A peek inside international adoption

Korean Adoptee Searching for Possible Sibling

2009-08-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Follow this adoptee's story. If you have been adopted via Holt International, you also could be the survivor of agency lies and money-making schemes. It is typical for adoption agencies to shamefully hide adoptee records. Perhaps they are unable to handle the truth? They are the problem! Watch my friend's experience with Holt, which consists of just as much run-around as mine. And remember, we should have a God-given right to our families like everyone else on planet earth!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqOpE9LoHCY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T92fVzl_zZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIhixRP19eo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjgu_PmbXpc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-kuxgsg9ns

The Consequences of Agency Secrets 40+ Years Later

2009-08-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

"Who Am I"

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Holt International’s price for children

2009-07-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Her siblings hated Leanne. She had small eyes and black hair. Leanne was the only person of Asian descent that lived in her small neighborhood located in the city of Detroit, Michigan. Her three siblings bullied her and her adoptive parents abused her. It was a different story though when Leanne was first received into the arms of her adoptive parents in December of 1966. They voluntarily adopted Leanne. They must have once had sympathy for a baby coming from a poor country.

However, Leanne’s adoptive mother began to treat her coldly. Later the mother attempted a suicide ? she had a weak character and was unable to give Leanne the motherly love that she was supposed to receive. The adoptive father sexually abused Leanne until she was 13 years old. Leanne did not know what he was doing to her when she was little, and did not realize what it was until she grew up, but by that point, she had to remain silent because she did not want to be abandoned again. She found herself surrounded by white people like her adoptive father and she ran away from home when she was 18 years old. She got married before she reached 20 years of age, but got divorced five years later....

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Illegal adoptions contribute to child trafficking

2009-07-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

In a new report, World Vision highlights illegal adoption as a contributing factor to child trafficking.

The report, 10 Things You Need To Know About Human Trafficking, warns of situations in which desperation and vulnerability may lead to parties overlooking both the law and child rights in the adoption process.

“It’s important to have systems in place, particularly in vulnerable communities, to ensure the best interests of the child are always at the heart of any adoption,” says World Vision UK’s Child Rights Advisor Philippa Lei.

“As this report highlights, circumventing those systems sets a dangerous precedent that can ultimately contribute to child trafficking.”....

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`Mistaken orphan' to meet lost father after 34 years

2009-07-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

By Bruce Ward, Canwest News ServiceMay 30, 2009

OTTAWA - Thirty-four years after he was mistakenly whisked away from a Saigon orphanage, Thanh Campbell - Orphan 32 - is returning to his homeland.

Campbell, one of 57 children spirited from a Saigon orphanage to Canada in April 1975, is returning Saturday to be reunited with his biological father and the brothers who never stopped searching for him after losing him in the chaotic fall of Saigon.

``The anticipation is from something you never think could possibly happen and is actually happening. I just think of my father and how long it has been for him, searching,'' said Thanh, who is travelling with his wife, Karina, their four children, and his adoptive father William Campbell.

The flight arrives Sunday evening, and Thanh expects to meet his father and brothers Monday morning.....

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Adoption of Chinese orphans dwindling

2009-07-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

The "golden time" of international adoption of Chinese children is no more.

According to international media reports, adoption of Chinese children by US citizens has dropped 50 percent in three years, from 7,906 children in 2005 to 3,909 in 2008, as per figure given by the US State Department.

China's new laws on adoption, enacted in May 2007, that insist on a higher threshold for adopting family's financial asset seem to be emerging as the main cause of this decrease in adoption. The fees and expense can amount to 20,000 US dollars, according to a media report on Xinhuanet....

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Silence greets exposure of corrupt adoption practices

2009-07-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

By Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer

Saturday July 29 2006
THREE weeks ago the Irish Independent published secretly recorded
interviews with My Linh Soland, the woman who organised all 150 of the
Vietnamese adoptions to Ireland since 2004.

Ms Soland revealed the adoptions were corrupt, that birth certificates
were routinely forged, that officials who declared children abandoned
knew exactly where their parents were, how money meant for
humanitarian aid was part of the corruption and that Vietnamese
officials at the highest levels were getting pay-offs.

She named the names and how much everyone received.

We have it all on tape.

There was so much money involved that Vietnamese children were being
removed from their parents unethically and illegally for profit. Ms
Soland, who arranged adoptions to France and the US, grossed over $1m
from Irish couples alone.

The story was a nightmare for the 150 adoptive Irish couples who now
do not know the true history of their adoptive child.... click here for article

Orphanage scandal officials punished

2009-07-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

Orphanage scandal officials punished

By Tom Qian | 2009-7-3 | NEWSPAPER EDITION

SIX government officials in southwest China have been punished over
an orphanage scandal when three children were taken away from their
families who could not afford fines for violating family planning
regulations.
The orphanage sent the children overseas for adoption from 2004 to
2006, a Guizhou-based newspaper reported today....

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Grim Facts

2009-07-08T08:14:00.001-07:00

For true thoughts from real adoptees:

http://holtsurvivor.wordpress.com/

http://adopted-abused.com/

http://adoptionsurvivor.wordpress.com/

Some Chinese babies adopted abroad even though parents still living

2009-07-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

Some Chinese babies adopted abroad even though parents still living
Saturday, July 04, 2009 | 10:53 AM
AP

July 4, 2009 (BEIJING) -- Six Chinese officials have reportedly been
punished for letting three baby girls be adopted by foreigners even
though the girls' parents are still alive....

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Setback for adoptive parents as Vietnam talks stall

2009-07-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

By Breda Heffernan

Monday July 06 2009

HUNDREDS of prospective parents will have to wait at least another month to find out if they will be able to adopt children from Vietnam after talks between the two countries failed to secure a new agreement.

Adoptions from Vietnam to Ireland were halted in May after a five-year agreement between the two countries came to an end without a new procedure in place.

Up to 350 parents, who had already been approved for adoption after undergoing a lengthy assessment, have been left in limbo and do not know when their adoption can go ahead....

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Historic step for adoptee rights, adoptees urge full inclusion in adoption law revision process

2009-07-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Seoul, July 1, 2009 (TRACK) – Fifty overseas Korean adoptees and their allies participated in the second public hearing on the revision of South Korea’s civil and overseas adoption laws Wednesday at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family’s second public hearing sponsored by the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI). The discussion marked the first time in 56 years of international Korean adoption that overseas Korean adoptees represented their own interests in a governmental forum.

The ministry is revising both the laws on domestic adoption and intercountry adoption, called the “Special Adoption Law,” which has been amended nine times since its enactment in 1961, each time without adoptees or birth families as shareholders.

Adoptees were able to participate because professional simultaneous translation was provided by KWDI. The first public hearing held Feb. 26 did not include professional translation despite requests made by Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK), a nonprofit organization aimed at healing the relationship between adoptees and Korean society. The language barrier prevented 30 adoptees and supporters from speaking about the proposed law revisions....click here for link to remaining blog

Cops: Duke Official Offered Adopted Son For Sex

2009-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Cops: Duke Official Offered Adopted Son For Sex
FBI Nab Frank Mccorkle Lombard In Internet Sting
Watch A News Report On The Case | Read The Affidavit At WRAL (Warning:
Graphic Content)
CBS News Interactive: Children In Danger
DURHAM, N.C. (CBS) --

Duke University official Frank Mccorkle Lombard, seen in this
undated photo, was arrested and charged with offering his adopted
5-year-old son for sex.

* CBS News Interactive: Children In Danger

A Duke University official has been arrested and charged with offering
a 5-year-old boy for sex.

Frank Mccorkle Lombard, the school's associate director of the Center
for Health Policy, was arrested Wednesday, June 24 after an Internet
sting, according to the FBI's Washington field office and the city's
police department.

A confidential informant claimed to have seen Lombard molest a young
African-American child via online chats on multiple occasions, reports
CBS affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh....

