Harlow's Monkey

More about the Newsweek article

This is always the way the media ends articles about international adoption - especially if there seems to be any concern about ethical concerns.

No one suggests that international adoption will solve the world's ills. But until societies are able or willing to tend to all the victims of their own fractured families, overseas adoptions can continue to serve an important function, sparing tens of thousands of youths from potential neglect, abandonment, danger and a childhood spent between gray walls. "My heart breaks when I think of the conditions at orphanages, of the fate that waits for these babies," says Olga Dereviagina, who cares for toddlers and babies at the infectious-diseases ward of Moscow's Tushinsky hospital. "I wish foreign parents would come in now and take all our babies to some beautiful, kind place, to warm, loving homes." That's what Porras and Milian and countless couples like them wish, too.

Funny. I didn't think beautiful, kind, warm and loving homes were exclusive to foreign countries.

                      

ABC News: "China's Lost Children"

This article from ABC is another reason why we MUST look at the possibility of trafficking of children for international adoption.

From the article:

The 2007 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report says that domestic trafficking "remains the most significant problem in China." It estimates that there are up to 20,000 victims each year, but because this is an underground practice, it is virtually impossible to track. Some estimates put the number of children kidnapped or sold on the black market closer to 70,000. The Chinese government says the number is more like 10,000.

Some of the kidnapped children are forced into work, girls often into the sex trade. Others are purchased by families in China who desperately want a child, usually a boy to carry on the family name. But there is also a growing concern that some make their way overseas, with unsuspecting foreign adoptive parents who don't realize that some orphanages have baby-buying programs, offering cash for children.

Another quote (from an orphanage spokesperson):

"We buy babies from migrant workers and farmers from poor provinces. & After the business is done, these people disappear and never come back," she said. She told us the cash-for-babies practice is legal but, according to Chinese law, it is not. It is against the law to buy or sell a child.

Another orphanage worker tells the reporter they pay $300 for a baby girl. Later on the director of this orphanage denies that it buys babies.

And finally this quote talks about the impact foreign adoption is having on families in China who wish to adopt. I take special note of this because some of these concerns were also issues in South Korea for families who want to adopt. Any time agencies receive more money to send their children overseas than to families in the country, I think there is a problem because it encourages agencies to send kids overseas and does not support or encourage domestic adoption.

Pi Yijun, a scholar at the China University of Politics and Law, says that the numbers of international versus domestic adoptions are strictly confidential.

National figures are not even provided to Chinese researchers. He said foreign adoptions are an embarrassment to the government.

"It is considered a negative thing to discuss disabled or abandoned babies. It has to do with China's birth policy and the social insurance system. It's a very sensitive issue."

The influx of foreign applications to adopt Chinese kids is, in many cases, making it more difficult for Chinese couples who can't have children to adopt from orphanages here.

At the orphanage in Changde, the gatekeeper said that foreign families usually spend five to 10 times more on adoptions than Chinese families, which often makes foreign families more attractive. That leads to long wait times for Chinese couples, many of whom resort to the other option, an underground market for infants.

One post on a chat room for Chinese parents looking to adopt expresses the frustration in wait times. "It's very hard to adopt a healthy baby from orphanages in Shanghai. You have to wait probably for five years. & If you really want to adopt one, you will probably have to go to orphanages in other places."

The Chinese government has recently put into effect new restrictions, making it harder for foreigners to adopt Chinese children. There is a definite push by the central government to encourage domestic adoptions, but for some Chinese families, the process is not getting any easier.

The Yang family has been waiting three years to adopt a child. They are both in their late 20s and have been married for six years, but Mrs. Yang can't conceive. They want to adopt a healthy baby girl but have been unsuccessful.

"We visited orphanages, checked orphanages online and put up adoption ads online, but without success," Mr. Yang told ABC News.

Yang says, for some babies, the costs involved with legal adoption are too high. And they are fighting the urge to turn to the black market. "

We don't want to adopt babies from traffickers. Some people introduced to us babies from traffickers, but we don't even want to see them," said Mr. Yang.

