The Acceptability of Surrogacy

Whose recourse to surrogacy is accepted socially and whose is frowned upon, or even legally prohibited, is a chequered terrain. Popular stereotypes have seeped into policymaking, even as social ways of family-making go beyond conventional usages of reproductive technologies.

Surrogacy is now a legitimate mode of reproduction, at least as far as heterosexual married couples, or single individuals are concerned. News of celebrities having children via surrogacy – be it Shahrukh Khan or Amir Khan a decade ago, or more recently Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nayanthara – has contributed to this ‘mainstreaming’ of surrogacy. Popular culture representations in films and other forms of content on OTT platforms also reflect this mainstreaming.

Surrogacy arrangements are located in the milieu of infertility and other physiological conditions that might prevent carrying a pregnancy. Like in the case of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), anxieties and changing perceptions about understanding infertility have contributed to a deepening of their social acceptance. Other than these conditions, single individuals and queer couples have also found surrogacy as a viable mode of having their ‘own’ child(ren). In their context, using ARTs and surrogacy facilitates something that biology renders unattainable. 

The sensationalist attention towards the process and its consequent social acceptance piggybacks on a laudatory view of technological assistance in case of ‘infertility’, often presented as a ‘treatment’ for a ‘disease’. A growing fertility treatment industry in the private sector, that resorts to aggressive marketing and advertising, has mediated the changing understanding of childlessness from a social condition stigmatised in a patriarchal context to its perception as a disease that can be treated medically, as I have argued elsewhere. In this context, the public health expert Imrana Qadeer insightfully observes that “least sensitive cultural norms that contribute to women’s anxieties, medicalisation of her life and professional control of her reproduction” are all important axes through which one can analyse “the commercialisation of infertility” (2010: 16). 

Over 11 years after a 5-year-old was kidnapped in Bihar’s Siwan district, the Patna High Court recently ordered the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) to re-investigate the case and recover the minor child. [Mansur Alam Versus The State of Bihar]

Justice Anil Kumar Sinha said the local police had not investigated the case scientifically or with the desired sensitivity, forcing the victim’s father to approach the Court in March 2021.

The Court noted that the investigating officers in the case were frequently changed and that the officers appeared to have investigated the case in a piece-meal manner. The judge remarked that even directions issued by the supervising officers were not followed.

Criticising the senior officers for not forming a special team to recover the child, the Court opined that no serious effort were made by the Superintendent of Police and other higher-ranked police officers.

The Halle-Vilvoorde court has been investigating the murder of a 68-year-old woman from Steenokkerzeel in Flemish Brabant for two months. The facts date from the night of July 11 to 12, but are only now coming to light. The woman, Brigitte Vanaudenraeren, was found lifeless in her home along the Tervuursesteenweg. It soon became apparent that there was more going on. “It is a case of parricide,” prosecutor's office spokesman Gilles Blondeau confirmed on Monday.

Council chamber

The woman's home is directly opposite the police station. Just after the events last summer, we hear from a good source, Thalia D., the 35-year-old adoptive daughter, was arrested. This after indications that she had done “something” to her adoptive mother.

“In the interest of the investigation, no further communication about the case can be made at this time,” it said. The suspect, according to our information from El Salvador, appeared last week before the council chamber in Brussels, which decided to extend her detention for at least a month. Thalia D.'s lawyer declined to comment on Monday. There appears to be no discussion in investigative circles about the perpetrator. In the meantime, the investigation into the facts continues. The motive for the parricide remains a mystery for now. (cds/cvh/phu)

Only the human imagination sets limits to what can happen here, says a report written by the Norwegian authorities in 2009. Nevertheless, adoptions continued as before.

• Brazil, 2009: Children tried to be sold for adoption. Mother sells her child for a pair of sandals. 
• Colombia, 2017 : Thousands of children disappear from their parents - and are vulnerable to illegal adoption. Children used for prostitution and human trafficking. 
• Philippines, 2010 : New identity can be obtained on most street corners.

These are alerts Bufdir has received on inspection trips .

In Brazil, a public prosecutor told the children's court about corruption and the buying and selling of children, before saying that only the imagination set limits to what could happen in the country. 

This is revealed in the report Bufdir wrote after the trip in 2009. 

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/Kn9pyM/vg-avsloerer-slik-ble-norge-varslet-om-salg-av-barn-korrupsjon-og-falske-identiteter?fbclid=IwAR1FO_rvtYRAkjAyXPXUhfI-jdth574nl64P9VCpm427TvSGifXU5dsj7cw_aem_ATcUAPBhNjs_MbfkMvmDknp60siZJNZsWhgFJr2Wk_Sg1VMy4yKtsi_hIZ0w64AWDAY&mibextid=S66gvF

Only the human imagination sets limits to what can happen here, says a report written by the Norwegian authorities in 2009. Nevertheless, adoptions continued as before.

The short version

In the state cabinet meeting on Friday, five major proposals related to various holidays of the Finance Department were approved.

By Narendra Sethi

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government will provide 180 days of child adoption leave for the first time to a single male government employee if he adopts only a male child under one-year of age. The state finance department claims Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to take such a decision.

Speaking to this newspaper, Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal said, “Since the right to equality has now come to every field, the government has decided to give 6 months of adoption leave to single male employees as well, taking a more flexible approach to adopting a child and considering the practicality.”

Friday’s decision also includes daily wage women employees, who will also get entitled for the childcare leave. In the state cabinet meeting on Friday, five major proposals related to various holidays of the Finance Department were approved.According to the decision taken in the cabinet, “A single male employee of the state government will also get child adoption leave. For them, this holiday will be for 180 days.”