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LAST THOUGHTS

2009-06-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

HI FRIENDS! I am finally finished inserting the links to newspaper articles from around the world that deal with international adoption--which is what this 'blog' consists of. I saved these articles from an adoptee friend who posted them for adoptees during 2004 - 2008 while I was writing my book The Search for Mother Missing: A peek inside international adoption. Just a little note: prior to my trip to S. Korea to look for my birth parents, I was a big advocate of adoption. In fact, I had no idea that anyone contested it—or would have the audacity to question 'saving orphans'! But at that time, I was only aware of the loving and glorified perspective presented to the mainstream by evangelical adoption agencies who use the church and its members to attract potential adopters while discreetly making a hefty profit for what they call 'the love of children.' These businesses (dressed up as charities) will even preach to you that adoption is the Christian thing to do or that GOD wants you to adopt!

For what it is worth, I just want to offer a perspective that comes from a friendly adopted person who knows you have the best of intentions when you think of adopting. Watch out for these agencies! They could be wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will have you fill out all sorts of documents in an attempt for you to prove that you are an upstanding citizen capable of raising a child--and I am sure you are. But you must also look beyond their veneer. Do not be afraid to make them prove that the children they are offering are really ORPHANS--without a mother, father, siblings and extended family, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins who could later disrupt your family. In fact, force the agency to prove that the child is an orphan by providing the DEATH CERTIFICATES of the child’s parents or family members before you give them your money! I would not be surprised if these agencies continue to ask you for more money until you are drained of your hard earned savings. I’ve heard that some couples who hope and pray for a child have paid up to $60,000. Do not be fooled by evangelical adoption agencies who advertise beautiful brochures exhibiting 'isolated' or 'begging' children. Because the great majority of the children's parents are alive, these agencies are merely glorified child traffickers who managed to, throughout the years, get the law on their side so that they can justify their transactions.

Anyway, I just want you to know that my book, The Search for Mother Missing: A peek inside international is an upbeat story based on my short two week trip to Seoul, South Korea with my twin when we attended the 2004 Adoptee Gathering and met with adult adoptees from all over the world! Go to my website www.vancetwins.com for more about me. And know this: there is another option to adoption that will express the love you have for children, reflect the compassion you have in your heart and will also win God’s approval (Also Mother Nature will be proud of you! ;>)) And that is to think about the family. That way all of us stay connected! I just want to thank you ahead of time for your support and understanding. May GOD and MOTHER NATURE bless you!

May you always have success,
Janine Vance
PS I'll send you a link to my 'real' blog when I set it up! ; )

Madonna to leave Mercy at home during Sticky and Sweet tour

2009-06-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

MADONNA will jet off on her world tour just three weeks after her newly adopted child arrives in New York.

The pop singer, who will send assistants to pick up four-year-old Mercy James from Malawi, performs her first Sticky and Sweet tour show in London on July 4.

The 50-year-old performer will spend seven weeks entertaining Europe.

She recently ditched plans to take the show to Australia.

Madonna is expected to leave the newest addition to her family with staff in New York, although her publicist would not confirm the singer's intentions yesterday....

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Madonna's adoption cost $19 million; Mercy's dad to fight adoption

2009-06-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you thought your pregnancy bill from Cedar Sinai Hospital was high, consider the real price of adopting a baby from another country. The New York Post reports that the real cost of adopting baby Mercy James from Malawi was $19 million for former Los Angeles resident, Madonna. The money was paid out to charity projects in the African country of Malawi. The allusion is that without this kind of financial good will contribution, Madonna may not have been awarded the adoption of 3 year old Mercy because she did not comply with the country's adoption laws....

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Orphanage paedophiles are jailed

2009-06-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

A British charity worker who founded and ran several shelters for street children in Bombay was sentenced to six years' imprisonment yesterday, convicted of sexually abusing boys in his care.

A retired Royal Navy commander from London who was a regular visitor to the homes was convicted of the same offences, and the Indian manager of the shelters was found guilty of aiding and abetting their crimes.

Known as a 'saviour' of street children, Duncan Grant, 61, set up three shelters for homeless children aged eight to 18 in Bombay in the Nineties. He collected money from churches and schools in Britain, claiming in fundraising brochures that the homes were places where deprived children could 'receive medical attention, share...joys and sorrows with others or simply find someone to talk to'. Actress Felicity Kendal was persuaded to become a patron....

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British charity workers abused orphanage boys

2009-06-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Khan
Sunday, 19 March 2006

Two British men posing as charity workers subjected impoverished Indian street children to repeated acts of sexual abuse after establishing an orphanage in Bombay.

A court in the city yesterday sentenced Duncan Grant and Allan Waters to six years in prison after finding them guilty of abusing boys at the shelter set up by Grant. They were also fined £20,000 each.

The court also found an Indian, William D'souza, who managed the home, guilty of aiding and abetting the crime. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

"The judgment should go some way to ensure that India is wiped out from the map of people who indulge in sexual abuse of children," said the judge, P S Paranjape, who also announced the formation of a committee to decide how the fines could be used to rehabilitate the victims....

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Expert warns that "offering" children for adoption could be illegal

2009-06-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

SANTO DOMINGO.- From the amount of money which a company in Sosúa, Puerto Plata province (north), receives from those interested in adopting a child and which supposedly conducts transactions for adoptions, it could be a case of people trafficking, warned the expert in family law Iraima Capriles yesterday.

She said that the company twice violates Law 136-03 of the Code for the System of Protection and the Fundamental Rights of Children and Adolescents, which does not contemplate the establishment of companies, in addition that it works for profit.

"That is already a business for profit and it does it illegally because human beings are neither in legal commerce nor in legal business, the human being is not susceptible to dealing, when there is money in an involved amount (RD$200,000), it practically becomes dealing with human beings," said Capriles....

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Stealing Babies for Adoption

2009-06-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

With U.S. Couples Eager to Adopt, Some Infants Are Abducted and Sold in China

By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 12, 2006; Page A01

DONGGUAN, China On a muggy evening in July 2004, on a concrete lane reeking of raw sewage and chemicals from surrounding factories, a stranger leapt from a white van. He yanked 16-month-old Fei Mei from the arms of her 8-year-old cousin and sped away.

All night, her parents searched this industrial city in southern China for their round-faced baby girl.

"We looked everywhere, on every street corner," said her father, Xu Mohu. "We thought maybe the guy wouldn't like a girl and he would abandon her."

...On the other side of the world, in Jenison, Mich., Susan and Gordon Toering tuck their daughter in to bed and wonder where she really came from. They adopted Stacie in August 2005 from an orphanage in Hengyang. The paperwork from the adoption agency said she had been found abandoned. But the sources familiar with the prosecution and two defense attorneys said orphanage directors faked reports to make it seem that the babies they bought had been abandoned, allowing them to gain government clearance for foreign adoptions....

Babies for sale: no warranty

2009-06-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

December 16, 2003

In Cambodia, corruption and lax regulations mean it's easy to get a child quickly. The problem is, many of them aren't abandoned - they're sold. Mark Baker investigates.

Chhay Toro was nine months old when he first arrived at this place - pale, emaciated and fighting for his life with a heart condition. Two smudged red thumbprints on a creased, handwritten page witness the wretched moment when his parents signed away their only son.

Destitute and unable to feed or care for their baby, Chhay Rithy, a disabled war veteran, and his wife, Eng Srei Nu, made the decision in which they had no choice: they gave him away to the Phnom Penh Nutrition Centre, a state-run orphanage in the Cambodian capital....

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Man given a 6-year jail term for defiling his two adoptive daughters

2009-06-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Man given a 6-year jail term for defiling his two adoptive daughters
by Roberta Scerri, di-ve.com

VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news) -- March 20, 2006 -- 1730CET -- A
51-year-old man, who could not be given the maximum 12-year jail term as
the Attorney General did not issue rape charges against him, was
sentenced to six years imprisonment after he was found guilty of
defiling his two adoptive daughters for seven years.

The man, whose name cannot be published due to a court order to protect
his daughters' identity, was arraigned in court and accused of sexually
abusing his two daughters whom he had adopted from Romania.

The abuse had been taking place ever since the girls were brought to
Malta in 1991, when they were aged seven and five respectively....

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Citizenship woes for adopted children

2009-06-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

SHARMILA BILLOT
KUALA LUMPUR, March 21

Some adopted children face problems concerning their citizenship when
they apply for their Identity Card (IC) upon reaching the age of 12, and
this is mostly due to the parents’ mistake.

