David Kruchkow
The Internet is populated with photolistings of children allegedly available for adoption. Is this a way to unite waiting children with families or is it a way for unethical agencies and facilitators to play on the heartstrings of prospective adoptive parents, and roping them into a scam? In this article, I will attempt to answer this question and look at the good, the bad and the ugly side of photolistings.
Personally, I am categorically opposed to all photolistings. All one has to do is look at real estate listings or visit cars.com or autotrader.com to see how children are being marketed and merchandized like real estate and cars. There has to be a better way. Let me just add that I do respect and understand those who claim that they found 'their child' on a photolisting, and that I do respect and understand those who claim that photolistings help children, especially those who are older and/or with special needs, find homes and families. On my website, www.adoptionagencychecklist.com, I have a page entitled, Photolisitngs and Ethics. It contains the following:
"What bothers me is how some adoption professionals are using the photolisting capability of the Internet to market and merchandise children. These photolistings can easily become a tool of the unscrupulous and unethical to victimize children and adoptive families. A family that is desperate to parent and adopt easily bonds with the right photo and becomes hooked and blinded." ....
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Should 'Going Home Barbie' go to more homes?
By Maria DiDanieli
If a little girl is on your shopping list this holiday season, rest assured the popular Barbie line of dolls will be foremost in your mind. (And if not in yours, it certainly will be on hers) Although the basic Barbie, now with a smaller chest and finally wearing knickers, is always a good choice, there are many permutations of Barbie from which to choose. International Barbies, princess Barbies, single Barbies enjoying lives of frolic and more sedate, domesticated versions that represent the young beauty's wishes to settle down.
But there is one Barbie that cannot be found in any store or through any website. She is officially called 'Going Home Barbie' but her nick-name is 'White Swan Barbie' after the one location in the world, The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China, where she can be obtained. But, ask not 'where can she be found?' Rather, ask 'what do I have to do to get her?' The answer to this is quite specific. To become the proud owner of a 'Going Home Barbie', you must: a) adopt a child from China, and b) stay at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou while awaiting clearance for an exit visa, for your baby, from the U.S. government. There is no other way to come into possession of the 'Going Home Barbie'.....
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If a little girl is on your shopping list this holiday season, rest assured the popular Barbie line of dolls will be foremost in your mind. (And if not in yours, it certainly will be on hers) Although the basic Barbie, now with a smaller chest and finally wearing knickers, is always a good choice, there are many permutations of Barbie from which to choose. International Barbies, princess Barbies, single Barbies enjoying lives of frolic and more sedate, domesticated versions that represent the young beauty's wishes to settle down.
But there is one Barbie that cannot be found in any store or through any website. She is officially called 'Going Home Barbie' but her nick-name is 'White Swan Barbie' after the one location in the world, The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China, where she can be obtained. But, ask not 'where can she be found?' Rather, ask 'what do I have to do to get her?' The answer to this is quite specific. To become the proud owner of a 'Going Home Barbie', you must: a) adopt a child from China, and b) stay at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou while awaiting clearance for an exit visa, for your baby, from the U.S. government. There is no other way to come into possession of the 'Going Home Barbie'.....
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The Big Question: Is it exploitation to adopt children from the developing world?
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Friday, 6 October 2006
Why are we asking this question now?
Madonna, the American celebrity with a talent for re-inventing herself, was reported yesterday to have flown by private jet to Malawi, the southern African country ravaged by Aids, and adopted an orphan. Malawi government officials were quoted as saying that the 48-year-old singer had chosen a one-year-old boy from among 12 children specially picked out prior to her arrival.
The pop star, worth an estimated £248m, was in Malawi to visit the Raising Malawi centre in a village 30 miles outside the capital, Lilongwe, which she is supporting. The centre provides food and schooling for Aids orphans. The story was later denied by a spokeswoman for Madonna who described it as "completely inaccurate". That did not stop it making the front pages of yesterday's newspapers and reopening the debate on international adoption....
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Friday, 6 October 2006
Why are we asking this question now?
