not even a jacket for a flight halfway around the world."
Chad had been placed with the Westchester couple by New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, a Mineola, Long Island, agency specializing in the adoption of foreign-born children. His birth mother was unmarried, New Beginnings had told the Ostrowskis, whose first son, John II, was 10 years old. Chad had no other family, they were told, and his mother, too poor to raise him, had abandoned him at an orphanage near the southern tip of Korea.
Chad, who was soon wearing spanking-new jeans and a black Members Only jacket -- the late-eighties uniform of every suburban kid -- immediately began to struggle with English. It wasn't long before he was able to make himself understood. But what he told his American parents in his halting English shocked the Ostrowskis and launched them on a painful journey that would stretch over a turbulent decade. Before it was over, their dream family would be in tatters. And Chad, their beautiful, bright child, would be on the brink of self-destruction.
"You say you are my family, but I already have a family," Chad told Anne Marie and John. "I have a father, brothers, and sisters back in Korea. Aunts and uncles, too. My father loves me, and I want to know what happened to him." ....
For remaining article:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/family/features/975/
Second woman is charged in Cambodian adoptions
Friday, January 9, 2004
Second woman is charged in Cambodian adoptions
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
A celebrated international humanitarian -- who now stands accused of cashing in on the misery of dirt-poor, Third World families -- turned herself in yesterday to federal agents and prosecutors on a mission to clean up global trafficking of Cambodian "orphans."
The case involves allegations of bribery, profiteering and falsification of documents. And all, court documents say, came in an effort to portray children as orphans or abandoned, rather than babies available for the right price.
For adoptive parents of Cambodian children, the allegations are chilling. So is not knowing what really happened. One Whidbey Island couple adopted two children from Cambodia. Now the children's birth mother claims she was tricked into giving the girls up. But she could also have sold them.
That adoption was handled by Lauryn Galindo, 52, of Kauai, Hawaii. She turned herself in yesterday and became the second person charged in federal court in the investigation. Galindo's sister, Lynn Devin, 50, of Mercer Island, pleaded guilty to visa fraud and money laundering last month as part of the investigation code-named "Operation Broken Hearts."....
For remaining article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/155944_adopt09.html
Second woman is charged in Cambodian adoptions
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
A celebrated international humanitarian -- who now stands accused of cashing in on the misery of dirt-poor, Third World families -- turned herself in yesterday to federal agents and prosecutors on a mission to clean up global trafficking of Cambodian "orphans."
The case involves allegations of bribery, profiteering and falsification of documents. And all, court documents say, came in an effort to portray children as orphans or abandoned, rather than babies available for the right price.
For adoptive parents of Cambodian children, the allegations are chilling. So is not knowing what really happened. One Whidbey Island couple adopted two children from Cambodia. Now the children's birth mother claims she was tricked into giving the girls up. But she could also have sold them.
That adoption was handled by Lauryn Galindo, 52, of Kauai, Hawaii. She turned herself in yesterday and became the second person charged in federal court in the investigation. Galindo's sister, Lynn Devin, 50, of Mercer Island, pleaded guilty to visa fraud and money laundering last month as part of the investigation code-named "Operation Broken Hearts."....
For remaining article:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/155944_adopt09.html
Baby trafficking is focus of probe at Kenya hospital
Thursday, September 2, 2004
Baby trafficking is focus of probe at Kenya hospital
By TOM MALITI
The Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya — Investigators are focusing on Kenya's main maternity hospital, police said yesterday, after allegations that some parents were told their newborns had died but the babies were really stolen by an international child-trafficking ring.
Five people, including the wife of a London-based Kenyan preacher, were released on bail yesterday after pleading not guilty to charges involving two infants. Self-proclaimed archbishop Gilbert Deya had claimed the two were among children born as the result of miracles he performed on infertile women.
One of the babies was stolen in February from Nairobi's Pumwani Maternity Hospital and "it is the center of our investigations," police spokesman Jaspher Ombati said. No hospital employee has been charged so far.
Since the five suspects were detained last month, many couples have come forward seeking to claim the 20 children found with the suspects, saying their children disappeared from the hospital, Ombati told The Associated Press. DNA tests found that at least 17 of the children were not related to the adults arrested, authorities said....
For remaining article:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040902&slug=babies02
Baby trafficking is focus of probe at Kenya hospital
By TOM MALITI
The Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya — Investigators are focusing on Kenya's main maternity hospital, police said yesterday, after allegations that some parents were told their newborns had died but the babies were really stolen by an international child-trafficking ring.
Five people, including the wife of a London-based Kenyan preacher, were released on bail yesterday after pleading not guilty to charges involving two infants. Self-proclaimed archbishop Gilbert Deya had claimed the two were among children born as the result of miracles he performed on infertile women.
One of the babies was stolen in February from Nairobi's Pumwani Maternity Hospital and "it is the center of our investigations," police spokesman Jaspher Ombati said. No hospital employee has been charged so far.
Since the five suspects were detained last month, many couples have come forward seeking to claim the 20 children found with the suspects, saying their children disappeared from the hospital, Ombati told The Associated Press. DNA tests found that at least 17 of the children were not related to the adults arrested, authorities said....
For remaining article:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040902&slug=babies02
The Hague Covention
16 February 2006
State Department Issues Final Rules on Intercountry Adoption
Regulations to implement Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions
The United States came a step closer to implementing the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions when it issued final rules February 15 relating to accreditation of adoption agencies.
The Hague Convention -- formally known as the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption -- sets minimum international standards and procedures for adoptions that occur between implementing countries to ensure greater protection from exploitation of children, birth parents and adoptive parents.
This multinational treaty was approved by 66 nations on May 29, 1993, at The Hague. The United States signed it on March 31, 1994.
The State Department’s rules outline standards and procedures for accrediting nonprofit agencies and approving for-profit U.S. adoption service providers who seek to provide international adoption services in cases subject to the Hague Convention.
These rules, published in the Federal Register on February 15, take effect March 17. This action is a necessary step toward bringing the convention into force for the United States.
The Hague Convention aims to prevent abuses such as the abduction, sale or trafficking of children and to ensure proper consent to the adoption, as well as allowing for the child’s transfer to the receiving country and establishing the adopted child’s status in the receiving country....
http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/February/20060216142905mvyelwarc0.1766016.html
State Department Issues Final Rules on Intercountry Adoption
Regulations to implement Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions
The United States came a step closer to implementing the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions when it issued final rules February 15 relating to accreditation of adoption agencies.