"Some adoptive parents do not tell the truth when the birth certificate
is drawn up," said MCA Public Services and Complaint Department head
Datuk Michael Chong yesterday.

"We had a case where a Chinese couple adopted an Indian child but lied
that the child is theirs in the birth certificate. When the child who
has a Chinese name but looks Indian applies for an IC, he or she will
face problems with the authorities. They are given a temporary
identification paper or green IC due to this technical problem.

"Such children are left in limbo and denied citizenship because of their
parents’ mistake."...

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Prison sentence for adoptive father

2009-06-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

The father of an adopted three year old boy who died of blood poisoning and pneumonia was sentenced to six months in prison for grievous bodily harm by Jönköping's district court.

The three year old adoptee died on the 8th January having been with his new family in the Jönköping area for six months. He had a number of infected sores, which had led to necrosis. The parents never took him to see a doctor....

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Tsunami Babies: What Kind of Future for Adoptees Taken Abroad?

2009-06-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

By Pueng Vongs, Pacific News Service

Many Westerners are seeking to adopt children orphaned by the Asian tsunamis, but Vongs questions the wisdom of bringing up children away from their birth cultures.

Jan 12, 2005 - Huge numbers of people from developed nations are seeking to adopt orphans of Asian families wiped out by the recent tsunami disaster.

International adoptions agencies have been overwhelmed with inquiries from Little Rock to Paris on the possibility of adopting what UNICEF estimates to be more than 30,000 children orphaned by the waves that devastated coastal towns in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other nations....

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The Baby Trade

2009-06-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Summary -- The international adoption trade is booming, as more families in the West adopt more babies from developing countries. But it has spawned a sordid black market as well, in which children are bought or abducted and sold. The best way to stop the trafficking is not to ban adoptions from countries that tolerate corrupt rings, but to strengthen the underdeveloped multilateral legal regime that regulates adoptions around the planet....

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Tough Love for the Baby Trade

2009-06-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

International Herald Tribune, Saturday, November 29, 2003
November 29, 2003

PARIS Children are our most precious resource - and like most precious resources, they are traded across borders. Over the past decade, international adoption has become a boom market, with some 34,000 infants now leaving Asia and Eastern Europe for new homes in Western Europe and North America.

Because the demand for infants from poor countries is rising among potential parents in rich ones, this "baby trade" has become severely distorted by corruption. Unscrupulous go-betweens buy or even abduct children from desperate biological parents and sell them to eager adoptive families.

The United States and European Union have responded to this corruption by placing moratoriums on countries like Cambodia and Romania, where the problem has been detected. But banning adoptions is hardly a solution. That policy only succeeds in denying orphans the opportunity to find parents, while shifting the demand to new suppliers such as Russia and China....

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The Baby Trade

2009-06-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Each year, Massachusetts families adopt some 3,000 children. One Harvard Business School professor asks if these babies shoul have price tags and if the market begs for more regulation.

By Debora L. Spar | February 19, 2006

The home page for Rainbow Kids is designed to rip your heart out. When you log on to www.rainbowkids.com, you see color photographs of beautiful, usually somber-looking children. There are some babies, some older kids. Most are toddlers, clasping toys or sporting huge bows in their hair. All these children are available - waiting, you quickly learn, for their "forever families." As you scroll farther, you learn how to search: by country, gender, age. The toughest one is "date added," which shows, in reverse order, how long some children have been waiting. On a recent visit, for example, you could find 6-year-old Bulat, who had been on the list for three and a half years. "He is described as quiet and gentle," the site reports, "and really enjoys playing sports." Ten-year-old Yamile "likes to write and draw ... and dreams of being a doctor when she grows up." At precious.org, another adoption photo listing, you can learn about Sofia - "sweet and smart, sparkly and fun, polite and inquisitive" - or Rafael, an "A+ student" who "is dreaming to have a family." All these children, like all the Rainbow Kids, are orphans. And, essentially, they are all for sale....

FINDING A HOME

US families adopted 127,407 children in 2001, the latest year for which data are available. These New England states saw the following numbers of adoptions:

Massachusetts 3,259
Connecticut 1,164
Maine 957
New Hampshire 630
Rhode Island 617
Vermont 407

SOURCE: 2004 NATIONAL ADOPTION INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE REPORT; MAINE FIGURES ARE FROM 2000

COMING FROM ABROAD

In 2005, the following ranked as the top countries of origin for orphans bound for the United States and issued immigrant visas:

China (mainland) 7,906
Russia 4,639
Guatemala 3,783
South Korea 1,630
Ukraine 821

SOURCE: US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

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Baby trade booms at hospitals

2009-06-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

One can easily buy a newborn babe for a few thousand taka, to keep or abuse as one wishes, at no other place than the downtown Dhaka Medical College Hospital and some clinics in its vicinity.

Every month, some two dozen infants change hands at the country's largest public hospital and the so-called clinics, sources said, adding the buyers in most cases are child-less couples.

The price range, however, is higher for boys than girls, the sources said. Depending on the identity of the parents, and the baby's look and complexion, the price of a girl child varies between Tk 9,000 and Tk 15,000 while that of a male child between Tk 12,000 and Tk 20,000....

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China sending 10 to prison in baby trade

2009-06-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

BEIJING - 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 $400-$540 each.

"The social welfare homes then had the infants adopted by foreigners who made donations," the report said. It didn't give the nationalities of adoptive parents.

The trade ran from 2002 to 2005; 78 babies were trafficked in 2005 alone, Xinhua said....

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Baby trade

2009-06-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

BY DUSTY RHODES
What price would you put on the smile of a child? How much would you pay for the pitter-patter of little feet? What about the singular sensation of a baby instinctively squeezing your finger or the exquisite pleasure of a newborn nuzzling sleepily into your neck — what are those warm fuzzies worth, exactly, in real cash dollars and cents?

Luckily, most folks never have to calculate the cost, because they conceive children the fun, free way. But couples who can’t, or anyone seeking to adopt a baby, will probably run into this barbaric math problem: How much are you willing to pay for a child? ....

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Ashton And Demi's Baby Talk

2009-06-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

It seems that, like some of us mere ordinary folk, the stars also like to keep up with the Joneses...

Only, with celeb types, it's more a case of keeping up with the Jolies.

We're not talking cars or the latest in kitchen appliances, though - we're talking children.

Like Angelina Jolie, who adopted both her kids, stars like Calista Flockhart, Sharon Stone and Meg Ryan have taken the adoption route - and it seems it's becoming something of a trend....

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Prosecutors propose amendments to adoption system for foreigners

2009-06-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

16:1418/04/2006
MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The prosecutor's office Tuesday submitted to the Education Ministry proposals on amending the procedure for foreigners to adopt children.

Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said his office had already made proposals aimed at tightening control over the activities of foreign adoption organizations....

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Orphanage probed over baby charges claim

2009-06-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

By Ma Lie (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-19 06:23

XI'AN: The manager of a public orphanage is under investigation over claims he demanded charges for babies being adopted and pocketed some of the cash himself.

Earlier this month, local media in Ankang, a southern city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, received an e-mail that claimed Wang Zhou, the head of Ankang Child Welfare Home, forced people looking to adopt to hand over hefty donations....

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Romania halts foreign adoptions

2009-06-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Published: 7:58AM Wednesday April 19, 2006
Source: Reuters

Romania has rejected all applications from foreigners seeking to adopt a Romanian child in line with its ban on international adoptions, authorities said on Tuesday after a final review of pending cases.

The Black Sea state banned foreigners from adopting Romanian children in 2005 after a three year moratorium in response to concerns in the European Union that a wave of international adoptions in the 1990s had triggered baby trafficking.

Would-be parents in the United States and other Western countries have repeatedly called on Romania, which wants to join the EU next year, to rescind the law.

In December the European parliament asked Romania for a final review of about 1,400 applications made during the moratorium....

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Plea agreement in child

2009-06-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

Couple can no longer be foster
parents
Updated: Thursday, 04 Dec 2008, 7:33 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 04 Dec 2008, 7:33 AM EST

By MIKE FLETCHER, Tribune staff writer
GREENTOWN, Ind. (The Kokomo Tribune) - A Greentown couple accused of abusing its adopted children nearly three years ago at the then Four Seasons Farm avoided any jail time. However, under the terms of a plea agreement, Teresa and Jay Moody were prohibited from being foster parents or providing services to children under 18....

