Nina Lopez points to adoptions occurring against the wishes of birth families, while one reader recalls how their sister was forced to give up her baby. And John Peniket says it was the prevailing social attitudes to sex and childbirth that were to blame

Gaby Hinsliff (The UK’s forced adoption scandal was state-sanctioned abuse, 27 May) draws an important parallel between the adoptions forced on single mothers between the 1950s and 1970s, the Rochdale, Windrush and Grenfell scandals, and preventable Covid-19 deaths. She points to “state-sanctioned abuse” of people “dehumanised in the eyes of officialdom”.

But she seems unaware that forced adoptions have not stopped. Of about 3,500 adoptions a year, 90% are against the will of the birth family. They are hidden by a closed family court system that was found to be ridden with sexism, racism and classism by the government’s review of harm in the family courts’ treatment of domestic violence.

One grandmother in our network who lost her grandchild to adoption describes the process: “If you are poor, working class, in need of support, services, housing, or have been in care, it can be used as proof that you are not fit to be a parent. They had all the power. We had only our pain and anger. And our fear for her. She had no choice, no voice, no comprehension.”

We recently celebrated the reunion of a family whose children had been destined for adoption after their single mother, an asylum seeker who spoke hardly any English, was accused of having lied to the authorities. Social workers and the police had been parked outside the hospital waiting for the court order to take the newborn. This time we were able to stop it. The Movement for an Adoption Apology is well aware that the past is in the present – that’s why it is part of our coalition.

A 31-year-old woman living in Washington has been charged with assault and domestic violence after it was revealed that she allegedly put her adopted six-year-old daughter through 473 “unnecessary” surgeries.

Sophie Hartman, a white woman, adopted two Black daughters in May 2019 from Zambia. On 17 March this year, the two children were taken away from her. Doctors at a hospital where Ms Hartman had taken one daughter, alerted authorities of the suspicious medical history of the child.

Court documents reviewed by Business Insider say that Ms Hartman admitted her six-year-old daughter to the Seattle Children’s Hospital in February for a 16-day stay. However, doctors found the child to be healthy and alerted the state’s department of children, youth and families.

Dr Rebecca Wiester, the director of the Seattle Children's Hospital, in her letter to the authorities said that the child was facing “profound risk” at the hands of her caretaker. She also asked the authorities to dig deeper in investigating Ms Hartman.

Dr Wiester said: “All the available evidence obtained during the course of her admission suggests [the child] is a healthy young six-year-old who would continue to benefit from a de-escalation of medical support and normalisation of her childhood experience.”

Mette Bach has lived with her foster mother since she was three years old. Now she is 27 years old and would like to be adopted, but she can only stay if she is also adopted by her foster mother's boyfriend.

In the kitchen in Korup by Hadsund, Mette Bach and Kirsten Bach sit and look at Mette's childhood pictures. There are holiday photos, confirmation photos, family portraits and the like, and they go back to when Mette was three years old.

You may be in doubt when you see them sitting at the dining table and talking about childhood memories, but Mette and Kirsten are not biologically related. Mette Bach came into the care of Kirsten Bach when she was three years old because her biological parents had substance abuse problems.

- I do not remember that I did not live with Kirsten. She is the one who has been there all the way from start to finish. And she is still here, even now that I am an adult and 27 years old, says Mette Bach.

Therefore, she is no longer in doubt either. She would like to be adopted by Kirsten, and Kirsten would very much like to adopt Mette:

For the first time, in Sibiu County , on the National Adoption Day, on Wednesday, June 2, the Campaign to promote adoption is launched. Sibiu residents are expected on Tuesday, at 13.30, in Tineretului Park to send to the sky the greatest desire of any child, to have a family, by launching helium balloons for every adoptable child in Sibiu County, hoping that soon the dream their will be fulfilled.

"'Saved through adoption' is the message of the campaign which shows that, YES, adoption is for the child but it also saves everyone around it, gives the child the opportunity to enjoy childhood, gives meaning to adoptive parents and gives communities the opportunity to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable of their members. We want to emphasize, thus, the positive impact of adoption on all factors involved in the process: parents, siblings, grandparents, family, school, community ", say the representatives of DGASPC Sibiu.

This campaign aims to make information about adoption accessible to the public, no longer a taboo subject, to dispel myths or preconceived ideas about this subject, emphasizing that all that matters is to raise a happy child, to enjoy the love that you receive it and you can offer it. In it, stories of adoption, love and altruism of wonderful people who gave hope and a family to children who wanted it most will be presented.

"It is a campaign in which we invite the whole community to contribute because everyone can do something. So far, we have been joined by public authorities with responsibilities in the field of child protection, artists, actors, journalists, priests, NGOs, etc. so that together we can find a family for each child ", explains the deputy director of DGASPC Sibiu, Olimpia Indrie?.

The campaign is organized by DGASPC Sibiu together with the Romania Without Orphans Alliance with the support of the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions.