Madonna, the American celebrity with a talent for re-inventing herself, was reported yesterday to have flown by private jet to Malawi, the southern African country ravaged by Aids, and adopted an orphan. Malawi government officials were quoted as saying that the 48-year-old singer had chosen a one-year-old boy from among 12 children specially picked out prior to her arrival.
The pop star, worth an estimated £248m, was in Malawi to visit the Raising Malawi centre in a village 30 miles outside the capital, Lilongwe, which she is supporting. The centre provides food and schooling for Aids orphans. The story was later denied by a spokeswoman for Madonna who described it as "completely inaccurate". That did not stop it making the front pages of yesterday's newspapers and reopening the debate on international adoption....
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Babies-for-sale trade faces a global crackdown
Attempts by Western families to adopt children from poor nations have fuelled a rogue market in young lives. But at last action is being taken. Carolyn Wheeler reports from Lviv, Ukraine.
The thick stack of photographs pulled from a manila envelope in Maria Chernyk's cupboard explains all she has to say about foreign adoptions. Each year, the director of Lviv's Orphanage No 1 sends a handful of children overseas: most to the United States, many to Italy, some to Germany, France and Canada, one to a Ukrainian couple in Manchester.
She tracks them with this collection of photos: a sweet blond boy with a crossed eye, a slender, solemn-faced girl who needed heart surgery, a little boy so traumatised by his past that he never spoke.
Each family paid dearly for the privilege of being parents, over £15,000 in many cases, to cover travel, agency fees and the demands of dozens of bureaucrats....
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The thick stack of photographs pulled from a manila envelope in Maria Chernyk's cupboard explains all she has to say about foreign adoptions. Each year, the director of Lviv's Orphanage No 1 sends a handful of children overseas: most to the United States, many to Italy, some to Germany, France and Canada, one to a Ukrainian couple in Manchester.
She tracks them with this collection of photos: a sweet blond boy with a crossed eye, a slender, solemn-faced girl who needed heart surgery, a little boy so traumatised by his past that he never spoke.
Each family paid dearly for the privilege of being parents, over £15,000 in many cases, to cover travel, agency fees and the demands of dozens of bureaucrats....
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New U.S. Procedures Intended To Help Intercountry Adoption
05 October 2006
Deadline announced for adoption service providers seeking accreditation
The 1993 Hague Convention sets minimum international standards and procedures for adoptions that occur between implementing countries. It seeks to ensure that such intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and aims to prevent abuses such as abductions, sale or trafficking in children, as well as the exploitation of birth parents and adoptive parents.
To date 68 countries have ratified the convention or acceded to it. The United States signed the pact in 1994 and hopes to ratify it by 2007.
In 2005 Americans adopted nearly 23,000 children from countries around the world, with more than half coming from countries that are parties to the Hague Convention, according to the State Department....
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Deadline announced for adoption service providers seeking accreditation
The 1993 Hague Convention sets minimum international standards and procedures for adoptions that occur between implementing countries. It seeks to ensure that such intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and aims to prevent abuses such as abductions, sale or trafficking in children, as well as the exploitation of birth parents and adoptive parents.
To date 68 countries have ratified the convention or acceded to it. The United States signed the pact in 1994 and hopes to ratify it by 2007.
In 2005 Americans adopted nearly 23,000 children from countries around the world, with more than half coming from countries that are parties to the Hague Convention, according to the State Department....
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Personal Thoughts on Ethics in International Adoption
By Ellen Fitzenrider
I am by no means an expert on ethical matters in anything (who can totally be?), let alone international adoption. The concept of ethics in itself is fraught with inherent 'gray-areas' that always seem to be open to interpretation, constant reflection and redefinition. It challenges us to be thoughtful, and to try to be our best selves by 'doing the right thing.' In the arena of international adoption there are issues small and large, but the challenge is of paramount importance and cannot wait until we have time in our busy lives to pay attention to them. There are lives at stake. Lives of children. Lives of families. Lives of those of us in the more fortunate areas of the world. Lives of those living in countries less fortunate. There are moral choices and decisions to be made that can so easily be swayed by emotion, desired outcomes and, especially, money.