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Plea deal in caged

2009-06-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Updated: Thursday, 04 Dec 2008, 10:51 AM EST
Published : Thursday, 04 Dec 2008, 10:50 AM EST

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) -- - A prosecutor says he has reluctantly agreed to a plea deal with a Greentown couple accused of keeping their adopted children in a wire cage.

Howard County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark McCann says he agreed to the deal that will allow Teresa and Jay Moody to avoid jail time to save the young victims any further suffering.

Under the agreement, the Moodys pleaded guilty to child neglect and will be placed on supervised probation for two years. They are also prohibited from being foster parents....

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Man accused of raping adopted daughter

2009-06-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Statesman News Service
KURSEONG, March 29. — The Nava Jagaran Samiti at Sudhapatol in Kurseong has lodged an FIR at the Kurseong police station against Suraj Pradhan (53), a resident of Sudhapatol and an employee of the State Electicity Board, accusing him of raping his 10-year-old adopted daughter. The accused, Suraj Pradhan, had adopted the girl from Dhudia in Kurseong sub-division nearly three years ago....

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Everybody wants him to be their son

2009-06-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

By BARBARA DEMICK
Los Angeles Times
April 14, 2006 - 11:28 pm

For someone who started out as an orphan, Olympic skier Toby Dawson has a dizzying number of 'parents' to contend with.

The 27-year-old Korean adoptee's public comments during the Turin, Italy, winter games about his interest in finding his biological parents, whom he has not seen since he was 2 years old, has brought out of the woodwork more than a dozen families who believe they might be the ones....

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Transracial Adoption Case Headed to Federal Court

2009-06-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 20, 2006
A white couple trying to adopt a black child who had been in their home for foster care appeared disappointed after leaving a Chester County Court hearing. But Susan and Randall Borelly declined to say what happened inside the closed court today....

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State Supreme Court will hear high-profile international adoption appeal

2009-06-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Katie Allison Granju
Posted: 4/24/2006 11:40:59 AM

The Tennessee Supreme Court today agreed to hear arguments in an international child custody case from Memphis.

A Chinese couple had asked the high court to return the six-year-old daughter they put in foster care shortly after her birth, arguing that Tennessee laws on child custody and abandonment are confusing.

Shaoquiang and Qin Luo He also argue that parents who voluntarily put their children in foster care have fewer legal protections under Tennessee law than those whose offspring are taken from them by the state....

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Stars Call Attention to Single Women Adopting

2009-06-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 24, 2006

By Sara Bonisteel

E-Mail Respond Print Share:

Jessica Simpson wants to do it. Angelina Jolie has done it twice. These celebrities are following a growing number of single American women who have chosen to adopt.

"We've had a steady stream of single women in all our programs, from international to African-Americans, adopting," said Sabra Larkin, director of communications for Spence-Chapin Services, an adoption agency in New York founded by a single woman, Clara Spence, in 1908.

"It goes alongside of the growing trend in adoption," said Barbara Turvett, an adoptive parent and the articles editor at Working Mother magazine. "It's becoming not just an acceptable thing to do, but a favorable thing to do. It's a great way to form a family."...

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Orphanage probed over baby charges claim

2009-06-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

BEIJING, April 19 -- The manager of a public orphanage is under investigation over claims that he demanded charges for babies being adopted and pocketed some of the cash himself.

Earlier this month, local media in Ankang, a southern city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, received an e-mail that claimed Wang Zhou, the head of Ankang Child Welfare Home, forced people looking to adopt to hand over hefty donations.

"We received a report on the case and we have established an investigating group that is working on it," said Mu Yanling, deputy director of Ankang Municipal Welfare Administration Bureau.

According to the e-mail, Du Huibin, manager of Mengyu Consultant Service Centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, paid 16,000 yuan (US$2,000) in December last year to Wang for a one-month-old baby, whom the child welfare home had just received....

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DAD TRIED TO SELL GIRL

2009-06-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

24/04/2006

A DAD has been accused of trying to sell his toddler daughter to get cash to fix up his house.

Danny Vu, 37, was asking £4,000 for his 18-month-old he was bringing up alone after his wife left....

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Race-blind policy best for adoptions

2009-06-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Current Rating: (0/5)
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(Rated 0times)By The Sentinel, April 24, 2006

Last updated: Monday, April 24, 2006 9:43 AM EDT

A Chester County couple took a foster child into their home two years ago and decided they wanted to adopt him.

Instead of allowing the process to move forward, Chester County adoption officials notified the couple that the child, now 3 years old, would be removed from their care, and arrived two days earlier than they said they would come to take the boy out of their custody.

Susan and Randy Borelly had not prepared the child yet. They are the only parents he has ever known. So the parting scene was an emotional one in which the boy cried out, "Mommy, I’m scared."

The child is black, and the foster parents, Susan and Randy Borelly are white. This is important because the Borellys are fighting in court for the return of the boy and they contend that they have been discriminated against because they are white....

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Jolie in political appeal over child poverty

2009-06-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 05:21 PM
Outspoken actress Angelina Jolie has stepped into the political arena again, urging First Lady Laura Bush to push the American President to do more to provide poverty-stricken children around the globe with an education.

The Hollywood star, who yesterday gave her backing to a Gordon Brown premiership while heaping praised on the Chancellor, pointed out that Britain gives three times more cash to such programmes than the US.

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Who's minding the children in Canada?

2009-06-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

TIMOTHY APPLEBY

>From Saturday's Globe and Mail

When 13-year-old Russian-born Masha Allen testified in Washington this
week at a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating child
pornography, she described five years of Internet-distributed sexual
torment at the hands of the American pedophile who adopted her from an
orphanage — a chronicle of abuse that left her audience shocked.

But in one key regard, Masha's ghastly tale is not unusual, shedding
light on a gaping rip in the safety net that is supposed to govern
international adoptions. And so worrying is the gap that some of the
home countries have periodically blocked adoptions entirely, often when
the process is midway through.

After Masha arrived as a five-year-old at the Plum, Pa., home of Matthew
Mancuso in 1998, no social worker or government official ever stopped to
check on her, she recounted, even though regular visits and follow-up
reports were part of Mr. Mancuso's adoption agreement with the Russian
authorities....

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Fund-raisers help couples cover high adoption fees

2009-06-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

May. 14, 2006 12:00 AM

Stories by Lisa Nicita Photos by Pat Shannahan

Most couples awaiting the arrival of a child adjust their budgets for endless packages of diapers, the perfect car-seat-and-stroller combo, and irresistible outfits their kids will hate them for years later. Some start socking money away in a college or wedding fund.

But for Suzanne Hanson, all that stuff is an afterthought. Her worry is how to come up with the $20,000 it will cost her just to become a mom, something she and her husband have dreamed of for years....

Adoption's price tag

The cost of adoption varies drastically, though many international adoptions and domestic private adoptions can cost as much as $30,000....

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Korea Celebrates Adoption Day, Government Plans to Promote Domestic Adoption

2009-06-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Kim Hyung-eun, Arirang News.
MAY 12, 2006

The country marked its first Adoption Day on Thursday.

The government, last year, designated the day as part of its efforts to promote domestic adoption.

Kim Hyung-eun reports on how the day was commemorated and takes us in-depth on the issue.

Marking Korea's inaugural Adoption Day a ceremony was held in southern Seoul.
It was attended by nearly a thousand people including families with adopted children, government officials as well as some celebrities.
Korea's Health and Welfare Minister Rhyu Si-min urged the country to pay more attention to the issue while first lady Kwon Yang-suk sent a video message saying that the government will do its best to assist the families who adopt.

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Korea’s Birthrate Plunges to New Record Low

2009-06-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

The country’s birthrate has dropped to the point where the average Korean woman is expected to have only one child throughout her life. The drop is the fastest in the world. If the trend continues, the population will drop some 8.69 million to 39.48 million by 2050, from 48.17 million as of 2005, the government forecast Monday. The National Statistical Office said the number of newborns per woman of childbearing age (15-49) fell to 1.08 last year. A figure below 2.1 means the population is starting to decline.