The Hague Convention -- formally known as the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption -- sets minimum international standards and procedures for adoptions that occur between implementing countries to ensure greater protection from exploitation of children, birth parents and adoptive parents.
This multinational treaty was approved by 66 nations on May 29, 1993, at The Hague. The United States signed it on March 31, 1994.
The State Department’s rules outline standards and procedures for accrediting nonprofit agencies and approving for-profit U.S. adoption service providers who seek to provide international adoption services in cases subject to the Hague Convention.
These rules, published in the Federal Register on February 15, take effect March 17. This action is a necessary step toward bringing the convention into force for the United States.
The Hague Convention aims to prevent abuses such as the abduction, sale or trafficking of children and to ensure proper consent to the adoption, as well as allowing for the child’s transfer to the receiving country and establishing the adopted child’s status in the receiving country....
http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/February/20060216142905mvyelwarc0.1766016.html
Adoptee trapped by conflicting laws
2/17/2006
10:33:00 PM -0500
Adoptee trapped by conflicting laws
SHELBY, Mich., Feb. 17 (UPI) --
"An all-American girl" could be deported to Italy, a country she left as a baby, because her parents were unable to adopt her legally until she was 18.
Maria Messina, who has lived in Michigan's Macomb County since she was 28 days old, was caught between conflicting federal and state laws, the Detroit News reported. Her birth mother, who surrendered her when she was born and agreed to let her adoptive parents take her to the United States, objected three years later to the adoption....
For remaining article: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060217-101947-8120r
10:33:00 PM -0500
Adoptee trapped by conflicting laws
SHELBY, Mich., Feb. 17 (UPI) --
"An all-American girl" could be deported to Italy, a country she left as a baby, because her parents were unable to adopt her legally until she was 18.
Maria Messina, who has lived in Michigan's Macomb County since she was 28 days old, was caught between conflicting federal and state laws, the Detroit News reported. Her birth mother, who surrendered her when she was born and agreed to let her adoptive parents take her to the United States, objected three years later to the adoption....
For remaining article: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060217-101947-8120r
Couple charged with trafficking babies
Friday, February 17, 2006 ·
Last updated 9:47 p.m. PT
Couple charged with trafficking babies
By RICK VECCHIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LIMA, Peru
A German man and his Peruvian wife have been charged with trafficking Peruvian babies to adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site, police said Friday.
Investigators believe the couple obtained the babies from poor women whowere willing to give up their children for money.
Arndt Hubert Kupper, 36, and Eva Noruzka la Torre, 22, were arrestedWednesday. They allegedly offered to sell the infants for $16,870 each....
For remaining article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Peru_Baby_Trafficking.html
Last updated 9:47 p.m. PT
Couple charged with trafficking babies
By RICK VECCHIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LIMA, Peru
A German man and his Peruvian wife have been charged with trafficking Peruvian babies to adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site, police said Friday.
Investigators believe the couple obtained the babies from poor women whowere willing to give up their children for money.
Arndt Hubert Kupper, 36, and Eva Noruzka la Torre, 22, were arrestedWednesday. They allegedly offered to sell the infants for $16,870 each....
For remaining article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Peru_Baby_Trafficking.html
Teen's murder casts light on baby trafficking in Peru
Teen's murder casts light on baby trafficking in Peru
By RICK VECCHIO
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — When the body of Claudina Herrera was discovered nearly five months ago by the side of a highway, curled in the fetal position in a cardboard box, the cause of death was obvious: The pregnant 18-year-old's belly was sliced wide open, and her baby was gone.
Within days, her premature girl was located in intensive care at a public hospital, and the woman who had shown up with the baby — covered in blood and saying she had given birth in a taxi — was arrested with four others.
Herrera's slaying to steal her unborn child has shocked Peru and served as an ugly reminder of the early 1990s, when widespread allegations of corrupt adoption procedures led to a crackdown.
It also suggests that an illegal industry is still booming: Dr. Luis Bromley, chief of forensic investigations at the Attorney General's office, said the alleged perpetrators belong to one of at least a dozen rings trafficking in babies in Peru....
For remaining article:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20060313&slug=perubabies13
By RICK VECCHIO
The Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — When the body of Claudina Herrera was discovered nearly five months ago by the side of a highway, curled in the fetal position in a cardboard box, the cause of death was obvious: The pregnant 18-year-old's belly was sliced wide open, and her baby was gone.
Within days, her premature girl was located in intensive care at a public hospital, and the woman who had shown up with the baby — covered in blood and saying she had given birth in a taxi — was arrested with four others.
Herrera's slaying to steal her unborn child has shocked Peru and served as an ugly reminder of the early 1990s, when widespread allegations of corrupt adoption procedures led to a crackdown.
It also suggests that an illegal industry is still booming: Dr. Luis Bromley, chief of forensic investigations at the Attorney General's office, said the alleged perpetrators belong to one of at least a dozen rings trafficking in babies in Peru....
For remaining article:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20060313&slug=perubabies13
Woman adoptee, in U.S. since age 1, fights for citizenship
Woman adoptee, in U.S. since age 1 month, fights for citizenship
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich.
A 22-year-old woman who has lived in Michigan since she was 28 days old is fighting immigration officials for the right to remain in this country. Maria Messina grew up in Macomb County's Shelby Township, north of Detroit, and now attends Macomb Community College. Her adoptive parents brought her from Palermo, Sicily, as a baby, but a legal dispute with her birth mother delayed her adoption until she was 18....
For remaining article:
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=4516267&nav=0RbQ
SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich.
A 22-year-old woman who has lived in Michigan since she was 28 days old is fighting immigration officials for the right to remain in this country. Maria Messina grew up in Macomb County's Shelby Township, north of Detroit, and now attends Macomb Community College. Her adoptive parents brought her from Palermo, Sicily, as a baby, but a legal dispute with her birth mother delayed her adoption until she was 18....
For remaining article:
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=4516267&nav=0RbQ
Korean says he is skier's dad
Korean says he is skier's dad
SEOUL (Reuters)
A South Korean man says he is the biological father of American Toby Dawson, who took bronze in the men's freestyle skiing moguls at the Turin Winter Olympics, South Korean media reported onMonday.
Kim Jae-su, 52, said Dawson bears a strong resemblance to his son, Bong-suk, who went missing in 1981 in a busy market street in the South Korean port city of Pusan, Yonhap News said.
"(Dawson) just looks like him," Kim told local broadcaster YTN. "I could tell right away when I saw his pictures."South Korea-born Dawson shot to prominence after winning his medal lastweek and almost all papers carried stories that the adopted U.S. skierwas searching for his biological parents....