The father is not only the one who gives life, but the one who offers unconditional care and love; "And by adoption you can become a father"

Weak hands caressing you every morning, evening and at any time of the day, sweet eyes looking at you with love and a warm voice whispering to you: mommy, daddy, I love you - that's what a parent needs to feel really happy. Not even all the money raised around the world is worth as much as the smile and love of our children.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the blessing of having children, a drama that many couples experience and which for this reason often separates. But parents are not the only ones who give life, but who are involved non-stop in the education, raising the little ones and offering them unconditional love.

3

Those who have children do not know the bitter taste and the pain that hides in the depths of the hearts of those who want a soul running around the house, but it is not possible. And then, after dozens of trials, tears and despair, adoption comes into their lives as a light of hope. However, not everyone has the courage and strength to decide at this stage, which involves many steps.

Two public interest litigations (PIL) have been moved in the Bombay high court (HC) seeking protection and various reliefs to over 1,450 children orphaned after their parents succumbed to the Covid-19 infection and setting up of special Covid wards in Covid care centres with specially trained medical staff to attend to visually-impaired patients and special vaccination facilities for them

The first PIL filed by Gayatri Patwardhan, a social worker from Pune through advocates Asim Sarode and Ajinkya Udane has claimed that while the state has announced various reliefs and gave assurances of taking care of children orphaned due to Covid, there was no guarantee of the authorities keeping their word, hence the PIL sought various directions for the benefit of such children.

The petition has sought to increase the grant of ?1,100 per month for children up to the age of 18 years under the Child Care Scheme and Foster Care Policy to ?5,000 per month. The petition also seeks free education for orphaned children and to start and implement Education Sponsorship Programme (ESP) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act and the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) guidelines.

The PIL also seeks directions to authorities to properly identify and prepare documents pertaining to caste certificate, birth certificate, property documents and identification records of orphaned children.

The second PIL filed by Swagat Thorat, editor of a Braille Magazine, has raised concerns over the lack of healthcare facilities for visually impaired people and seeks reliefs including special Covid-19 wards, ‘barrier-free’ hospitals with specially trained medical staff to attend them and special vaccination facilities for them. The PIL also seeks direction to the state Disability Commissioner to provide data of visually impaired people who succumbed to Covid-19 infection, so that their families can be compensated through various government schemes.

.

Highlights

Holistic Review of Alternative Care Provision in an area of Thailand with a high number of migrant children: The border District of Sangklaburi, Kanchanaburi province by Mahidol University Professors and One Sky Foundation. The review was conducted in different form of Institution cares: Private Residential Care, (Charity) Boarding Schools, and temple as well as (informal) Kinship Care. Finding and recommendations were presented to the Provincial Social Development and Human Security Office and Department of Children and Youth to further develop an Alternative Care road map and plan of action.

Author(s)

Department of Children and Youth, One Sky Foundation, UNICEF Thailand, Kanchanaburi Office of Social Development and Human Security

y

"I always thought my parents abandoned me," says Meilan Stuy, who was born in China's Henan Province but raised by adoptive parents half a world away in the US state of Utah. She says her US parents showered her with love, but the older she got, the more she wanted to know where she really came from. As the story of her background emerged, so too did the cruel circumstances that led many Chinese couples to give up their children.

International adoption is widespread in the US, with China the most common country of origin of the children involved. More than 80,000 adoptees in the US were born in China, where the regulations governing adoption used to be comparatively lax.

"I decided to adopt a child from China because I learned about the terrible situation of an orphanage in Shanghai through a documentary. I simply wanted to provide a home for a child that I thought needed one," says Meilan's adoptive father, Brian Stuy.

Brian and his wife Longlan, who is Chinese by birth, have three adopted daughters from an orphanage in China. The daughters have often inquired about their biological parents, but all the couple knew was what the orphanage had told them: that the girls had been abandoned.

Elusive truth

An environment in which family members support one another and express their feelings can reduce the effects of social deprivation on cognitive ability and development among adopted children, suggests a small study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

In contrast, rule-driven households where family members are in conflict may increase an adopted child's chances for cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties. The study was conducted by Margaret F Keil, PhD, and colleagues in the Section on Endocrinology and Genetics at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). It appears in Pediatric Research.

Researchers enrolled children who had spent at least eight months in Eastern European orphanages before their adoption by American families. The children ranged from 14 to 40 months of age and were evaluated with physical, psychological and developmental tests twice during the following two years. Families also responded to questionnaires on the children's development and on various aspects of their home lives. The study included 10 adopted children and 19 similar children born to American families.

Overall, the adopted children had significant deficits in growth, cognitive ability and development in comparison to the American-born children. However, differences were smaller among children from families scoring higher in cohesion, where family members provided help and support for each other, and expressiveness- families whose members are encouraged to express their feelings. Children had greater deficits if their families scored higher in conflict- an open expression of anger and aggression- and in control-- a family life run according to set rules and procedures.

The authors concluded that family cohesion and expressiveness could moderate the effects of pre-adoption adversity, while family conflict and adherence to rules could increase the risk for behavioural problems. The authors added that larger studies are needed to verify their findings.