The nation’s birthrate experienced a dramatic fall from four or five in the 1970s to 1.59 in 1990 and set a new world record in 2001 with 1.3. “If the rate continues to drop at this pace, Korea will become the lone nation in the world with a birthrate below 1 next year,” a Finance Ministry official said....

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Adoptive Slavery

2009-06-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

May 17, 2006
After the Civil War, in 1865, slavery was to have been abolished, but
was it really?

Let's take a look at the word slavery and see what it means according to
Webster: "A person who is the property of another; to be bought or sold
with the receiver declaring ownership."

Now let us look at the word adopt: "To take (a child of other parents)
as approved by law and bring up as one's own child."

This is in reference to both parents being deceased or unknown. If any
of the parents are alive and either one wants the child, adoption is no
longer an option. This was the way it was done when orphanages were run
by private clubs, organizations and religious groups. Take notice that
at least one parent must want the child in order to keep the child
within the realm of its original family ties.

Getting back to slavery, the family had the individual taken without
permission or consent, but by force, after which papers were drawn to
show new ownership by purchase to make it legal....

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Did GNP Leader Attacker Act Alone?

2009-06-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

MAY 22, 2006 03:01
What connection do Ji (50), who attacked Grand National Party (GNP) leader Park Geun-hye with a box cutter, and Park (54), the one who caused disturbance on the podium, have?

This and the motive for the crime are the biggest question marks the prosecution/police joint investigation team has to solve. If by any chance, the two suspects have some kind of a connection or belong to a certain organization, this case can be defined as a “political terror.”

Given that the two men have little in common, it is possible that there is little connection between them, but the investigation team plans to identify their relationship prior to anything else.

Who is Ji?-

According to the police, Ji is an orphan. When he was a high school boy, Ji found out that his mother (81) is not actually his birth mother, and has gone astray ever since....

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Russia Seeks to Make Adoptions by Foreigners Tougher

2009-06-02T09:00:00.001-07:00

MOSCOW — Russian authorities, angered by rare but resonant cases of abuse of children adopted by foreigners, hope to have a law in place by the end of the year that would ban adoptions organized by groups or individuals without accreditation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.

The government has approved draft legislation removing what officials call a legal loophole that allows so-called "independent adoptions" and hopes it will be passed by parliament by the end of the year, RIA-Novosti quoted the director of the Education Ministry department responsible for adoption, Sergei Apatenko, as saying.

Russians have been disturbed by the sometimes deadly abuse of Russian children adopted by foreigners -- mostly Americans. Apatenko said that in most cases the abused children were adopted by parents who bypassed accredited agencies, using unaccredited organizations or adopting children from orphanages without middlemen....

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Mother Sentenced to 25 Years

2009-06-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Woman Had Admitted Killing Adopted Russian Daughter

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; Page B03

For the murder of her 2-year-old adopted Russian daughter, Peggy Sue Hilt will serve 25 years in jail, under a sentence imposed yesterday by a Prince William County judge.

"I think your conduct, at its core, is inexplicable, completely inexplicable," Circuit Court Judge William D. Hamblen said. "The child's death was not the product of a single act, a single blow. Her injuries were the result of a course of conduct over an extended period of time."

Hilt, 34, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March after telling police that she punched, kicked and choked Nina Hilt at their Wake Forest, N.C., home during a rage in July. The child died a day later in Prince William, where the family was visiting friends....

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US Mother Sentenced for Killing Adopted Russian Daughter

2009-06-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

By VOA News
25 May 2006

An American woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing her daughter, a two-year-old girl adopted from Russia.

Peggy Hilt admitted to kicking and beating her daughter, Nina Victoria, in July of last year. The child died the day after the attack....

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PSYCHIATRIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR TRANSRACIAL AND INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTEES

2009-06-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Dawes Kim, MD

Transracial (TRA) and intercountry (ICA) adoption
became a common practice when Harry Holt heard about
the plight of orphaned Korean children due to the Korean
Conflict. He adopted eight children from Korea and later
founded Holt International Children’s Agency. Since then,
an explosion of TRA and ICA adoption has continued as
children from China, Guatemala, Russia, and South Korea
each year are adopted worldwide.

Much of the research is focused on young children and
their ability to form attachments to family and their peers.
Current research centers on identity formation, adoptees’
perception of family life, and how racism impacts their lives.
In particular, the research looks at how well the adoptive
parents help their children cope with racism, and how much
adoptees are able to build ties to their community of origin.
Very little research has been done to learn about the
prevalence of mental illness in this population....

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Biological mother and adoptive parent battle over child

2009-06-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad, June 14: The city police is faced with a piquant question-- who should be the custodian of a child-- the woman who gave birth to her but abandoned her later, or the one who raised her?

Two-year-old Nikitha is at the centre of a battle involving her biological mother and a childless couple, who have raised her.

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University program makes adoption easier and less expensive

2009-06-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

BY JON ANN LINDSEY
Adoptive parents call it "the paper chase"—the piles of documents and countless forms that pave their long road to parenthood.

It's tedious and time consuming, as Lena Yang can attest. Holding her energetic 16-month-old daughter, Lindsey, in her lap, she recalls gathering medical, financial and employment records, arranging home studies, dealing with adoption agencies and, because hers was an international adoption, U.S. and Chinese consulates....

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Farrow gave Jolie her blessing for adopting

2009-06-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles, June 07: Mia Farrow has given Angelina Jolie her blessing for adopting. The 61-year-old screen icon - who is mother to 10 adopted children – has praised the 'Tomb Raider' beauty, who gave birth to her first biological child, Shiloh Nouvel, last month, for giving a home to two orphans.

The 'Omen' star said: "I don't know if Angelina even knows my name, but I do think she's absolutely lovely and her good heart is there for all to see.

"If we met, I don't know what I'd say to her except maybe, 'God speed. Be safe. Be happy! Bless you and your kids'."

The actress also defended Angelina, who is dating Brad Pitt, over claims her charity work is carried out for self-publicity....

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Chhattisgarh begins probe into alleged sale of newborns

2009-06-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

By Indo Asian News Service

Raipur, June 6 (IANS) A probe was begun Tuesday into the alleged sale of
day-old twins by a poverty-stricken tribal father to a childless Christian
couple last week in the state's industrial town of Korba.

Samaru, 24, reportedly sold his newborn twin sons for Rs.100 - to buy food
for his impoverished family. But the couple that bought the infants said
their intention was to adopt them.

The twins' mother died an hour after the delivery Friday. The couple already
had five kids and the father has been struggling to feed them.

'It's a very serious issue', state Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told IANS,
adding the 'government has been compiling details of the alleged child sale
and local officials will be punished for not providing timely economic help
to the tribal family.'...

Couple plead not guilty to sexual abuse counts of adopted daughter, 14

2009-06-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Los Lunas A Los Lunas married couple arrested last week on charges of sexually abusing their adopted teenage daughter have pleaded not guilty to numerous counts.

The 24-year-old man and 23-year-old woman, who are not being named in order to protect the identity of the victim, are being held in the Valencia County Adult Detention Center in Los Lunas. The girl's adoptive father is charged with 12 counts of criminal sexual penetration, five counts of criminal sexual contact, seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor....

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Authorities say they have lost track of 1,300 children adopted abroa

2009-06-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Adoption authorities said Saturday that they have asked the U.S., Italy,
Greece, Spain and Switzerland about the well-being of more than 1,300
adopted Romanian-born children after Romanian officials lost track of
them.

Adoptive parents are obliged to keep Romanian authorities informed about
the fate of the children under the agreements signed when the children
were adopted, the head of the Office for Adoption, Theodora Bertzi, was
quoted as saying by the Mediafax news agency.

Romania placed a moratorium on international adoptions in 2001 at the
request of the European Union due to widespread corruption in the
adoption system....

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PUTTING WOMEN'S ISSUES ON THE ADOPTION AGENDA

2009-06-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

This page aims to promote gender- focused human rights issues and relevant groups. Trans-national adoption has offered a complex but concrete and compassionate solution to addressing many instances of child poverty and homelessness. However, to date, the practice cannot be viewed in isolation from a range of problematic economic, social and cultural dynamics that are profoundly responsible for its sustainability.