For remaining article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/news?slug=reu-freestyleskiingkoreadc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
SEOUL (Reuters)
A South Korean man says he is the biological father of American Toby Dawson, who took bronze in the men's freestyle skiing moguls at the Turin Winter Olympics, South Korean media reported onMonday.
Kim Jae-su, 52, said Dawson bears a strong resemblance to his son, Bong-suk, who went missing in 1981 in a busy market street in the South Korean port city of Pusan, Yonhap News said.
"(Dawson) just looks like him," Kim told local broadcaster YTN. "I could tell right away when I saw his pictures."South Korea-born Dawson shot to prominence after winning his medal lastweek and almost all papers carried stories that the adopted U.S. skierwas searching for his biological parents....
For remaining article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/news?slug=reu-freestyleskiingkoreadc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
China sentences orphanage director, nine others to prison for baby-trafficking
China sentences orphanage director, nine others to prison for baby-trafficking
Updated: 2006-02-25
15:34
BEIJING (AP)
A Chinese orphanage director and nine other people have been sentenced to prison for buying and selling scores of infants who were adopted by foreign parents, the government announced Saturday.
Another 22 officials were fired in the case in the southern city of Hengyang in Hunan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Police said the traffickers bought babies that had been abducted from their families and sold them to welfare homes in Hengyang for 3,200 to 4,300 yuan (US$400-US$540; euro320-euro430) each, the report said.
"The social welfare homes then had the infants adopted by foreigners who made donations," the report said....
For remaining article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/25/content_523975.htm
Saturday, February 25, 2006 ·
Last updated 3:18 a.m. PT
10 sent to prison for baby-trafficking
By JOE MCDONALD ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_China_Baby_Trafficking.html
Updated: 2006-02-25
15:34
BEIJING (AP)
A Chinese orphanage director and nine other people have been sentenced to prison for buying and selling scores of infants who were adopted by foreign parents, the government announced Saturday.
Another 22 officials were fired in the case in the southern city of Hengyang in Hunan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Police said the traffickers bought babies that had been abducted from their families and sold them to welfare homes in Hengyang for 3,200 to 4,300 yuan (US$400-US$540; euro320-euro430) each, the report said.
"The social welfare homes then had the infants adopted by foreigners who made donations," the report said....
For remaining article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/25/content_523975.htm
Saturday, February 25, 2006 ·
Last updated 3:18 a.m. PT
10 sent to prison for baby-trafficking
By JOE MCDONALD ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_China_Baby_Trafficking.html
Ahern welcomes court ruling on Tristan
Ahern welcomes court ruling on Tristan
23 February 2006
RTÉ News
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Adoption Ireland have welcomed today's High Court ruling regarding the future well-being of Tristan Dowse, the four-year-old boy returned to an orphanage in Indonesia by his adoptive parents. Mr Justice John McMenamin ruled that Joe Dowse from Co Wicklow and his Azerbaijani wife, Lala, had breached their constitutional duties and must support Tristan until he is 18. Minister Dermot Ahern described the ruling as realistic and said his department would maintain contact with the Indonesian authorities toensure all is well with Tristan.
For remaining article:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0223/dowset.html
23 February 2006
RTÉ News
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Adoption Ireland have welcomed today's High Court ruling regarding the future well-being of Tristan Dowse, the four-year-old boy returned to an orphanage in Indonesia by his adoptive parents. Mr Justice John McMenamin ruled that Joe Dowse from Co Wicklow and his Azerbaijani wife, Lala, had breached their constitutional duties and must support Tristan until he is 18. Minister Dermot Ahern described the ruling as realistic and said his department would maintain contact with the Indonesian authorities toensure all is well with Tristan.
For remaining article:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0223/dowset.html
Couple told to support boy they adopted...
Fri 02 Feb 2006
Couple told to support boy they adopted in Indonesia
The Irish-Azerbaijani couple who adopted a two-month-old Indonesian boy in 2001, and two years later handed him over to an orphanage, have been ordered by the High Court in Dublin to support him until he reaches 18. Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports.The case of Tristan Dowse caused major public concern after it emerged that he had been left in an orphanage in Indonesia when his adoptive parents decided the adoption was not working out in 2003. He was a few weeks short of his second birthday at the time....
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2006/0224/1140626815889.html
Couple told to support boy they adopted in Indonesia
The Irish-Azerbaijani couple who adopted a two-month-old Indonesian boy in 2001, and two years later handed him over to an orphanage, have been ordered by the High Court in Dublin to support him until he reaches 18. Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent, reports.The case of Tristan Dowse caused major public concern after it emerged that he had been left in an orphanage in Indonesia when his adoptive parents decided the adoption was not working out in 2003. He was a few weeks short of his second birthday at the time....
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2006/0224/1140626815889.html
Adoption attitudes, law changing
Sun May 13, 2007 3:50 pm (PST)
Adoption attitudes, law changing
By Brian Breuhaus, Deputy Editor
New laws that took effect this year designed to encourage Koreans to adopt more children while discouraging foreigners from doing so are having the desired effect, leaders of an adoption civic group said yesterday.
But there are still thousands of children languishing in orphanages because either there aren't enough families willing to take them or they cannot be adopted because their parents didn't sign the proper papers, the group said."
This has been a burden in my heart for 10 years. How can I help those children?" said Stephen Morrison, an ethnic Korean who was adopted by an American family. Under the new laws, a Korean can adopt a child for free. Foreigners must pay between 15 and 20 million won. Also, the government will give Koreans a stipend of 100,000 won per child per month for each child adopted, and 550,000 won for each special needs child. Singles are also now allowed to adopt a child....
For remaining article:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/_data/pdf/2007/05/09/2007050901.pdf
Adoption attitudes, law changing
By Brian Breuhaus, Deputy Editor
New laws that took effect this year designed to encourage Koreans to adopt more children while discouraging foreigners from doing so are having the desired effect, leaders of an adoption civic group said yesterday.
But there are still thousands of children languishing in orphanages because either there aren't enough families willing to take them or they cannot be adopted because their parents didn't sign the proper papers, the group said."
This has been a burden in my heart for 10 years. How can I help those children?" said Stephen Morrison, an ethnic Korean who was adopted by an American family. Under the new laws, a Korean can adopt a child for free. Foreigners must pay between 15 and 20 million won. Also, the government will give Koreans a stipend of 100,000 won per child per month for each child adopted, and 550,000 won for each special needs child. Singles are also now allowed to adopt a child....