 

Simple Economics: No Supply? Bigger Demand

So, this past week there have been numerous articles highlighting the "crisis" of international adoption. Although most every article includes some version of "the kids are the ones who suffer," most of the article titles usually highlight how prospective adoptive parents are suffering.

From Newsweek comes the fear-mongering headline, Who Will Fill the Empty Cribs?

After decades of nonstop growth, the international adoption mill has begun to stall. Driven by rising affluence, falling birthrates and resurgent national pride, many developing nations are much less willing to let their orphans go abroad. Not only can these nations increasingly afford to care for orphans at home, but they have been spooked by highly publicized international baby-selling scandals into tightening rules. Countries as diverse as South Korea, Russia, Kenya and Brazil now openly discourage foreign adoptions. As a result, intercountry adoptions have plunged 10 percent in the top five receiving nations—the U.S, Spain, France, Italy and Canada—since the high point in 2004, when 45,288 children were adopted internationally.

and

"Supplies are dwindling from countries that have traditionally provided the majority of children for international adoptions. The number of Chinese children adopted by the top five receiving nations dropped from a peak of 14,493 in 2005 to 10,743 in 2006; in Russia the number has fallen from 5,829 to 2,781 since 2004. "Russian society is back on its feet both economically and morally," says Elena Afanasyeva, a Duma deputy and member of the Committee on Women and Family. "We are now capable of taking care of our orphans." In China the number of adoption applications now exceeds the country's ability to process them. As a result, authorities have gotten much more choosy about who can adopt, excluding applicants who may be single, obese, taking antidepressants or over 50, among other things. Other source nations have implemented new restrictions to deter outsiders from adopting: South Africa now demands foreigners spend at least five years on native soil before adopting, and Tanzania three years. Moscow temporarily halted its international adoption program last year, partly in response to reports that 14 Russian children had been killed by their foreign adoptive parents since the 1990s." (Read the whole article here)

Other articles:

Families stranded awaiting kids from foreign countries (Thanks to Ed)

Bursting the China Bubble (thanks to Alison)

New Rules and Economy Strain Adoption Agencies

Americans find it harder to adopt

When There’s No Place Like Home

Children's advocates can't agree on how much to emphasize intercountry adoption as a solution. From Newsweek.

UNICEF argues that intercountry adoption is not the only—and certainly not always the best—option for the world's orphans. Alexandra Yuster, a senior adviser in the child-protection section, claims the organization advocates the inclusion of international adoption in the mix of potential solutions for countries seeking homes for orphaned children. But it is much more focused on helping birth families get adequate support from their governments so they can take care of their own kids. "That's our priority because that will help a much larger number of kids—as will promoting domestic adoption," she says. "It's not that we're against intercountry adoption; it's just not a main focus for us."

In part, that's because UNICEF fears financial profit is the driving force behind many intercountry transactions. Because few healthy infants are available for adoption in Western countries, she says, the amount of money prospective parents are willing to pay to complete adoptions of healthy babies has increased. And corruption inevitably follows the money. UNICEF is especially concerned about poor countries like Guatemala, where private attorneys largely control the process and charge upwards of $35,000 per child—almost twice the going rate in countries like China and Vietnam, where government agencies oversee programs.

That kind of profit margin creates a market where one didn't exist before. "We're concerned with the commercialization of vulnerable children," says Yuster. "It gives an incentive to intermediaries to look for the kind of children these families most want to adopt." Some poor mothers are tricked into relinquishing healthy babies, while disabled and older children living in state institutions are left out of the foreign adoption loop because there's no profit incentive to match them with families. "Adoption is supposed to be about finding homes for children, not finding children for families," she says.

                                    

Happy Mother's Day

to all my mothers

- the one in Korea; I hope she has found peace
- the one who raised me; you've come a long way, Baby
- to my mother-in-law; you've been supportive and embracing since day one
- to my momo; thanks for being the heart and soul of my childhood

and to all of the mothers out there, doing the hard and dirty work every day with little thanks and no compensation

hope your day is blessed

NPR: "Adopted Teens Face Higher Risk for ADHD"

People have wondered for a long time whether children who were adopted in infancy are at increased risk for psychological problems. Now, the first study of its kind has found that most are psychologically healthy, though they're at "slightly increased risk" for behavioral problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or oppositional defiant disorder.