For example, C. Register (in Serril 1991) , a mother of two adopted Korean daughters and adoption author of Beyond Good Intentions, argues that ‘Wealth does not entitle us to the children of the poor’ and acknowledges that:

International adoption is an undeserved benefit that has fallen to North Americans, West Europeans and Australians, largely because of the inequitable socio-economic circumstances in which we live. In the long run, we ought to be changing those circumstances (in Serril 1991: 86 - 89) .

The ability of trans-national adoption to offer one small solution to child poverty and homelessness is not in dispute. But the fact remains that it offers no means of prevention. Such adoptions are ultimately made possible by the severe neglect and lack of political will in governments and other bodies of power to put a range of support and protection mechanisms in place so that marginalised and economically disadvantaged families can remain bonded....

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Next Jolie-Pitt Will Be Adopted

2009-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Zap2It.com | June 19, 2006

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Oscar-nominated actress was 'terrified' at daughter's birth
After being "terrified" at the birth of her own child, Angelina Jolie says that the next addition to the family will once again be adopted. In her first interview since the birth of her daughter Shiloh Nouvel, "The Good Shepherd" actress discusses that fateful day in Namibia....

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Police raid adoption clinic for allegedly selling children

2009-06-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Prosecutors and police yesterday raided a clinic in Taipei that was allegedly involved in illegal sales of babies, finding six babies and children “living” in the clinic.

The clinic, dubbed “Shihlin HongAn Clinic,” is located on the Chungcheng Rd., in Shihlin District, Taipei. It was raided after prosecutors and police learned that Wang Ching-ming, owner of the clinic, was allegedly engaged in sales of babies at a price of NT$280,000 to NT$350,000 per baby. Wang was accused of using his clinic as an adoption center for abandoned babies while secretly selling babies....

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Fed Govt asked to play greater role in overseas adoptions

2009-06-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 5, 2006. 11:34am (AEST)

An internal review has found the New South Wales Government spends more on overseas adoptions than on local child protection cases.

The Minister for Community Services, Reba Meagher, has called on the Commonwealth to play a greater role in overseas adoptions to allow state agencies to concentrate on foster placements for local children.

"We should be directing our child protection resources to those kids in New South Wales that need our help," Ms Meagher said....

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'Evil' adoption scandal

2009-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

By Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer
Saturday July 08 2006

A WOMAN nicknamed 'Dr Evil' who arranged the adoption of 150 Vietnamese babies to Ireland has admitted the paperwork was forged by corrupt officials. In a series of secretly recorded meetings, My Linh Soland told an Irish Independent reporter how the children's histories were invented. And she told how officials at the highest level were paid to procure paperwork or to turn a blind eye about whether the adoptions were legal or ethical.

A WOMAN nicknamed 'Dr Evil' who arranged the adoption of 150 Vietnamese babies to Ireland has admitted the paperwork was forged by corrupt officials.

In a series of secretly recorded meetings, My Linh Soland told an Irish Independent reporter how the children's histories were invented....

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DNA Crime Lab Reunites Families

2009-06-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Richmond, California
07 July 2006

In an unprecedented international collaboration, California crime scientists are analyzing DNA from hundreds of families in El Salvador who are searching for their children, lost during the civil war that tormented that country for more than a decade. The violence took 75,000 lives and, in the chaos, thousands of children were put in orphanages and adoption centers. Many were adopted by families in the United States and Europe. The war ended in 1992, but its aftermath is now playing out in a California laboratory....

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Mixed-race adoptions pose some obstacles for children

2009-06-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 09, 2006
Jeff Gammage
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

Phil Bertelsen grew up as the biracial, adopted son of white parents. He always felt their profound and enveloping love.

The problem began, he said, when he stepped outside his front door.

At age 13, he was told by the white classmate he considered his girlfriend: "Mother doesn?t want me going out with n------."

"I didn?t know at the time what that was," Bertelsen said, "let alone that it might be me."

When he tried to connect with blacks, "I was tormented and ridiculed," he said. "I certainly wasn?t aware there was a style of behavior or dress or a code of conduct associated with being black."

Bertelsen, a documentary filmmaker who was raised in Highland Park, N.J., defines himself through his work, including the autobiographical Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America....

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Man finds joy in adopting child at age 71

2009-06-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

BY MAUREEN SIMPSON, The Island Packet
Published Tuesday, May 30, 2006

...Eight years ago, Clarence moved to Hilton Head Island from New Jersey
with the intention of retiring from the ministry. The former dentist
said he had felt God calling him out of that profession to become a
pastor several years before that. He spent three years studying
part-time at a Bible college and four years in seminary before leading a
church in New Jersey.

But in 1998, he made the move to South Carolina, where he met Deborah,
47, at a Gullah celebration. A month later, the two met again at a
business meeting, and Clarence asked her out to lunch. The rest, he
says, is history.

Soon, he found himself pastoring a church on Daufuskie Island. In 2000,
the couple married -- not quite the retirement he had imagined, but a
blessing nonetheless, he says....

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Hawaii Police Searching for Two Girls

2009-06-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Updated: May 30, 2006 01:28 PM PDT

(KHNL) -- Hawaii police are looking for two children who were not returned to their adoptive parents following a visit with the children's birth mother.

5-year-old Chelsea Gouveia and 11-year-old Celeste Gouveia were left with 30-year-old Diana Tamura Saturday morning....

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Adoptive mother's case under review

2009-06-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Adoptive mother's case under review
Thursday, June 1, 2006

WOODBURY
A hearing at which Heather Lindorff could have her bail revoked has been
continued to give the judge and defense attorney more time to review the
case.

Lindorff will remain free pending the outcome of the hearing, which is
scheduled for Tuesday.

Lindorff continued to abuse four of her adopted Russian children even
though she lost custody of them following a 2003 conviction for her role
in the death of another one of her children, prosecutors alleged last
week....

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Abuse, deaths, prompt Russian to adopt new rules

2009-06-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

BY RUTHANN ROBINSON

Changes to the law will be too late to help little Luke Evans of Lowell.

Prosecutors say the 16-month-old Russian adoptee was shaken to death by his adoptive mother in November 2001.

Natalie Fabian Evans was charged with murder 13 months later but has yet to face a jury. Her trial is scheduled to begin June 19.

In response to news reports that more than 10 Russian children adopted by American parents have died by neglect or violence since 1991, Russian officials passed an amendment in May prohibiting foreign, independent adoptions through unlicensed agencies....

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Brings together growing adult adoptee community

2009-06-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 5, 2006 -- The first meeting of the International Adoptee Congress (IAC), an organization made up of 75 internationally adopted persons from various ethnic and geographic backgrounds, will meet in Washington, DC on November 2-5, 2006.

The goals of this historic meeting will be to:

Demonstrate unity within the growing adoptee community;
Explore new and innovative ways to empower and give voice to pre-teen, teen, and adult adoptees and their families;

Consider ways in which adoptees can work with each other, as well as other members of the broad adoption community, in positioning adoptees as leaders in adoption;
Evaluate current resources (cultural, educational, adopted person organizations, therapeutic, mentorship, internet, film, literature, art, legislative) available to adoptees; discuss how adoptees can aid in improving and promoting the resources;
Launch a national adoptee agenda for all adoptees and adoptee organizations to participate in.

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Soldier finds her birth family in South Korea

2009-06-01T13:16:00.001-07:00

By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, June 4, 2006

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — With two daughters, Park Hee-soon knew the pain of childbirth — but this time was different.

Her third daughter was a difficult breech birth. Park was anesthetized. When she awoke, her mother-in-law told her the little girl had not survived.

But whenever she’d watch a television show about a long-lost family reuniting, she wept. “Somewhere in my thoughts, I felt as if my daughter were alive,” Park said....

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Woman to plead guilty in adoption fraud

2009-06-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Carmel - A woman accused of persuading six couples to give her nearly $100,000 after falsely telling them she would help them adopt Russian children has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges.