For remaining article:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/_data/pdf/2007/05/09/2007050901.pdf
Boy Found in Japan Unwanted Drop Box
Boy Found in Japan Unwanted Drop Box
Posted on: Tuesday, 15 May 2007,
00:00 CDT
TOKYO - A toddler was found in an anonymous drop box for unwanted children set up by a Catholic-run hospital in southern Japan, media reports said Tuesday.
The boy, believed to be 3 or 4-year-old, was found Thursday - the day the Jikei Hospital opened the baby drop-off in the southern city of Kumamoto to discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places.
For remaining article:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/935950/boy_found_in_japan_unwanted_drop_box/index.html?source=r_health
Posted on: Tuesday, 15 May 2007,
00:00 CDT
TOKYO - A toddler was found in an anonymous drop box for unwanted children set up by a Catholic-run hospital in southern Japan, media reports said Tuesday.
The boy, believed to be 3 or 4-year-old, was found Thursday - the day the Jikei Hospital opened the baby drop-off in the southern city of Kumamoto to discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places.
For remaining article:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/935950/boy_found_in_japan_unwanted_drop_box/index.html?source=r_health
Boy Placed in Japan's Only Baby Hatch
Boy Placed in Japan's Only Baby Hatch
Tuesday, 15 May 2007,
18:00 CDT
Kumamoto, May 15 (Jiji Press)--A boy believed to be three or four years old was placed in Japan's only baby hatch on its first day in use Thursday, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
The boy is the first who has been left in the anonymous drop-off point for unwanted babies, installed at Jikei Hospital in this southwestern Japan city on May 1. The boy is believed to be in good health, the sources said....
For remaining article:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/936806/boy_placed_in_japans_only_baby_hatch/index.html?source=r_health
Tuesday, 15 May 2007,
18:00 CDT
Kumamoto, May 15 (Jiji Press)--A boy believed to be three or four years old was placed in Japan's only baby hatch on its first day in use Thursday, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
The boy is the first who has been left in the anonymous drop-off point for unwanted babies, installed at Jikei Hospital in this southwestern Japan city on May 1. The boy is believed to be in good health, the sources said....
For remaining article:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/936806/boy_placed_in_japans_only_baby_hatch/index.html?source=r_health
Japan's 'baby hatch' sets off flood of advice seekers
Japan's 'baby hatch' sets off flood of advice seekers
Sep 6 12:54 PM
US/Eastern
Hundreds of people have called an advice hotline since a Japanese hospital opened a controversial "baby hatch," where seven children have been left anonymously, officials and reports said Thursday.
The Roman Catholic hospital set up the hatch in May in a bid to prevent abortions and unwanted children. It looks like a mailbox with pictures of storks and is modelled on a similar idea in Germany.
Conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed outrage at the baby drop-off, saying it encourages irresponsibility, but he could find no legal grounds on which stop it being installed.
The hospital has declined to say how many children it has received, but reports said seven have been deposited....
For remaining article:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070906165349.epwpr8z7&show_article=1
Sep 6 12:54 PM
US/Eastern
Hundreds of people have called an advice hotline since a Japanese hospital opened a controversial "baby hatch," where seven children have been left anonymously, officials and reports said Thursday.
The Roman Catholic hospital set up the hatch in May in a bid to prevent abortions and unwanted children. It looks like a mailbox with pictures of storks and is modelled on a similar idea in Germany.
Conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed outrage at the baby drop-off, saying it encourages irresponsibility, but he could find no legal grounds on which stop it being installed.
The hospital has declined to say how many children it has received, but reports said seven have been deposited....
For remaining article:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070906165349.epwpr8z7&show_article=1
"Baby hatch" highlights Japan fears over adoption
"Baby hatch" highlights Japan fears over adoption
Sun Jul 8, 2007 11:09pm EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - When a newborn baby girl was left in Japan's controversial "baby hatch" last week, the child's life may have been saved, but her chances of finding new parents were slim due to a cultural aversion to adoption in Japan.
The baby is one of four tots -- one of them three-years-old -- so far left at the "stork's cradle" baby hatch at the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto, southern Japan.
A small door in the outside wall of the hospital opens to reveal a tiny bed inside, allowing parents to leave their child safely and anonymously. Once they do, an alarm goes off to alert hospital staff to the new arrival.
Similar facilities exist in Germany, where babies are offered for adoption after an eight week period during which birth parents can change their minds....
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUST915320070709?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
Sun Jul 8, 2007 11:09pm EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - When a newborn baby girl was left in Japan's controversial "baby hatch" last week, the child's life may have been saved, but her chances of finding new parents were slim due to a cultural aversion to adoption in Japan.
The baby is one of four tots -- one of them three-years-old -- so far left at the "stork's cradle" baby hatch at the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto, southern Japan.
A small door in the outside wall of the hospital opens to reveal a tiny bed inside, allowing parents to leave their child safely and anonymously. Once they do, an alarm goes off to alert hospital staff to the new arrival.
Similar facilities exist in Germany, where babies are offered for adoption after an eight week period during which birth parents can change their minds....
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUST915320070709?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
Japan's first 'baby hatch' opens to controversy
Japan's first 'baby hatch' opens to controversy
May 10 03:42 AM
US/Eastern
Japan's first "baby hatch", where parents can drop off unwanted infants anonymously, opened Thursday despite opposition from the conservative national government. The baby hatch, modelled on a project in Germany, went into operation at a Roman Catholic hospital in the city of Kumamoto, some 900 kilometres (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has urged Japan to return to "family values," opposed the idea but found no legal grounds to stop it.
"A mother must not leave her child or abandon him or her anonymously, " Abe told reporters.
"I want mothers to seek help first if they have problems," said Abe, who is childless after unsuccessful attempts with his wife Akie....
For remaining article:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070510074227.3vz8c7ob&show_article=1
May 10 03:42 AM
US/Eastern
Japan's first "baby hatch", where parents can drop off unwanted infants anonymously, opened Thursday despite opposition from the conservative national government. The baby hatch, modelled on a project in Germany, went into operation at a Roman Catholic hospital in the city of Kumamoto, some 900 kilometres (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has urged Japan to return to "family values," opposed the idea but found no legal grounds to stop it.
"A mother must not leave her child or abandon him or her anonymously, " Abe told reporters.
"I want mothers to seek help first if they have problems," said Abe, who is childless after unsuccessful attempts with his wife Akie....
