Does everyone have a right to know their biological parents?

Damian Adams grew up knowing that his parents had used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive him, and as a teen, he was even proud of this identity. He considered donating to help other families have children. Becoming a father himself, however, changed everything. When his daughter was born 18 years ago, he cradled her in his arms, and he instantly saw himself in her and her in himself. He felt a biological connection so powerful that it made him reconsider his entire life up until then. “What I’d had there with my daughter,” he says, “was one thing I had been missing in my life.” He felt the need to know where he came from.

Adams, a biologist in Australia, would spend years searching for his biological father, running into one dead end after another. Meanwhile, he also began campaigning to end donor anonymity for others like him. In 2016, he and fellow activists pushed the state of Victoria to retroactively abolish anonymity for all sperm donors. (A previous law had already banned it from 1998 onward.) Donor-conceived people in the United Kingdom have also successfully campaigned to ban anonymous sperm donation. In the United States, where anonymous donation is still technically offered, some donor-conceived people are asserting a right to know their genetic origins and even to contact their biological parents, who may or may not welcome the surprise.

All of this was unimaginable a few decades ago. Doctors used to routinely advise parents to keep the use of a sperm donor secret—even from their own children—and this silence reinforced a sense of shame about the practice. Today, parents are strongly encouraged to tell the truth; moreover, DNA tests mean they couldn’t hide it even if they wanted to. As more people find out they are donor-conceived, they are in turn finding one another: They are gathering in online communities such as “We Are Donor Conceived” and other Facebook support groups catering to a mix of donors, parents, donor-conceived people, and others who have learned that their parents are not who they thought they were. There are also several podcasts, at least two magazines, and even training courses for therapists who work with people in this situation. The shared identity that connects this online community is small by proportion but large in raw numbers. An estimated 30,000 to 60,000 children conceived with donor sperm are born in the U.S. every year, though that statistic may well be an underestimate. The fertility industry doesn’t have to keep records, so the true number is unknown.

In learning more about their own conception, some donor-conceived people have been shocked by the lack of transparency in the industry that created them. They have been disturbed to find, in some cases, that they have dozens of half siblings from the same donor, that doctors have secretly impregnated patients with their own sperm, or that donors have lied about themselves to sperm banks—all at least partially because donation was anonymous. Now donor-conceived people like Adams are questioning the need for any secrecy at all. In a forthcoming book called Uprooted, Peter Boni, who learned he was donor-conceived at age 49, lays out a “Donor-Conceived Bill of Rights” that demands, first and foremost, the end of anonymous donations and includes access to a donor’s medical records, limits on the number of offspring per donor, and consequences for outright fertility fraud. “Can you point to any federal law,” Boni asked me rhetorically, “that protects the rights of the donor-conceived child?”

Family Power is a joint initiative of nine Dutch NGOs and their international partner NGOs spread over four continents. With an extensive research and communication program, these relatively small organisations want to show together how vulnerable children can still grow up in a safe, caring and permanent family.

Worldwide, more than 6 million children live in institutions such as orphanages and many more are at risk of losing their family. Of 80-90% of children in institutions, one or both parents are still alive.

Family-based care offers a solution.

What we do

Strengthening cross-border cooperation to improve protection and care for children worldwide

Despite political commitments, Ukraine remains one of the countries in Europe with the highest rate of child institutionalisation, with an estimated 100,000 children living in various forms of institutions including baby homes for children 0-4 years old.

In June 2021, the Ukrainian Government adopted amendments to the National Strategy for Reforming the System of Institutional Care and Upbringing of Children for 2017-2026.

Special boarding schools, education and rehabilitation centres and sanatorium boarding schools are excluded from the reform. This leaves behind more than 50.000 children and effectively legitimises discrimination based on disability and (their) needs for individualised support.

Eurochild co-signed a joint statement calling on the Ukrainian government to:

Demonstrate strong political will to reform child protection and care systems, to ensure the protection of children’s right to family life and work towards ending the institutionalisation of all children;

"I started creating this mosaic when I was 39, at 51 it's complete," says Kristen Grae Williams

At the age of 39, Kristen Grae Williams decided to adopt a baby. "I always dreamt of being a mom and just because I didn't have a partner, I didn't want to miss out," the Cincinnati resident told Humans of Bombay in an interview published yesterday on the occasion of International Day of the Girl Child. Although plagued with doubts about being a single mother, Ms Williams soon realised that any child would be happier at home than at an orphanage.

But being a "single female" restricted her options, so the American woman started exploring international adoptions. "I applied to Nepal, paid 28,000 dollars and even got accepted, but when the US department of State suspended adoptions from Nepal, I was heartbroken," she revealed.

Having lost the money she had put up, Kristen Williams prayed for a miracle. Then one day, she received a call from an adoption agency in India, which told her that she had been cleared for adoption from the country, but only if she adopted a child with special needs.

Ms Williams says the call left her overwhelmed, but she soon received a second phone call - this one from her mother. "I took a deep breath and said, 'Mom, I'm going to be a mom to a special baby!' In that split second, I had made my decision," she said.

For the first time, the Belgian government risks being sentenced to reparations for crimes against humanity committed in the Congolese colony. "Apologies aren't enough."

Simone Ngalula (71), Léa Tavares Mujinga (78), Monique Bitu Bingi (72), Noëlle Verbeken (76) and Marie-José Loshi (74) stayed as metis children – children of Congolese mothers and Belgian fathers – together at the mission post of Katende, in Congo. Sixty years later, they are suing the Belgian state for kidnapping, assault, being separated from their families and taking away their identities. All on a racial basis, because of their skin color. The case will come before the Brussels civil court on Thursday.