Eyewitness News partners at the Indianapolis Star report Victoria Farahan could face up to 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. Authorities say Farahan told the couples she worked with an international agency and could use her Russian "contacts" to help them adopt children from that country....

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Judge asks for more evidence in adoption agency fraud case

2009-06-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 11, 2006 Share Email Print Comment
By DAVID RYAN, Register Staff Writer

Napa County prosecutors will have to come up with more proof in their effort to refund money to the victims of a now-defunct Napa adoption agency.

Napa Superior Court Judge Raymond Guadagni said Friday he wanted more evidence from prosecutors before he would enter a default judgment against Ivan Jerdev, former president of Yunona USA, accused of bilking more than $1.1 million from more than 100 victims across the country.

Prosecutors charge Jerdev took money from would-be adoptive parents without connecting them with children they expected to welcome into their families. Jerdev's company reached many of its clients through Internet sites on which it posted the pictures of children from eastern Europe and elsewhere that Yunona claimed were available for adoption.

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UNITED STATES: HAITIAN ORPHAN BRINGS MESSAGE OF INSPIRATION

2009-06-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

UNITED STATES: HAITIAN ORPHAN BRINGS MESSAGE OF INSPIRATION - Ex-slave
readies for college
published: Monday | June 12, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP):

A HAITIAN orphan who claims she was a virtual slave for a wealthy South
Florida family says she hopes her story will inspire other victims of
abuse.

Williathe Narcisse, then 12, told police in 1999 that she was beaten,
enslaved and repeatedly raped by the 20-year-old son of a Pembroke Pines
couple who had smuggled her into the United States three years earlier
to be a household servant, according to court documents.

"I can't forget what happened to me. I don't know why they tortured me.
I'm not going to dwell on it," said Narcisse, now 19, who graduated
second in her class from the Life Skills Center of Broward County....

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Romania requests data on child abused by Spanish adoptive parents

2009-06-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Romania requests data on child abused by Spanish adoptive parents
Alecs Iancu

The Romanian Office for Adoptions (ORA) will contact Spanish authorities
to clarify the situation of a child adopted from Romania in 2001 who
ended up in a coma in hospital after he was beaten by his adoptive
parents, the head of the office said.

State secretary Theodora Bertzi said this is not the first time the boy
needed medical assistance following mistreatment by his adoptive
parents. However, in spite of the situation, the child was not taken
into the custody of Spanish social services, which were in charge of
monitoring the adopted child.

"The second post-adoption report sent to Romanian authorities shows that
the boy was found with bruises and that he was even hospitalized,
requiring recovery treatment and his adoptive mother said at the time
that he had fallen out of his bed," Bertzi said....

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International adoption campaign stirs new controversy

2009-06-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

International adoption campaign stirs new controversy
Denisa Maruntoiu

Following the publication in Monday's edition of British daily Financial
Times of a full-page advertisement entitled "Romania's concealed
childcare crisis" completed by 33 NGOs which denounced the child
protection system in Romania as ignoring the Romanian orphans and
pointed out that EU officials have no idea about the traumas the orphans
are subjected to in the Romanian institutions. The former EP's
rapporteur on Romania, Baroness Emma Nicholson, rejected all the
allegations. She pointed out that the non-governmental organizations
that have signed the document have a strong financial interest in the
resumption of the highly profitable international adoptions business.

In a letter to the editor entitled "Romania banned international
adoptions as an evil trade in children" published yesterday by Financial
Times, Nicholson said that Romania banned international adoptions in
2001 because it had turned into a trade....

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Adoption - Is Family Heritage a Human Right?

2009-06-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

by Laurie Frisch
With the adoption industry promoting the illusion of adopters being the real parents of the unrelated children they are raising, adoptees are being denied basic knowledge about themselves. Who are they really? Who are their ancestors and what is their health history?

Marion, IA (PRWEB) July 20, 2004 -- In the movie "Roots II", the African man Kunta Kinte newly arrived in America and auctioned as a slave, submits to being whipped almost to death before he will acknowledge the new name given to him by his owner. This determination to maintain our identity is something most people relate to; fortunately most people will never know what it's like to have their own identity unacknowledged.

In adoption, the true identity of a human being is obliterated, beginning with the issuance of an amended birth certificate. The amended birth certificate lacks the adopted person's name at birth and her parents' names, instead identifying the adopters as having given birth. In some states, even the place and date of birth on these official documents are false. In spite of the Freedom of Information Act, even adoptees who are adults are denied access to their original birth certificate in most of the United States....

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Guatemala urged to act on foreign child adoption

2009-06-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Casa Alianza

So far this year more than 1, 400 adoptions of Guatemalan minors have been authorized.

Casa Alianza and other human rights organizations have spent almost ten years promoting the approval of legislation that will truly protect Guatemalan children.

The National General Attorney, Mario Gordillo, announced that so far this year more that 1,400 adoptions have been authorized, the majority of adoptions made by foreigners, in particular North American families....

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Teen Caught In Adoption, Immigration Fight

2009-06-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Young's Adoptive Mother Died 8 Years Ago
POSTED: 6:40 pm EDT June 16, 2006

LYNN, Mass. -- A young Lynn woman is caught in an immigration fight because records of her legal adoption cannot be found.

NewsCenter 5's David Boeri reported that Massachusetts has been Zosia Young's home since she was a toddler. She said her mother adopted her from the Philippines.

"As far as I know, my adoptive mother, Gloria went to the Philippines to begin adoption proceedings there and gained custody of me when I was about 3 months old," Young said....

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U.S. court sentences couple for abusing adopted Russian child

2009-06-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - A U.S. court sentenced an American couple for abusing their adopted 4-year-old handicapped son from Russia to four and two months in jail respectively, prosecutors said.

Jane Cochran, 43, from Alfred (ME) was charged with second-degree assault in February after allegedly beating up and even cutting off part of the boy's ear with a pair of scissors in summer 2005. The foster mother said she had become infuriated because the boy could not say his prayers in English.

Her husband, Timothy Cochran, 48, was accused of endangering the child and not reporting the domestic violence, prosecutors said....

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Just needs to be okay to 'adopt'

2009-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Volunteers in Confucian South Korea help open doors to orphanage awareness, social programs

John Christopher Carpenter (jccarpen)
Children at the Hwasung Baby orphanage in Seoul may not have the best lives in the world. They don't have the comfort of a loving mother and father or the security of a parent to tuck them in every night, but one thing the children do have is visitors. Korean and ex-pat volunteers visit on Saturdays, Sundays and sometimes during the week.

On a recent Saturday in the common room at the home, a group of around 20 children, who range in age from newborns to eight years old, sat with half as many volunteers watching television and slowly getting to know each other. It didn't take long for the children to make the first move. Any adult sitting on the floor was fair game for the boys and girls who began exploring the laps being made available to them....

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Testimony heard in child's death trial

2009-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

Testimony heard in child's death trial
Accused of abusing 2-year-old, mother faces murder charge
By Stephen Gurr
Staff Writer

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

The wails of a dying 21-month-old child brought several people to tears
Tuesday in Forsyth County Superior Court.

As a recording played in court of a 911 call made by Jill Ellen
Depaillat seeking treatment for her gravely injured daughter, Mia,
Depaillat cried at the defense table where she is on trial for a charge
of murder.

On the witness stand, the operator who took the call cried as nearly six
minutes of sustained crying by the child was played. In the jury box, at
least one juror cried. In the gallery, spectators wept.

The heart-wrenching sounds punctuated the first full day of testimony
Tuesday when prosecutors sought to prove that Depaillat killed her
adopted daughter in April 2004 during a fit of rage....

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Adoptive mother loses bail,

2009-06-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Posted on Fri, Jun. 23, 2006

Adoptive mother loses bail, begins serving 6-year term
By Jan Hefler
Inquirer Staff Writer
A state Superior Court judge in Gloucester County yesterday revoked the
bail of Heather G. Lindorff, who was convicted of child endangerment in
the 2001 death of her 5-year-old adopted Russian son, Jacob.

Lindorff, 41, of Alloways Creek, Salem County, was led out of the
courtroom in handcuffs and ordered to begin her six-year state prison
term.