Face it. There is a LOT of money flying around this world of international adoption....
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I am by no means an expert on ethical matters in anything (who can totally be?), let alone international adoption. The concept of ethics in itself is fraught with inherent 'gray-areas' that always seem to be open to interpretation, constant reflection and redefinition. It challenges us to be thoughtful, and to try to be our best selves by 'doing the right thing.' In the arena of international adoption there are issues small and large, but the challenge is of paramount importance and cannot wait until we have time in our busy lives to pay attention to them. There are lives at stake. Lives of children. Lives of families. Lives of those of us in the more fortunate areas of the world. Lives of those living in countries less fortunate. There are moral choices and decisions to be made that can so easily be swayed by emotion, desired outcomes and, especially, money.
Face it. There is a LOT of money flying around this world of international adoption....
for remaining essay
Baby Hotel: The Gateway to Guatemalan Adoption
Jacob Wheeler
October 9, 2006
The Marriott Hotel in Guatemala City's wealthy Zona 9 isn't really Central America. But it isn't the United States either. It's a kind of no man's land between countries, between cultures, sprawled out on the highway dividing rich and poor, where thousands of impoverished Guatemalan children make the final step in their journeys to become adopted by Americans. Most of them don't make a step at all, of course, because they're infants. Instead they are passed from a Guatemalan foster mother, or an attorney, into the trembling arms of a teary-eyed couple from El Norte who has been waiting for this moment, often not so patiently, for months or years.
In Guatemala City, in venues like the Marriott Hotel, or the Radisson, or the Camino Real right next to the American Embassy, this strange if not humorous baby handoff in a busy lobby is now an everyday occurrence. Guatemala holds the distinction of being the only Latin American country — the only country in the whole Western Hemisphere — that doesn't recognize the United Nations Hague treaty of 1989 that pushes for stringent state control over international adoptions. Adoptions here fall under the notary system, which means they are essentially privatized and run by lawyers and judges who have plenty to choose from when it comes to impoverished, malnourished, and sometimes abandoned or stolen babies....
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October 9, 2006
The Marriott Hotel in Guatemala City's wealthy Zona 9 isn't really Central America. But it isn't the United States either. It's a kind of no man's land between countries, between cultures, sprawled out on the highway dividing rich and poor, where thousands of impoverished Guatemalan children make the final step in their journeys to become adopted by Americans. Most of them don't make a step at all, of course, because they're infants. Instead they are passed from a Guatemalan foster mother, or an attorney, into the trembling arms of a teary-eyed couple from El Norte who has been waiting for this moment, often not so patiently, for months or years.
In Guatemala City, in venues like the Marriott Hotel, or the Radisson, or the Camino Real right next to the American Embassy, this strange if not humorous baby handoff in a busy lobby is now an everyday occurrence. Guatemala holds the distinction of being the only Latin American country — the only country in the whole Western Hemisphere — that doesn't recognize the United Nations Hague treaty of 1989 that pushes for stringent state control over international adoptions. Adoptions here fall under the notary system, which means they are essentially privatized and run by lawyers and judges who have plenty to choose from when it comes to impoverished, malnourished, and sometimes abandoned or stolen babies....
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Adopting a pose
Lilian Saleh
October 17, 2006 12:00am
FORGET the Oscar. The latest Hollywood must-have is an adopted baby – preferably a black one plucked from an impoverished Third-World country and flown halfway around the world on a private jet.
The latest celebrity to join the "let's save the world by adopting a foreign baby" trend is Madonna – who is finalising plans to adopt 13-month-old David Banda from the poverty-stricken African nation of Malawi.
It is not only that the Material Girl apparently chose David from a list of 12 "contenders" emailed to her that has angered Australian parents who have adopted overseas children – it was the ease with which she was able to complete the process, having her application to adopt fast-tracked while others are put through years of scrutiny and financial pressure....
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October 17, 2006 12:00am
FORGET the Oscar. The latest Hollywood must-have is an adopted baby – preferably a black one plucked from an impoverished Third-World country and flown halfway around the world on a private jet.