Isidore, a Belgian man, was adopted by a South Indian family in Mobdibri, Karnataka, and works at La Poste. He is a caring and caring person who remembers his past as a poor and lonely Mubdibri orphan. Despite significant financial aid to meet the needs of his wife's family, Isidore finds himself in a situation of divorce without consummating their marriage.

In November 2021, Isidore met a young girl named Yasmina, whom he had previously introduced him to on a social network. Yasmina decided to marry Isidore despite their age difference. They got married on February 18, 2022, but Isidore felt something was unclear in his new life. He made all the necessary arrangements for her to come to Belgium and stay with him permanently.

On May 10, 2023, Isidore's wife left for Belgium, but she refused her residence permit valid for 5 years, which allowed her to travel in Europe and return to her country. She returned to India after only 3 weeks.

On June 22, 2023, Isidore collected evidence, messages, documents, and internal inquiries into his couple and the real situation in Ince, Pondicherry. He discovered that the girl had been playing with him for a long time and was interested in taking his money and valuables. He also discovered that the girl was friends with a neighborhood boy whom she had romantic feelings for before their marriage but had played pretend to be interested in him.

Outgoing Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) sees no reason to start an investigation into illegal adoptions from Chile by a Dutch fake nun. He regrets that there have been abuses in the past, but leaves it to the authorities in Chile. He does want to talk to Chilean adoptees. He answers this to parliamentary questions from the SP.

During General Pincohet's dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, an estimated 20,000 Chilean children were illegally adopted abroad. Babies supposedly declared dead to mothers were stolen from hospitals. Children have also been taken from homes without the consent of their mothers and offered for adoption.

About two hundred Chilean children ended up in the Netherlands. At least half of those adoptions went through the Las Palmas children's home in Santiago, which was run by Truus Kuijpers. Previous research from this site shows that Kuijpers wrongly presented herself as a 'nun', sent children to the Netherlands without the knowledge of the mothers, falsified adoption documents and adopted children. later linked to wrong biological families.

Criminal investigation

Police and justice in Chile have been conducting a criminal investigation into illegal adoptions for years. Kuijpers, who denied all accusations, was also interrogated in 2019 during a visit to Chile, but she died at the beginning of this year. Her sister, with whom she founded Las Palmas, is still alive. “An investigation will have to reveal what exactly happened,” Weerwind writes in response to questions from SP MP Michiel van Nispen. 'I can't get ahead of myself.'

Adoptionen in Zwangssituationen: Die Geschichte der nationalen und internationalen Adoptionen in der Schweiz von den 1960erJahren bis heute Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts des NFP 76 Dr. Susanne Businger, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Prof. Nadja Ramsauer, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Dr. Rahel Bühler, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Sofiane Yousfi, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Das Forschungsprojekt hatte zum Ziel, die Zwangssituationen bei Inlandadoptionen in der Schweiz von 1960 bis heute zu untersuchen. Die Untersuchung der Auslandadoptionen war als Sondierstudie konzipiert, um Forschungsfragen zu eruieren. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung standen Adoptionen im Kanton Zug im Zeitraum 1960 bis Ende der 1980er-Jahre. Die Zwangskonstellationen, in denen sich die zumeist ledigen Mütter befanden, waren vielfältig. Die Behörden unterbanden in der Regel den Kontakt der Mütter zu ihren Kindern. Finanzielle Sachzwänge, fehlende Unterstützungsleistungen, gesellschaftliche Normvorstellungen von Familie und Zwang von Seiten des Umfeldes, der Behörden und der Vermittlerinnen setzten die Mütter unter Druck. In den 1980erJahren gab es im Kanton Zug mehr Adoptionen von Kindern aus dem Ausland, bei Suchtmittelabhängigkeit und psychischen Erkrankungen der Eltern oder bei Wiederverheiratung nach Scheidung in Form der Stiefkinderadoption

NAC Statement

Nordic Adoption Council, NAC, statement in accordance with the conference in Reykjavik in September 2023

Every second year, the Nordic Adoption Council (NAC) holds Nordic meetings and an open day conference, which is open to anyone who is interested in the field of intercountry adoptions. This year the conference was arranged by the Icelandic Adoption Society in Reykjavik, Iceland, on September 15-16, 2023. The theme of the open day conference was "Adoption - a lifelong process” with a focus on approaching adoption as a continuing process throughout life and highlighting the importance of viewing this process from multiple angles.

Among the speakers were Ólöf Ásta Farestveit, General Director of the National Agency for Children and Families in Iceland, Rut Sigurðardóttir, social worker and family therapist from Iceland, Heiða Þorleifsdóttir, adoptive mother, Bergdís Wilson, a psychologist, David Asplund, cultural anthropologist from Sweden, Kristin Gärtner Askeland, a clinical psychologist and senior researcher at the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, RKBU Vest in Norway, Anna Guwert, case officer at the PAS-department, and Anna Taxell, department head of adoptions, both from Adoptionscentrum in Sweden. A discussion panel with adult adoptees was also part of the program.

NAC open day conference statement below focuses on eight key commitments where the Nordic Adoption Council has played an important role over the years to develop legal certainty in intercountry adoptions.The statement highlights the commitment of Nordic adoption organizations to ensure that intercountry adoptions are carried out with the utmost consideration for the child's well-being and in compliance with ethical and legal standards. It also aims to highlight the risk of not facilitating an international adoption when needed and, thus, limiting the child’s right to the best possible outcome.