For remaining article:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070510074227.3vz8c7ob&show_article=1
A nurse demonstrates Japan's first "baby hatch"
A nurse demonstrates Japan's first "baby hatch" in Kumamoto, 01 May 2007. The first unwanted child has been dropped off at Japan's new "baby hatch," outraging the conservative government as news reports said it was boy who was already three or four years old.
For remaining article: http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp070515134141.9xwceehgp0&show_article=1
For remaining article: http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp070515134141.9xwceehgp0&show_article=1
Adoptee sifts through a stolen past
Adoptee sifts through a stolen past
May 02, 2007
Lily Schur/Kim Jang-mee
At the age of 3, Lily Schur was kidnapped from her parents and adopted away to the United States. Now 22, Lily is a brightly smiling young woman with a positive outlook on aspects of her past that are just beyond the reach of her memory. Having been adopted by a white American family, she first returned to the Korean Peninsula at age 13 as part of an adoptee program.
"There was that feeling that I'd been here before," said Lily, whose Korean name is Kim Jang-mee. "Even to this day, I'm not sure if it's a real memory."
For remaining article: http://joongangdail y.joins.com/ article/view. asp?aid=2875051
May 02, 2007
Lily Schur/Kim Jang-mee
At the age of 3, Lily Schur was kidnapped from her parents and adopted away to the United States. Now 22, Lily is a brightly smiling young woman with a positive outlook on aspects of her past that are just beyond the reach of her memory. Having been adopted by a white American family, she first returned to the Korean Peninsula at age 13 as part of an adoptee program.
"There was that feeling that I'd been here before," said Lily, whose Korean name is Kim Jang-mee. "Even to this day, I'm not sure if it's a real memory."
For remaining article: http://joongangdail y.joins.com/ article/view. asp?aid=2875051
'Stolen boy' may be one of dozens
'Stolen boy' may be one of dozens
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin is setting up an investigation into the case of the Indian boy allegedly kidnapped from his home and later adopted by a Dutch couple. 'This is a very serious case,' Ballin is reported as saying. 'Think of the repercussions for everyone involved.'The boy was allegedly kidnapped in 1999 and sold to a children's home with a false letter of acceptance from the parents. He was then brought to the Netherlands by a Dutch adoption agency and adopted by a Dutch couple.
For remaining article:
http://www.dutchnew%20s.nl/news/%20archives/%202007/05/investig%20ation_into_stolen_indian_boy.php
http://www.expatica%20.com/actual/%20article.asp?
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin is setting up an investigation into the case of the Indian boy allegedly kidnapped from his home and later adopted by a Dutch couple. 'This is a very serious case,' Ballin is reported as saying. 'Think of the repercussions for everyone involved.'The boy was allegedly kidnapped in 1999 and sold to a children's home with a false letter of acceptance from the parents. He was then brought to the Netherlands by a Dutch adoption agency and adopted by a Dutch couple.
For remaining article:
http://www.dutchnew%20s.nl/news/%20archives/%202007/05/investig%20ation_into_stolen_indian_boy.php
http://www.expatica%20.com/actual/%20article.asp?
Korean Adoptees and Birth Mothers Protest Overseas Adoption
Korean adoptees from abroad and birth mothers protest overseas adoption
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -
Roh Myung-ja has gotten together with her sonevery year since 2004, when she was reunited with him after giving him up for adoption about 30 years ago. She is one of thousands of Korean women whose children were adopted overseas. The 49-year-old Roh believes what she has experienced in the years before her son returned to her should not happen to anyone. Now, she works as a staff member of Mindeulae, (Dandelions) , a civic group of South Korean parents whose children were adopted overseas and who oppose the nation's adoption system, which sends thousands of orphaned and abandoned children abroad.
"We hope that no other mothers have to go through the pain and suffering that we went through. Overseas adoption leaves deep-rooted scars both on the birth mothers and the children," Roh said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Saturday....
For remaining article:
http://english. yonhapnews. co.kr/national/ 2007/08/05/ 8/0302000000AEN2 0070804001600315 F.HTML
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -
Roh Myung-ja has gotten together with her sonevery year since 2004, when she was reunited with him after giving him up for adoption about 30 years ago. She is one of thousands of Korean women whose children were adopted overseas. The 49-year-old Roh believes what she has experienced in the years before her son returned to her should not happen to anyone. Now, she works as a staff member of Mindeulae, (Dandelions) , a civic group of South Korean parents whose children were adopted overseas and who oppose the nation's adoption system, which sends thousands of orphaned and abandoned children abroad.
"We hope that no other mothers have to go through the pain and suffering that we went through. Overseas adoption leaves deep-rooted scars both on the birth mothers and the children," Roh said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Saturday....
For remaining article:
http://english. yonhapnews. co.kr/national/ 2007/08/05/ 8/0302000000AEN2 0070804001600315 F.HTML
Boy's Wish to See Biological Family
Boy's Wish To See Biological Family
Sunday, 05 Aug 2007, 10:53 PM CDT
Andy Banker
St. Louis, MO (KTVI - myFOXstl.com)
A teenage cancer patient had an usual wish. Sunday night, that wish came true. 17-year-old Michael Westfall O'fallon, Illinois, could have "wished" for something like a backstage pass to meet his favorite musician or maybe a Carribean cruise. But his wish was for others to get their wish. Westfall, who's been battling a type of bone cancer for about a year and a half, had that wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Michael was born in Peru, then adopted by a U.S. family as a baby. Though he'd been to Peru to see his biological family, he wanted them to be able to come here. So, he, in essence gave his once-in-a-lifetime wish, to them.
The long awaited flight from Peru by way of Altanta was delayed twice, as his biological mother and older brother had trouble finding the right flight. -
"Delay after delays," Michael said anxiously. He was still a little tired, having just been released from a hospital Saturday for treatment of a complication from his cancer. He originally planned to stay at home and wait for his guests to arrive there. When he learned their would be arriving at 8:30 instead of 5:00 p.m. , he came to the Lambert Airport to greet them....
For remaining article: http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3982567&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Sunday, 05 Aug 2007, 10:53 PM CDT
Andy Banker
St. Louis, MO (KTVI - myFOXstl.com)
A teenage cancer patient had an usual wish. Sunday night, that wish came true. 17-year-old Michael Westfall O'fallon, Illinois, could have "wished" for something like a backstage pass to meet his favorite musician or maybe a Carribean cruise. But his wish was for others to get their wish. Westfall, who's been battling a type of bone cancer for about a year and a half, had that wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Michael was born in Peru, then adopted by a U.S. family as a baby. Though he'd been to Peru to see his biological family, he wanted them to be able to come here. So, he, in essence gave his once-in-a-lifetime wish, to them.