The latest celebrity to join the "let's save the world by adopting a foreign baby" trend is Madonna – who is finalising plans to adopt 13-month-old David Banda from the poverty-stricken African nation of Malawi.
It is not only that the Material Girl apparently chose David from a list of 12 "contenders" emailed to her that has angered Australian parents who have adopted overseas children – it was the ease with which she was able to complete the process, having her application to adopt fast-tracked while others are put through years of scrutiny and financial pressure....
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Madonna and child
Friday October 6, 2006
The Guardian
Joan Crawford, Mia Farrow, Angelina Jolie. And now, it seems, Madonna. A long list of celebrities have chosen to adopt children from abroad. But why do they go so far -and can it be right, when there are thousands of children in this country in need of a loving home? Emine Saner reports
So Madonna has adopted a one-year-old boy from Malawi. Or has she? There have been denials from her people but it's not so unbelievable, is it? After all, she wouldn't be the first. She has been thinking about it for months, apparently, and in July, her father-in-law let slip that Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, had started the process. The pop star is in the southern African country this week visiting orphanages. It had been reported that 12 children were "selected", from which she would choose a little brother for her children Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, six. "She asked us to identify boys only, which we have done after visiting four orphanages," a government spokeswoman, Adrina Michiela, is reported to have said (she also said that Madonna had originally wanted to choose a girl but changed her mind two weeks ago)....
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The Guardian
Joan Crawford, Mia Farrow, Angelina Jolie. And now, it seems, Madonna. A long list of celebrities have chosen to adopt children from abroad. But why do they go so far -and can it be right, when there are thousands of children in this country in need of a loving home? Emine Saner reports
So Madonna has adopted a one-year-old boy from Malawi. Or has she? There have been denials from her people but it's not so unbelievable, is it? After all, she wouldn't be the first. She has been thinking about it for months, apparently, and in July, her father-in-law let slip that Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, had started the process. The pop star is in the southern African country this week visiting orphanages. It had been reported that 12 children were "selected", from which she would choose a little brother for her children Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, six. "She asked us to identify boys only, which we have done after visiting four orphanages," a government spokeswoman, Adrina Michiela, is reported to have said (she also said that Madonna had originally wanted to choose a girl but changed her mind two weeks ago)....
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Madonna's adoption plans slammed by politicians
13/10/2006 - 09:48:50
Madonna has been slammed for her adoption plans by politicians, who fear her decision to take home a one-year-old boy from Malawi is a mere publicity stunt.
The pop queen and her director husband Guy Ritchie arrived in Malawi last Wednesday and met local orphans and government ministers during their time there.
However, members of a Scottish parliament group have hit out with concerns that the Material Girl star's motives are selfish....
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Madonna has been slammed for her adoption plans by politicians, who fear her decision to take home a one-year-old boy from Malawi is a mere publicity stunt.
The pop queen and her director husband Guy Ritchie arrived in Malawi last Wednesday and met local orphans and government ministers during their time there.
However, members of a Scottish parliament group have hit out with concerns that the Material Girl star's motives are selfish....
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Adoption 'a Hollywood fad'
13/10/2006 08:07 - (SA)
London - British politicians and Malawi child care advocates on Thursday questioned the reported adoption of a motherless Malawi boy by Madonna, saying the move smacked of a celebrity fad and that the child would have been better off with relatives in the country.
The condemnations followed a statement on Wednesday by the boy's father that Madonna had adopted one-year-old David Banda, who had been cared for at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre near Zambia since his mother Marita died from childbirth complications last year.
The reported move followed other high profile adoptions by movie star Angelina Jolie, who adopted children from Cambodia and Ethiopia, and Meg Ryan, whose adopted child hails from China....
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London - British politicians and Malawi child care advocates on Thursday questioned the reported adoption of a motherless Malawi boy by Madonna, saying the move smacked of a celebrity fad and that the child would have been better off with relatives in the country.
The condemnations followed a statement on Wednesday by the boy's father that Madonna had adopted one-year-old David Banda, who had been cared for at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre near Zambia since his mother Marita died from childbirth complications last year.