"We don't want to have the entire colonization condemned," says Brussels lawyer Michèle Hirsch. "We ask that the Belgian government be ordered to repair the damage it has done to these women."

Children of sin

The so-called mulatto question troubled the colonial government from the beginning. Mixing between the varieties had to be avoided at all costs. God created the white and the black man, the devil made the 'mulatto', also called 'child of sin'. If they were born anyway, they had to be checked. By the middle of the twentieth century, missions were deployed all over Congo to help solve the 'problem'. The same happened in the mandated territories of Rwanda and Burundi.

Accused’s Wife Is Not The Child’s Mother

Minister of state for home Harsh Sanghavi told media that the police had identified and nabbed the father of the child, along with his wife, from Kota in Rajasthan. They are being brought to Gandhinagar.

CCTVs nailed it

Sanghavi said the accused Sachinkumar Dikshit was identified with the help of CCTV footage and technical analysis. He was identified by the car he used while abandoning the child outside the gate of Swaminarayan Gurukul Gaushala at 9.20pm on Friday night. “Sachin Dikshit is the father, but his wife is not the mother of the child. The identity of the child’s mother is not yet ascertained.”

Dikshit had fled Gandhinagar with his wife and parents on Saturday morning. His house was found locked when the police reached there.

Tony's Take

Messenger: Broken immigration system leaves Missouri family separated from their son

The Trower family — from left, Adam, Nora and Jill  — hold a photo of Luke, the son and brother who was adopted more than four years ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since the adoption, Luke has been in limbo, stuck in Africa because of red tape surrounding international adoptions.

Becky Orf, Orf Photography

This article is the 18th in a series about Koreans adopted abroad. Apparently, many Koreans never expected that the children it had sent away via adoption would return as adults with questions demanding to be answered. However, thousands of adoptees visit Korea each year. Once they rediscover this country, it becomes a turning point in their lives. We should embrace the dialogue with adoptees to discover the path to recovering our collective humanity. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

I'm often asked by Western diplomats, "I know Korea had a problem with that issue in the past but is it still relevant these days?" Korean civil society and human rights groups have demonstrated a similar depth of understanding, "Wasn't that the legacy of the military dictatorship? With democratization, hasn't that already changed?" Rather than addressing the fundamental flaws and injustices of the legal system and legislation, these problems have been swept under the rug to be forgotten or ignored.

Korea's political landscape has changed since 1992 and now resembles a "democratic" presidential system. This progress has been complemented by economic growth that has elevated the level of social and cultural development of the country. Unlike in many other countries, a 1987 revision of the Constitution banned consecutive or multiple executive terms, limiting the president to a single five-year term. Critics have expressed frustration over the short term-limits that encourage presidents to prioritize short-term gains to secure their legacies. However, considering the times in which the revision was passed, the primary aim of the term limit was to prevent the re-emergence of prolonged dictatorial rule, which remained fresh in the minds of the people.

The democratization of Korea did not mark the end of tyranny but rather ushered in a new stage of struggle for human rights. We only need to look at world history to see that democratization does not guarantee an actual "democracy." Moreover, "democracy" does not automatically equate to the protection of human rights.

A woman from Hettur in Sakleshpur taluk has appealed to the district administration to return her five-month-old baby daughter taken for adoption through an adoption agency in Hassan.

The 36-year-old hearing- and speech-impaired woman has approached the administration through her relatives. Her relatives alleged that the baby had been taken for adoption without her consent. She was allegedly forced to sign a document in English, which she could not follow. “She had been in depression since she was separated from the baby. We want the baby returned to her. She will take care of the baby”, said Bhagya, the woman’s sister.

The woman had lost her husband a few years ago. She had been working in agriculture fields for her living. A person who was also working with her befriended her and impregnated her. Later he allegedly abandoned her.

The woman gave birth to her baby at a primary health centre at Hettur in May this year. The hospital staff sent the woman and her baby to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in Hassan, as there were none to take care of them.

The CWC gave the custody of the child to Tavaru Charitable Trust, an adoption agency, for care and protection. After taking clearance from the CWC, the child was put for adoption procedure through Central Adoption Resource Authority.

Amanda Lipitz's film, which follows three adopted American teenagers who discover they are related and embark on a journey to explore their Chinese roots, will be released Oct. 20.

“When you know where you come from, you can find the peace in your heart.”

That’s the thesis behind the upcoming Netflix documentary Found, which follows a trio of three American teenage girls – Chloe, Sadie and Lily – who find each other via the genetic lineage site 23andMe and discover that they are related and, coincidentally, all adopted. With the strength of their newfound bond, they decide to embark on the journey of returning to China – and exploring their origin stories – together.

The film’s director (and Chloe’s aunt), Amanda Lipitz (2017’s Step), reached out to the company My China Roots, which specializes in helping diaspora Chinese find long-lost relatives and trace their genealogical lineage. With the guidance of researcher Liu Hao, whose personal story has given her a deep empathy for China’s adopted daughters, Chloe, Sadie and Lily gain new insight into the circumstances of their early years, revisiting their orphanages and reuniting with the nannies who loved and cared for them.

“Asian American women are an extremely underrepresented group in film and television, and I’m sure that was a motivating factor to them,” said Lipitz of Chloe and her cousins’ decision to participate in the documentary. “It felt like a moment of ‘Let me tell my story. Let me show people that I’m here.'”