The long awaited flight from Peru by way of Altanta was delayed twice, as his biological mother and older brother had trouble finding the right flight. -
"Delay after delays," Michael said anxiously. He was still a little tired, having just been released from a hospital Saturday for treatment of a complication from his cancer. He originally planned to stay at home and wait for his guests to arrive there. When he learned their would be arriving at 8:30 instead of 5:00 p.m. , he came to the Lambert Airport to greet them....
For remaining article: http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3982567&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Adoptee seeks end to overseas adoptions
Adoptee seeks end to overseas adoptions
August 04, 2007
As the biggest-ever meeting of Korean overseas adoptees wraps up its five-day event tomorrow in Seoul, another group of adoptees has adifferent goal: ending the practice of overseas adoptions altogether.
Jane Trenka, a 35-year-old U.S. adoptee living and working in Seoul, said yesterday that about 100 adoptees she organized will stage an anti-overseas adoption protest at the Dongguk University subway station in central Seoul. A group of dozens of birth mothers who put their children up for adoption will join the protest, the first of its kind by Korean adoptees, Trenka said. Trenka said her group will try to collect 1 million signatures against international adoption and present the petitions to the National Assembly.
“I think everybody agrees the best thing for children is to be raised by their own mothers,” said Trenka, a copy editor for the Yonhap News Agency. “Perhaps, materially, we [adoptees] can have more, but we aretalking about mother-children relationships, and I think they are moreimportant than money.”....
For remaining article: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878862
August 04, 2007
As the biggest-ever meeting of Korean overseas adoptees wraps up its five-day event tomorrow in Seoul, another group of adoptees has adifferent goal: ending the practice of overseas adoptions altogether.
Jane Trenka, a 35-year-old U.S. adoptee living and working in Seoul, said yesterday that about 100 adoptees she organized will stage an anti-overseas adoption protest at the Dongguk University subway station in central Seoul. A group of dozens of birth mothers who put their children up for adoption will join the protest, the first of its kind by Korean adoptees, Trenka said. Trenka said her group will try to collect 1 million signatures against international adoption and present the petitions to the National Assembly.
“I think everybody agrees the best thing for children is to be raised by their own mothers,” said Trenka, a copy editor for the Yonhap News Agency. “Perhaps, materially, we [adoptees] can have more, but we aretalking about mother-children relationships, and I think they are moreimportant than money.”....
For remaining article: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878862
Illegal Guatemalan foster home raid finds 46 babies
Illegal Guatemalan foster home raid finds 46 babies
Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:08PM By Mica Rosenberg
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (Reuters)
Guatemalan police found 46 children, somejust 3 days old, in an illegal foster home in the tourist city of Antigua on Saturday, the latest scandal for the country'scorruption-riddled adoption system.
Carlos Azurdia, an official from the country's adoption regulator, said two women were arrested in the raid. "There are newborns and children up to three-year-olds," Azurdia said. "None of them had the proper paperwork to be given up for adoption."
Guatemala has the highest per-capita adoption rate in the world, a lucrative business for private lawyers who run the trade and aresometimes accused of forging papers or paying mothers to sell their children. Close to 5,000 babies and children were adopted from the small Central American nation last year. Adoptive parents say some lawyers charge upto $40,000 to handle adoptions....
For remaining article: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1126522820070812
Sat Aug 11, 2007 10:08PM By Mica Rosenberg
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (Reuters)
Guatemalan police found 46 children, somejust 3 days old, in an illegal foster home in the tourist city of Antigua on Saturday, the latest scandal for the country'scorruption-riddled adoption system.
Carlos Azurdia, an official from the country's adoption regulator, said two women were arrested in the raid. "There are newborns and children up to three-year-olds," Azurdia said. "None of them had the proper paperwork to be given up for adoption."
Guatemala has the highest per-capita adoption rate in the world, a lucrative business for private lawyers who run the trade and aresometimes accused of forging papers or paying mothers to sell their children. Close to 5,000 babies and children were adopted from the small Central American nation last year. Adoptive parents say some lawyers charge upto $40,000 to handle adoptions....
For remaining article: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1126522820070812
Life as one of China's Stolen babies
Wednesday, 10 November 2004, 14:45 GMT
Dozens of Chinese babies are believed to be taken from or sold by their families each year, as part of a grim human trade. BBC World Service's Outlook programme spoke to 21-year-old Huang Xiuxiu, who was stolen from her family when she was just three.
A lady came and asked me to go and play at her house, and she led me away.
I was three years old at the time, and this is my only memory of being abducted. She bought me a twisted dough stick. Then she took me to the train station and handed me over to a man who seemed to be her husband.
As the train pulled away, I just wanted to go home to my mother.
As a child, I wasn't very happy. My new family didn't know much about my background
Huang XiuxiuI lived with them for a few months, and was then given to another family, living in a rural village in Fujian province.
My new family treated me very well, like a daughter - they became like parents to me.
But in my heart, I knew I had been abducted and sold to them; in my heart, I always knew I had another set of parents, and I really missed them.
I didn't exactly understand what abduction meant. I just knew I had been taken away from my real family. I felt horrible, as if I was a commodity, bought and sold.
As a child, I wasn't very happy. My new family didn't know much about my background - all they knew was I was from Hunan province....
For the remaining article:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3997177.stm
Dozens of Chinese babies are believed to be taken from or sold by their families each year, as part of a grim human trade. BBC World Service's Outlook programme spoke to 21-year-old Huang Xiuxiu, who was stolen from her family when she was just three.
A lady came and asked me to go and play at her house, and she led me away.
I was three years old at the time, and this is my only memory of being abducted. She bought me a twisted dough stick. Then she took me to the train station and handed me over to a man who seemed to be her husband.
As the train pulled away, I just wanted to go home to my mother.
As a child, I wasn't very happy. My new family didn't know much about my background
Huang XiuxiuI lived with them for a few months, and was then given to another family, living in a rural village in Fujian province.
My new family treated me very well, like a daughter - they became like parents to me.
But in my heart, I knew I had been abducted and sold to them; in my heart, I always knew I had another set of parents, and I really missed them.
I didn't exactly understand what abduction meant. I just knew I had been taken away from my real family. I felt horrible, as if I was a commodity, bought and sold.
As a child, I wasn't very happy. My new family didn't know much about my background - all they knew was I was from Hunan province....
For the remaining article:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3997177.stm
Guatemala seeks to slow exodus of babies to U.S.