Listen to the broadcast on NPR Morning Edition. For another look at the study, check out the Chicago Tribune story. I thought it was very interesting that the children in this study adopted internationally had less of a risk than domestic infant adoptees. From the article:

The researchers had thought that adoptees born overseas would be at higher risk of psychiatric disorders than those who were born and placed in the U.S., but they found the reverse was true.

"Our hypothesis was that international adoptees might have faced ethnic discrimination as they entered the school years and might have experienced a longer period of exposure to pre-adoption adversity in their country of origin, which would lead to a higher risk for psychiatric distress," said Keyes, a research psychologist at the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research.

The assessments did find higher levels of separation anxiety among international adoptees. Teachers also rated this group as significantly more anxious in general than their non-adopted peers.

Debbie Riley, executive director of the Center for Adoption Support and Education in suburban Washington, noted that teens who are adopted face added pressure at a vulnerable time of life.

"Adoption is a significant event in an adolescent's life which cannot be ignored," Riley said. "If ever there's a time when an adoptee is likely to enter therapy, it's during adolescence. . . . This is the time when you form your identity—when you're faced with, 'Who am I?'

"These kids have this extra layer, and the issues are very complex."

Experts said other factors might include genetics, prenatal malnutrition, drug and alcohol exposure, and the post-natal environment, such as conditions in orphanages. Brodzinsky also pointed to the significance of being cut off from one's background and the anxiety the experience can provoke, even when it occurs at an early age.

"When we experience losses, we grieve . . . but too often, adoptees are told: 'You should be grateful.' They don't get to grieve . . . and blocked grief can result in pathology, such as depression," said Brodzinsky, research director of the Donaldson Institute in New York City.

Keyes stressed that her study should not alarm adoptive parents. About 1.5 million children and teens younger than 18 in the U.S. are adopted.

The OAK - 2008 Spring Edition Now Available

With a focus on perspective, the 2008 Spring edition of The OAK features stories by adoptees reflecting on their personal evolution in Korea, a recap of recent and upcoming GOA'L events, how to register for the Korean National Health Insurance plan, as well as a section on adoptee artists.

And remember, GOA'L will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary & Annual Conference, August 1 - 3, 2008 at the Seoul Olympic Parktel.

Check our website for more info: http://www.goal.or.kr
Facebook Invite: http://www.facebook.com

Call for participants

Ethnic Identity Development Survey

Dear potential participant,   

My name is Paul Wesolowski Kim, and I am a Korean adoptee. I was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1975, and I was adopted into Berkeley, California, by Caucasian parents. I am currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. I am conducting research about the ethnic identity development of Korean, international, transracial, adoptees. This topic is obviously a personal interest and one that I believe has not been fully researched. I am writing to ask you to participate in this research. If you decide to participate, you would be completing a survey questionnaire about who you are and about your experiences growing up. In addition, you would be asked to complete another questionnaire that addresses your ethnicity. The completion of the questionnaires will take about fifteen minutes. If you are interested in participating, please follow this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Wu4gaM7i12RzAJ20hgR8pg_3d_3d Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely, Paul Kim, M.A.
Predoctoral Intern

A baby at any cost

** Warning: Plot spoilers**

If there was a moral to the story of "Then She Found Me," it was "a baby at any cost." Actually, this is also the theme of "Baby Mama."

Like Juno, the adoption theme of "Then She Found Me" had nothing to do with the moral complexities about pregnancy and adoption which is why, like Juno, it rang false so often. Hunt's response to the question of what she was saying about adoption through this movie was,

I don’t have much to say about adoption, but I do have something to say about betrayal, about making peace with betrayal, about how you can’t really love until you’ve made peace with betrayal. You can’t really love until you’ve made peace with the fact that life doesn’t happen the way you want it to happen all the time. That’s really what I want to say. I don’t have a specific agenda about adoption or the other things in the movie. They’re just ways to tell a story.