She had been free while appealing her conviction, but Judge Walter L.
Marshall Jr. ruled that she had violated the conditions of her $50,000
bail by having unsupervised contact with her four other adopted Russian
children. Lindorff had adopted the children with her husband, James, 55.

The prosecution contended at her 2003 trial that she had burned and
beaten Jacob at the family's former home in Franklin Township and
delivered the fatal blow in December 2001, less than two months after he
was adopted....

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Adopted Russian Child Tortured by Foster Mother to Remain in U.S.

2009-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Adopted Russian Child Tortured by Foster Mother to Remain in U.S.
Created: 25.06.2006 16:45 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:45 MSK, 4 hours 32
minutes ago

MosNews

The adopted 4-year-old Russian child who was beaten by a U.S. woman will
stay in the area and be adopted by a new family.

The child, whose name and picture is being withheld by the newspaper, is
a United States resident and will not return to Russia, The Evening
Tribune reports.

“I saw him about three weeks ago, and I have had contact with the foster
parents and others who have contact with him, and he is doing very
well,” said the child’s legal counsel, Thomas Fuoco of Angelica. “Yes,
he will still be around here. I don’t foresee any difficulties in this
family adopting him, and the three of them make a wonderful family.”

On Tuesday, Allegany County Court Judge Thomas Brown sentenced Jane
Cochran, 44 to 120 days in jail, 90 days on electronic home monitoring,
five years of probation and to serve 100 hours of community service. Her
husband, Timothy Cochran, 49, will spend 60 days in jail and will be on
probation for three years....

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'I didn't look like my family... I felt isolated'

2009-06-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

...But while many can undoubtedly offer the loving caring environment in which to raise a child and while many have the financial and emotional security to provide children with opportunities denied to them for whatever reason by their own biological parents, even the most apparently successful transracial adoption comes with difficulties.

"I was adopted when I five years old," says Perlita Harris, who was born in London in 1966 to Indian parents. "They lived in a village in Gloucestershire. It was a predominantly white, middle class area and from the start I was aware that there were few people around who looked like me.

"At the time there wasn't such a thing as adoption support, you were basically left to get on with it and while my adopted parents did everything they could to make me a part of the family, I was always going to stand out from them and my three older siblings.

"When I was six I wrote, 'My mummy is white, my daddy is white and Wendy is white and Ian is white and Peter is white and I am brown and I have black hair' and I think that sums it up....

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Brad The Sublime Dad

2009-06-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Brad Pitt has spoken about the joys of being a dad.

And he says he's finding the whole experience "absolutely sublime".

Brad had his first baby, Shiloh Nouvel, with Angelina Jolie in May, but is also legal guardian to her adopted children Maddox and Zahara.

He said that his feelings for Shiloh and his adopted kids are all equal and told Newsweek magazine: "Whether you have them or adopt them, they're all blood".

And the Troy star also hit back at criticism over a reported $4million (£2.2m) deal for the first pics of their new baby girl, insisting the money will help charities....

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Woman Fears Adopted Son Will Be Deported

2009-06-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A local woman fears the son she adopted from the Philippines will be deported because he is not a U.S. citizen, KMBC's Lara Moritz reported.

"He's an American, but he's not a citizen," said Michelle Peeler.

Peeler and her then-military husband adopted Sean from the Philippines. She said they were assured Sean would automatically become a U.S. citizen.

"As we're U.S. citizens, our son was therefore a U.S. citizen. There was nothing to worry about," Peeler said.

Moritz reported that life in America for Sean was like that for any other boy. Then Peeler got a shock when Sean was denied a passport to go on his senior class trip to Mexico....

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'Baby snatcher' sends CNN-IBN notice

2009-06-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

CNN-IBN
....However, the Director of CWC in Pune, A K Banerjee, himself runs an adoption agency accused of exploiting children.

"Bannerjee runs an adoption agency called Sampark, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Children are being sexually exploited at his agency," claims Ingrid Mendonca, who works for Actions for The Right of The Child.

CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team had, in another report, also exposed that only 11 agencies in Orissa have got the license to give babies in adoption, but the number of illegal adoption centres are manifold, with Rourkella having six of them....

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Baby snatchers prowl Konkan

2009-06-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

Ruksh Chatterji / CNN-IBN

Konkan (Maharashtra): Misty hills, swollen rivers and incessant rain are common in Maharashtra's Konkan belt.

This sparsely populated region along the west coast doesn't have a single adoption home, making it the perfect hunting ground for baby snatchers.

"We need a children's home here so that couples from our district can adopt children without having to go to other districts," says Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Ratnagiri, Dr Shashwat Shere.

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Proofs from adoption racket jigsaw

2009-06-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Ruksh Chatterji / CNN-IBN
Pune: Adoption agency Preet Mandir may have tried its best to burn possibly incriminating documents but CNN-IBN's Special Investigations Team has salvaged the evidence that exposes several irregularities in the functioning of the organisation.

Sifting through the soot and putting the pieces together, the team recovered complete files of two cases and a record of all the Australian visas applied for by Preet Mandir.

Also the diaries complete with entries build towards the increasing documentary evidence of irregularities in this adoption racket....

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NRI spills beans on Preet Mandir

2009-06-01T08:57:00.001-07:00

CNN-IBN

New Delhi: Even as the owner of Preet Mandir, J S Bhasin, held a press conference to claim his innocence, CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team continues to receive complaints from families for whom Preet Mandir was a trauma....

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Male-child shopping spree in Delhi

2009-06-01T08:55:00.001-07:00

Neelu Vyas / CNN-IBN
New Delhi: Want a child ? Buy one. Is he disabled? Buy another. Quest for a male child has turned into a shopping expedition for a family who lament having adopted a child who later was found to have disabilities.

Nirlep Singh and his wife Harpreet adopted Pushpendra from Child Welfare Home in Delhi, a private adoption agency, when he was just four months old.

A few months later, they found that Pushpendra could not walk properly or talk. Now the couple wants another child – that too a boy....

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Preet Mandir kids rescued

2009-06-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sushobhan Patankar / CNN-IBN

Pune: The Maharshtra government has taken it's first hesitant steps in curbing child Trafficking in the state.

All Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) across the state have been asked to stop sending children to Preet Mandir.

Activists from NGOs across Pune demonstrated outside the office of the Commissioner for Women and Child Development, asking him to take action against those involved in the adoption racket exposed by CNN-IBN's Special investigation Team.

Says a member of an NGO, Nakul Kante, "It is our demand that Preet Mandir be completely shut down."

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Black Label bottle, cash and a child

2009-06-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

VK Shashikumar / CNN-IBN

Pune: A CNN-IBN Special Investigation blew the lid off one of India's biggest adoption agencies that has broken every adoption rule in the land to sell babies illegally to foreign parents.

The Special Invstigation team exposed how this racket is nothing more than pure greed dressed up as charity.

A chance encounter at Preet Mandir with Xavier, an agent with a Spanish adoption agency, confirmed Preet Mandir's status as one of India's biggest inter-country adoption centers....

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Confessions of a conman

2009-06-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Rohit Khanna / CNN-IB
New Delhi: All this week CNN-IBN has been running a special series on adoption rackets across the country uncovered by the Special Investigation Team.

After the team's expose on the illegal adoption racket in Rourkela, the man at the centre of the controversy has confessed that his organisation is not registered.

Sahyog is one of the two illegal adoption centres based in Rourkela. It is run by Delhi-based chartered accountant, Manjit Singh Pardesi....

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Pay in dollars and adopt a child

2009-06-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

VK Shashikumar / CNN-IBN
Pune: Adoption is not charity—it's about creating a new family. However, for foreigners looking for Indian babies the drill is simple. They just need to talk dollars.

Six CNN-IBN reporters conducted a Special Investigation over six months in Pune, Maharashtra, Rourkela, Cochin and London.

Two CNN-IBN reporters posed as an NRI couple wanting to adopt a child. They landed up at an adoption center in Pune called Preet Mandir, where the owner J S Bhasin has babies on offer—readymade and off the shelf.

What J S Bhasin does is a crime and the law calls such a person a child trafficker. Bhasin has been selling babies to foreigners for years, breaking every adoption law in the country. Preet Mandir is his baby shop....

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