Guatemala seeks to slow exodus of babies to U.S.
From Harris Whitbeck and Rose Arce
CNN
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (CNN) -- For many years, Guatemala has been a place of relatively uncomplicated adoptions for American parents. The small country's government estimates as many as 17 babies leave each day for adoptive parents in the United States.
But that number could soon drop to zero because of concerns over alleged improprieties in the Guatemalan adoption process. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger announced recently that adoptions to the United States will be suspended on January 1, 2008, a decision that could leave nearly 3,000 babies currently in the adoption pipeline in legal limbo.
"This is our heritage, our future," said Carmen Wennier, head of Guatemala's Social Welfare bureau, who has criticized the adoption system.
Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world and the United States represents the largest number of adoptions, with an estimated one of every 100 Guatemalan babies sent to the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. U.S. officials estimate more than 5,000 adoptions from Guatemala will be processed this year, an annual high which would make Guatemala the second biggest origin of adoptive babies to the United States, behind China....
For remaining article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/03/guatemala.adoption/index.html?iref=newssearch
From Harris Whitbeck and Rose Arce
CNN
ANTIGUA, Guatemala (CNN) -- For many years, Guatemala has been a place of relatively uncomplicated adoptions for American parents. The small country's government estimates as many as 17 babies leave each day for adoptive parents in the United States.
But that number could soon drop to zero because of concerns over alleged improprieties in the Guatemalan adoption process. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger announced recently that adoptions to the United States will be suspended on January 1, 2008, a decision that could leave nearly 3,000 babies currently in the adoption pipeline in legal limbo.
"This is our heritage, our future," said Carmen Wennier, head of Guatemala's Social Welfare bureau, who has criticized the adoption system.
Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world and the United States represents the largest number of adoptions, with an estimated one of every 100 Guatemalan babies sent to the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. U.S. officials estimate more than 5,000 adoptions from Guatemala will be processed this year, an annual high which would make Guatemala the second biggest origin of adoptive babies to the United States, behind China....
For remaining article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/03/guatemala.adoption/index.html?iref=newssearch
After many years, we are home
After many years, we are home
At a homecoming on the White Earth Indian Reservation, some who were adopted out were welcomed to their place in the circle.
By Curt Brown, Star Tribune
Last update: October 16, 2007 - 11:24 AM
MAHNOMEN, MINN. -- Duane Reynolds and Rachel Kupcho had never met until last weekend, when they each drove 250 miles from their suburban Twin Cities homes to the lake-dotted land of the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota.
Amid the sweet smell of burning sage and the heartbeat thumping of Ojibwe drummers, Reynolds, 60, and Kupcho, 30, stood side by side in a circle of 60 people as tribal spiritual elder Joe Bush prayed and performed pipe rituals.
The hand-stitched banner on the wall proclaimed in Ojibwe: Ishkwa Niibawa Dasobiboon Niiawind Abi Endad. And in English: After Many Years, We Are Home.
With the all-day healing ceremony, White Earth became Minnesota's first reservation, and perhaps the first in the nation, to formally welcome back some of the thousands of children adopted off reservations under a decades-long federal policy that encouraged their placement in non-Indian homes.
"Just to literally be on this land has been incredibly powerful," said Kupcho, who grew up in Chanhassen. "When I drove up and saw the sign, I just started crying. I've always believed my relatives are from here, so it's an emotional time, but a good time."
For remaining article: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1481968-a1481976-t3.html
At a homecoming on the White Earth Indian Reservation, some who were adopted out were welcomed to their place in the circle.
By Curt Brown, Star Tribune
Last update: October 16, 2007 - 11:24 AM
MAHNOMEN, MINN. -- Duane Reynolds and Rachel Kupcho had never met until last weekend, when they each drove 250 miles from their suburban Twin Cities homes to the lake-dotted land of the White Earth Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota.
Amid the sweet smell of burning sage and the heartbeat thumping of Ojibwe drummers, Reynolds, 60, and Kupcho, 30, stood side by side in a circle of 60 people as tribal spiritual elder Joe Bush prayed and performed pipe rituals.
The hand-stitched banner on the wall proclaimed in Ojibwe: Ishkwa Niibawa Dasobiboon Niiawind Abi Endad. And in English: After Many Years, We Are Home.
With the all-day healing ceremony, White Earth became Minnesota's first reservation, and perhaps the first in the nation, to formally welcome back some of the thousands of children adopted off reservations under a decades-long federal policy that encouraged their placement in non-Indian homes.
"Just to literally be on this land has been incredibly powerful," said Kupcho, who grew up in Chanhassen. "When I drove up and saw the sign, I just started crying. I've always believed my relatives are from here, so it's an emotional time, but a good time."
For remaining article: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1481968-a1481976-t3.html
Child adoption process needs to be transparent
Child adoption process needs to be transparent
Parul Malik / CNN-IBN
Published October 21, 2007 at 16:20 in Nation
India section New Delhi:
Misinformation violates the rights of biological parents, of the child and the adoptive parents. And yet adoption is crucial for thousands of destitute children. So it is important to look at solutions that would make the entire process transparent and free from racketeers. Chaya Maria Schupp is 31. She has come from Germany looking for her birth mother from Mangalore. Chaya spent the first seven years of her life with her Indian mother. Before a German family adopted her. Chaya's is still to find her mother. Schupp says, "In my case there are no records. I cannot believe it I filed a case in High Court. I spend so much money coming. India is no holiday.
"Single and unwed mothers are most vulnerable to child traffickers. With support many of them could raise their children themselves....
For remaining article: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/child-adoption-process-needs-to-be-transparent/%2050909-3-1.%20html
Parul Malik / CNN-IBN
Published October 21, 2007 at 16:20 in Nation
India section New Delhi:
Misinformation violates the rights of biological parents, of the child and the adoptive parents. And yet adoption is crucial for thousands of destitute children. So it is important to look at solutions that would make the entire process transparent and free from racketeers. Chaya Maria Schupp is 31. She has come from Germany looking for her birth mother from Mangalore. Chaya spent the first seven years of her life with her Indian mother. Before a German family adopted her. Chaya's is still to find her mother. Schupp says, "In my case there are no records. I cannot believe it I filed a case in High Court. I spend so much money coming. India is no holiday.
"Single and unwed mothers are most vulnerable to child traffickers. With support many of them could raise their children themselves....