The reported move followed other high profile adoptions by movie star Angelina Jolie, who adopted children from Cambodia and Ethiopia, and Meg Ryan, whose adopted child hails from China....
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Malawi child rights group to challenge adoption
Updated Fri. Oct. 13 2006 2:11 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A leading child rights group in Malawi will seek a court injunction to block Madonna's efforts to adopt a toddler from the impoverished African nation if the government allows the process to take place.
Eye of the Child issued a statement on Friday, one day after Malawi's High Court issued an interim order allowing Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie to adopt the one-year-old motherless boy.
"It is about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion." ....
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CTV.ca News Staff
A leading child rights group in Malawi will seek a court injunction to block Madonna's efforts to adopt a toddler from the impoverished African nation if the government allows the process to take place.
Eye of the Child issued a statement on Friday, one day after Malawi's High Court issued an interim order allowing Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie to adopt the one-year-old motherless boy.
"It is about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion." ....
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Madonna adoption bid challenged
Friday, 13 October 2006, 15:12 GMT 16:12 UK
A Malawian child rights group has said it wants to stop Madonna adopting a child from the African country.
The organisation, Eye of the Child, said it would seek a court injunction if the government did not halt its interim order approving the adoption.
"It's not like selling property," the group said in a statement....
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A Malawian child rights group has said it wants to stop Madonna adopting a child from the African country.
The organisation, Eye of the Child, said it would seek a court injunction if the government did not halt its interim order approving the adoption.
"It's not like selling property," the group said in a statement....
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Too heavy to adopt?
A quarter of the UK's population is obese, according to the measurements of the body mass index (BMI). But it's not just about health and looks - it can also affect whether a family can adopt, writes a reader in our Readers' Column who wishes to remain anonymous.
As an overweight nation, it's pretty obvious that we're leaving a deadly legacy to future generations. Something has to be done about it, and as someone who tries to follow a healthy diet, I'm glad that the government has provided a guide to assessing what's an acceptable weight.
The danger of the BMI however, is that not only is the scientific reasoning behind it questionable but once the bureaucrats get their hands on it, it goes from being a sensible guideline to a commandment; set in stone, non-negotiable. And it might well prevent me and my husband from having what we so desperately want: a family.
We have been trying for a baby for six years now and we were devastated when I had a miscarriage three years ago....
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As an overweight nation, it's pretty obvious that we're leaving a deadly legacy to future generations. Something has to be done about it, and as someone who tries to follow a healthy diet, I'm glad that the government has provided a guide to assessing what's an acceptable weight.
The danger of the BMI however, is that not only is the scientific reasoning behind it questionable but once the bureaucrats get their hands on it, it goes from being a sensible guideline to a commandment; set in stone, non-negotiable. And it might well prevent me and my husband from having what we so desperately want: a family.
We have been trying for a baby for six years now and we were devastated when I had a miscarriage three years ago....
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'Baby snatcher' sends CNN-IBN notice
Published on Mon, Jun 26, 2006 at 20:20,
Updated on Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 11:02 in Nation section
CNN-IBN
New Delhi: One week after CNN-IBN exposed a Pune-based adoption agency - Preet Mandir - of violating all adoption laws and selling babies to foreigners, its Managing Director, J S Bhasin, finally surfaced.
Bhasin has sent a notice to CNN-IBN under Section 500 of the Criminal Procedure Code to withdraw their reports and refused to answer any questions regarding the investigation.
At a press conference he also said that the public must not get carried away by the CNN-IBN expose on adoption....
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Updated on Tue, Jun 27, 2006 at 11:02 in Nation section
CNN-IBN
New Delhi: One week after CNN-IBN exposed a Pune-based adoption agency - Preet Mandir - of violating all adoption laws and selling babies to foreigners, its Managing Director, J S Bhasin, finally surfaced.
Bhasin has sent a notice to CNN-IBN under Section 500 of the Criminal Procedure Code to withdraw their reports and refused to answer any questions regarding the investigation.
At a press conference he also said that the public must not get carried away by the CNN-IBN expose on adoption....
for remaining article
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