So again, adoption was used as a way to develop a character, not a way to use characters to develop a thoughtful discussion about adoption.

Bette Midler's character Bernice has a more layered and complex development than April, Hunt's character. And poor Bernice is portrayed as a lying, manipulative, aggressive birth mother who can't be trusted. April forces Bernice to admit that she "chose a life over her [April]" - all in all, a morality tale that birth mothers should not go finding the children they surrendered or, in this case, chose to "give up" in order to become wealthy and have a great career.

April, in another of the many scenes in which I found her morally repulsive, also emotionally blackmails Bernice into paying for her IVF treatments for the honor of being part of her life - when April feels like contacting her, that is. Bernice is so desperate for this small nugget that she agrees.

I was incredibly disappointed that for all the lead up, the ending of Hunt's film offered no explanation of how April resolved the conflict to adopt. In earlier scenes, she had built up adoption as not an option because she wanted "a real baby" (she said this to her adoptive mother, as she lay dying in a hospital room).

April resorts to IVF with donor sperm that Bernice helps her pick out, Tina Fey's character Kate chooses surrogacy. Which in both cases, there is no discussion of this baby/child who will grow up some day having all kinds of questions about their conception. While not on the radar for a lot of adoptees, there are growing numbers of adults who were conceived with donor sperm who are now also questioning what it means to be part of this complex "solution" to our parent's dreams of motherhood and fatherhood.

Another gripe - I am getting pretty tired of movies with jokes about Chinese adoption. In Juno it was a reference to "giving them away like iPods" and "shooting them out of stadium  guns. Here, in "Then She Found Me" the joke was "Why not adopt a Chinese baby? They're throwing them in trash cans." This was uttered by April's adoptive mother, Bernice and brother. After insisting that she doesn't want to adopt a Chinese baby, guess what happens in the end of the movie. Yup. She adopts a Chinese baby. Guess that's one less baby in a dumpster.

In both movies as well, there are numerous class issues. I don't think it's just a coincidence that class plays such a huge role in alternative reproduction and adoption. I've known a few adoptive parents who just don't have the means for international or domestic infant adoption programs. Somehow, they are just supposed to "get over it" or choose to adopt from foster care, which costs little to nothing. While the class issues were perhaps more obvious in "Baby Mama," and "Juno," the portrayal of April as a frumpy, birkenstock-wearing plain Jane to Bernice's suit-and-stilettoed birth mom makes its own statement about class - which makes me wonder if April emotionally blackmails Bernice into paying the $25,000 for her Chinese adopted daughter.

If there is a theme to "Then She Found Me"  and "Baby Mama" (and to a smaller degree, Juno) it is that middle-class, white, control-freak women feel entitled to be mothers, no matter what the emotional or moral cost and will do anything to get what they want even if it means using other people to get it. Yes, I know this is not what all white women who adopt or choose surrogacy do - but this is how Hollywood is portraying it. I would love to see a more thoughtful portrayal of adoption in film, something that does explore the pain of wanting a baby when infertile, the characters wrestling with the moral and ethical complexities of surrogacy and donor sperm and adopting internationally. Using a completely unlikable character like April only adds to my irritation. Had April been more likable, less brittle and shown some real struggle with her ticking clock I would have wanted to be there with her. In this way I actually think the portrayal of Vanessa, the adoptive mom in Juno, showed a lot more character development.

I guess it's not too surprising. Even with Hunt's desire to create and direct an "indie-style" film, for all it's intentions it read pure Hollywood ending. She ends up with the man and the desperately-wanted baby she managed to get, no matter the literal or figurative cost.

"Domestic Adoption Exceeds Overseas for 1st Time"

From the Korea Times, an article about 2007 statistics from the National Statistic Office in South Korea.

The number of orphans adopted last year declined from a year ago, falling for the sixth consecutive year. But a greater number of orphans found a new family here than overseas for the first time.

Local households adopted 1,388 orphans, accounting for 52.3 percent of the total, while 1,264 orphans, or 47.7 percent, found a new home in foreign countries.

 Interesting to me was that the number of child abuse cases more than doubled. Read the whole article here.