For remaining article: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/child-adoption-process-needs-to-be-transparent/%2050909-3-1.%20html
Videos: Children Snatched
Children Snatched: Exposed but child traffickers get a free run in Maharashtra.
http://tinyurl.%20com/25c4rv
Adoption Watchdog gives child traffickers Clean Chit. Regulatory authority's chief absolves adoption agency after it pays for his hotel bill.
Adoption watchdog gives child traffickers clean chit
Parul Malik / CNN-IBN
Published on Sunday , October 21, 2007 at 01:26 in Nation »
India section New Delhi/ Pune: Preet Mandir, an adoption agency in Pune, is the front for a child trafficking racket. A CNN-IBN Special Investigation exposed Preet Mandir and its owner J S Bhasin last year but it is still in business because India's adoption watchdog has turned a blind eye.After CNN-IBN's investigation in June 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was asked to investigate Preet Mandir. The CBI says it took the testimonies of unwed mothers who said they willingly handed over their babies for adoption. But one such mother says the CBI never questioned her."No one from the CBI approached me. I didn't give up my child and the adoption agency asked me to sign a paper," says the woman, who didn't want her name to be revealed....
for remaining article: http://tinyurl.%20com/ynsejs
http://tinyurl.%20com/25c4rv
Adoption Watchdog gives child traffickers Clean Chit. Regulatory authority's chief absolves adoption agency after it pays for his hotel bill.
Adoption watchdog gives child traffickers clean chit
Parul Malik / CNN-IBN
Published on Sunday , October 21, 2007 at 01:26 in Nation »
India section New Delhi/ Pune: Preet Mandir, an adoption agency in Pune, is the front for a child trafficking racket. A CNN-IBN Special Investigation exposed Preet Mandir and its owner J S Bhasin last year but it is still in business because India's adoption watchdog has turned a blind eye.After CNN-IBN's investigation in June 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was asked to investigate Preet Mandir. The CBI says it took the testimonies of unwed mothers who said they willingly handed over their babies for adoption. But one such mother says the CBI never questioned her."No one from the CBI approached me. I didn't give up my child and the adoption agency asked me to sign a paper," says the woman, who didn't want her name to be revealed....
for remaining article: http://tinyurl.%20com/ynsejs
New Doubts Over Chad 'Adoptions'
New Doubts Over Chad 'Adoptions'
Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
By BRUCE CRUMLEY
French authorities have repeatedly called on officials in Chad to respect presumptions of innocence in their case against six French humanitarian workers charged with trying to abduct 103 children — an operation Chadian investigators suspect may have been part of a clandestine adoption-for-pay scheme back in France. But each day brings additional allegations challenging the nature of the mission NGO Zoe's Ark claimed it was conducting in Chad.
The most damning revelation to arise in the drama came on Thursday, when results of an on-going inquiry by two United Nations organizations refuted the claim by Zoe's Ark officials that the 103 children were seriously ill or frail orphans from war-torn Darfur who were being rushed to France for urgent care. Instead, the U.N. investigation found at least 91 of the children had at least one parent still alive. Confirming the status of the remaining 12 is taking longer, due to their young age and difficulties communicating.
For remaining article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1679797,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Friday, Nov. 02, 2007
By BRUCE CRUMLEY
French authorities have repeatedly called on officials in Chad to respect presumptions of innocence in their case against six French humanitarian workers charged with trying to abduct 103 children — an operation Chadian investigators suspect may have been part of a clandestine adoption-for-pay scheme back in France. But each day brings additional allegations challenging the nature of the mission NGO Zoe's Ark claimed it was conducting in Chad.
The most damning revelation to arise in the drama came on Thursday, when results of an on-going inquiry by two United Nations organizations refuted the claim by Zoe's Ark officials that the 103 children were seriously ill or frail orphans from war-torn Darfur who were being rushed to France for urgent care. Instead, the U.N. investigation found at least 91 of the children had at least one parent still alive. Confirming the status of the remaining 12 is taking longer, due to their young age and difficulties communicating.
For remaining article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1679797,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Charges Made in Darfur 'Adoptions'
Charges Made in Darfur 'Adoptions'
Monday, Oct. 29, 2007
By BRUCE CRUMLEY
Things seem to be going from bad to worse for the six officials of a French non-governmental organization charged with attempted kidnapping in Chad, following their Oct. 25 arrest while trying to airlift 103 children they claimed were Darfur orphans. A total of 16 European nationals will stand trial for involvement in a case that Chadian authorities initially condemned as an illegal money-for-adoption scheme praying on child refugees from war-torn Darfur. If convicted, the six French child aid workers could face 20 years of hard labor in the bizarre affair — which has created an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility towards other NGOs working to protect victims of violence in Darfur.
For remaining article: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1677231,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Monday, Oct. 29, 2007
By BRUCE CRUMLEY
Things seem to be going from bad to worse for the six officials of a French non-governmental organization charged with attempted kidnapping in Chad, following their Oct. 25 arrest while trying to airlift 103 children they claimed were Darfur orphans. A total of 16 European nationals will stand trial for involvement in a case that Chadian authorities initially condemned as an illegal money-for-adoption scheme praying on child refugees from war-torn Darfur. If convicted, the six French child aid workers could face 20 years of hard labor in the bizarre affair — which has created an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility towards other NGOs working to protect victims of violence in Darfur.
For remaining article: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1677231,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Should race be a factor in adoptions?
Should Race Be a Factor in Adoptions?
Tuesday, May. 27, 2008
By JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN
Should adoption agencies discriminate by race, or even by a person's racial sensitivity? According to current U.S. law, no. Since 1996, it has been illegal to consider race when determining whether families are suitable to raise adopted children — the law was intended to increase adoptions of black children, who are disproportionately represented in the foster care system, by making it easier for whites to take them home. But a new study suggests that approach is short-sighted. "Color-blind" adoption, the report contends, allows some white parents — who may not be mentally ready or have the appropriate social tools to parent black children — to raise youngsters, who may, in turn, experience social and psychological problems later in life....
For remaining article:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1809722,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
Tuesday, May. 27, 2008
By JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN
Should adoption agencies discriminate by race, or even by a person's racial sensitivity? According to current U.S. law, no. Since 1996, it has been illegal to consider race when determining whether families are suitable to raise adopted children — the law was intended to increase adoptions of black children, who are disproportionately represented in the foster care system, by making it easier for whites to take them home. But a new study suggests that approach is short-sighted. "Color-blind" adoption, the report contends, allows some white parents — who may not be mentally ready or have the appropriate social tools to parent black children — to raise youngsters, who may, in turn, experience social and psychological problems later in life....
For remaining article:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1809722,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-sidebar
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