Orphanages are bad for children. And adoption often makes happier. Don't forget that in the debate on intercountry adoption, write Marinus van IJzerdoorn and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, professor of pedagogy in Rotterdam and professor of neurobiological backgrounds of upbringing and development at VU Amsterdam.

Marinus van IJzerdoorn and Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg 18 april 2022, 13:23

The debate about intercountry adoption has flared up again. The government and the House of Representatives will soon discuss what to do with intercountry adoption. Stop or continue? In the meantime, opinions abound, but what are the facts?

First, children who grow up in orphanages (orphanages) experience enormous delays in their physical and neural growth, as well as in their cognitive and psychological development. For example, in our study with Natasha Dobrova-Krol in homes in Ukraine, many children had severe growth retardation and hormonal stress imbalance. We saw that picture confirmed in our recent overview analysis in the Lancet Psychiatry of more than 300 empirical studies in more than 60 countries involving more than 100,000 children. The longer the stay in a home, the greater the arrears.

Incidentally, by no means all children in the 'orphanages' have lost their parents through death, but reliable data are lacking. There is simply too little good research into parents who have abandoned their children because of poverty, cultural or religious taboos, or demographic politics, and how this could have been prevented.

https://www.topics.nl/opinie-of-moeten-we-maar-helemaal-stoppen-met-adoptie-a17221107vk/b0475b3cb93b8b4f86e8775799b9470f435e0dfa439f81787a0cefac3e22d8a8/?context=zoek/?query=Adoptie&referrerUserId=fada8eeaca184a46babdb0855ef66e3a

After an adoption stop of a year, adoptions from abroad will soon be resumed, under stricter conditions. But wouldn't it have been wiser to stop intercountry adoptions altogether?

Last week, Minister Franc Weerwind for Legal Protection presented a proposal on how to proceed with the intercountry adoption system, which had previously been fiercely criticized by the Joustra Committee, after which the then Minister Dekker promptly suspended all adoptions.

The 'polder solution' that is now before us is that adoption will continue, but that four intermediary agencies will be reduced to one foundation, which the government can monitor more closely. Weerwind itself wonders how the required substantial investment relates to the decreasing number of adoptions, sometimes under a hundred children each year. The question is: wouldn't it be wiser to stop altogether?

Inez Teurlings, on behalf of the Interlandelijk Adoptees Foundation (SIG) and self-adopted:

When Maria Lundberg Ström's mother and father learned that the biological parents demanded their daughter back, it was the beginning of one of history's worst adoption scandals. It turned out that Maria had been stolen from her home in Seoul. Her new Swedish parents became desperate.

FJung Yoon Huh's life in Sweden began on 18 February 1968 at Arlanda. It was the day when her expectant adoptive parents, Ulla and Stig, received their adopted child from Korea.

They were a childless couple in their 40s who had longed to start a family, but did not succeed. The 2.5-year-old Korean girl was received with open arms. They called her Mary.

The girl was precocious for her age. In fact, she was four years old. But about that and about Mary's real background, they knew nothing. They thought she was orphaned.

Maria Lundberg Ström, who is now 56 years old, agrees that her story is exceptional. Few adoptees find their biological parents. In her case, on the contrary, it was the biological parents who, after two years of searching, found their lost daughter. Because she was anything but poor and orphaned, she came from a wealthy entrepreneurial family in Seoul.

Last week, the cabinet announced that it would now only wish to allow intercountry adoptions to go through a government organization. Patrick Noordoven would rather see the Netherlands renounce intercountry adoption altogether.

In 1980, with the help of a Dutch diplomat, with the cooperation of the consulate in São Paulo, I was illegally adopted from Brazil. Because my identity has been forged – a common problem for adoptees – it has been virtually impossible to obtain vital information about my ancestry.

As a result, I do not know under what circumstances I was handed over and as a result, after more than twenty years of searching for my identity, I have not yet been able to find my father.

According to the District Court of The Hague, the Dutch state has acted unlawfully towards me by failing to take measures to protect my right to know my origin. The state was required to make every effort to ensure that I, as a victim of criminal conduct, would actually receive parentage and other identifying information, the court ruled.

Gross violations of children's rights

The South Korean Cabinet on Tuesday approved bills to allow single people to adopt children, as the number of one-person households is sharply increasing.

The Justice Ministry revised the Civil Act and the Family Litigation Act, which currently stipulate only married couples can legally adopt, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Under the revisions, single people can adopt if they are 25 or older and meet requirements to sufficiently guarantee the welfare of the children.

The Ministry said it will submit the amendments to the National Assembly on Friday for approval, while it also strengthened qualification reviews of would-be adoptive parents.

The revisions call on the family court to consider parenting time and the post-adoption environment when reviewing applications, in addition to their capability and conditions to raise a child.

The baby, Lucas Birchim, died Wednesday from injuries that resulted from physical abuse, Gastonia police said.

A North Carolina college professor was charged with murder after his 6-week-old adopted son died from injuries that resulted from physical abuse, police said.

Van Erick Custodio, 42, was initially charged with one count of felony child abuse after Gastonia officers were called to a home on April 1 for the report of an infant in cardiac arrest.

Police said the infant, Lucas Birchim, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

Children who have been removed from home should also be able to return to their parents after a longer period of time. The directive that currently often prevents this from happening is being scrapped. Youth protectors can then deal more flexibly with the so-called 'acceptable period for return'.

The change of course of the Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi), which draws up the guidelines together with the professional associations, is important for the approximately 420 children of parents affected by the benefits affair who have been placed out of their homes and still live separately from their parents. A government support team has been available for them since last week. In total, about 46 thousand children live in foster families or institutions in the Netherlands, more than 20 thousand of whom are through the intervention of the juvenile court.

Determine what is possible per family

The new starting point is that it must be determined per family what is possible, without applying a generally applicable strict term any longer. Even before the official new guideline is available, which is expected after the summer, it is already the intention that the acceptable term will be applied less strictly.

The term 'acceptable term' was included in the Civil Code in 2015 to prevent children from being left in uncertainty about where they would grow up for too long after a custodial placement. As a national knowledge centre, the NJi has drawn up two terms based on scientific insights and practical experience: a maximum of six months for very young children up to 5 years old, and a maximum of one year for children aged 5 and older. Although the terms are 'indicative', it also stated firmly: 'If it is not possible to improve the conditions sufficiently within this term, then a permanent custodial placement is necessary.'

EAU CLAIRE — At just 2½ years old, Ary Krejchi already has come a long way.

Ary was born in India, where he spent the first 20 months of his life in an orphanage before being adopted by Serena and Jon Krejchi of Eau Claire.

The boy also was born with biliary atresia, a rare liver disease that left him so malnourished he weighed only 11 pounds, had broken bones all over his frail body and had to be held like a baby when the Krejchis welcomed him into their lives.

One year later, after undergoing a liver transplant in September at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Ary’s transformation is stunning. His weight has more than doubled, his smile is nearly constant and he struts around the family’s living room — still with a helping hand from mom or dad — like he owns the place.

“His personality has really developed since the transplant. He’s a completely different child,” Serena said. “It feels like we’ve had him forever now.”

https://open.overheid.nl/repository/ronl-97920b9b46c6a81438385ede6c7db42d2c9cb07a/1/pdf/Wob-verzoek%20mbt%20Adopties%20uit%20India%20-%20Wob-besluit_%20inventarislijst%20en%20documenten.pdf

Detectives say the infant went into cardiac arrest after being abused by his adopted father.

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