Laura Williams of the Garden Court Family Law Team represented the local authority.

This is the first reported decision where the court dispensed with parental consent in an adoption case with a surrogacy background.

The child, ‘N’, was born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement in 2005. The child’s biological father (but not legal father) and his wife wanted to adopt N, as it was not possible to obtain a parental order with no consent forthcoming for this.

N, now 18 years old, had been brought up by the applicants since he was 18 months old. N considered the applicants to be his parents in all senses of the word, although in law they had no status as his parents. N supported the application. The respondent parents; the surrogate mother and her husband, opposed the application for adoption.

The local authority, who provided an adoption report into the suitability of the applicants to adopt, also supported the application. The court dispensed with the respondent parents’ consent on welfare grounds. This meant that the court decided N's welfare needs require an adoption order to be made, even if his legal parents did not agree.

Balmaceda, head of the investigation into irregular adoptions. In charge of this file for 5 years, the judge has 1,100 international adoption files to process, covering the period 1970 – 1999. To date, 650 files have been analyzed. The judge declared: “during the five years of investigation, I have not succeeded in establishing the commission of a crime”. 

This partial assessment may seem surprising if we consider the circumstances in which international adoption of Chilean children developed. The dictatorship of General Pinochet (1973 -1990) is known for having resorted to forced disappearances of political opponents and discrimination against indigenous minorities. The government, aware of its “image deficit” internationally, and considering the number of “orphan” children, opened the country to international adoption, thus hoping to give the world a more human face of the regime. Several  thousand children  have been adopted in Western countries, for example in  Sweden , France, the United States and Switzerland. The context was therefore conducive to abuse, and today, many Chilean families are demanding accountability (see also my publication of 01/13/2023).

To explain this lack of convictions, it must be emphasized that Judge Balmaceda does... the work of a judge: he analyzes the facts and decides whether they constitute a crime within the meaning of the law. The judge notes that although it sometimes came close, it was not possible to construct a legal argument that could lead to a conviction: “All the people who seem concerned and who are alive have been heard, but the existence of a punishable act could not be established, nor the presumptions allowing the qualification of participation in the facts as author, accomplice or receiver. The people who seemed most involved in the facts and who could possibly have established some responsibility, are now deceased.” Asked how to qualify the facts reported by the victim families, the judge replied: “It is difficult to judge the events of the time with today's mentality. Most of the 1,100 cases occurred before 1989, when the legislation was changed and was vastly different from what it is today. It included far fewer guarantees and made it possible to place children with people for adoption.” The judge also details the processes which made it possible to achieve a national or international adoption, and notes how difficult it is to question practices which, at the time, were, at least formally, in conformity with the law in force. And the judge concluded: “an act may be morally reprehensible, but I am the criminal judge, and I must punish behavior that constitutes a crime.”

This testimony is important in light of current debates surrounding responsibilities linked to irregular adoptions of the past. It sheds very specific light on the way in which these acts can be qualified from a purely criminal point of view. If the observation of the impossibility of a criminal conviction can be difficult for the victims to accept (the organization “Hijos y Madres del Silencio” has also requested the resignation of the judge following this article), “the exercise Chilean” has the merit of demonstrating that the legal route is not always the preferred route. Of course, this does not mean that nothing wrong was done and that we should move on; In this sense, historical studies and restorative measures remain absolutely necessary.

But this new piece of the puzzle questions more broadly initiatives aimed at “criminalizing” practices linked to irregular adoptions, in particular those which seek to qualify them as crimes against humanity. Having already expressed myself several times on the subject, I am not going to reopen the debate here, but Judge Balmaceda's findings raise questions: if ordinary criminal law does not allow conviction, is it a question of persisting in this direction and to try to construct other legal reasoning to achieve a conviction “at all costs”? Or is it rather a matter of taking note of the fact that the law's response is precisely to say that it is not possible to convict? Naturally, the diversity of contexts, eras and actors could allow other conclusions to be reached. The fact remains that the law is also subject to general principles of human rights (no punishment without law for example) which must also be respected.

Abstract

Drawing on an empirical narrative research study, this article illuminates the lived experiences of Indian adoptees of closed adoptions, that is, those who had no contact with their birth parents in the run-up to or following adoption. The findings of five in-depth accounts comprising young adult and adult adoptees present a deep and nuanced understanding of what remains a relatively unexplored area of adoptive family lives in contemporary India practised in an environment where the intricacies of culture and notions of biological ties are privileged over social ties. This article illustrates how the way adoption stories are lived, experienced and shaped contributes to adoptees’ understandings of how to navigate the challenges to confirm their membership in their adoptive families in a situation where these relationships fall under constant suspicion, denial and disapproval. While it is accepted that this non-representative sample cannot reflect wider perspectives of adoptive lives, it nevertheless highlights the inherent complexities and provides a useful springboard for further research.

Keywords: adoptive family; family practices; closed adoption; adoptees’ voice; India

Introduction

Adoption is an established family practice in India but a little-studied topic. Sociologists have widely written about changing family structure and dynamics in India over the years, yet adoption is arguably the most neglected family relationship in the sociology of family (Fisher, 2003; Ruggiero, 2021). Contemporary sociological debates and concepts improving understandings of the diversity of family lives have moved us away from the terminology of ‘the family’ as some static normative ideal, to focus on what families do rather than notions of what the family ought to look like. Morgan’s (1996; 2011) concept of family practices has been useful in exploring the complex realities of family lives rather than assessing whether they live up to a policy-driven normative standard of ‘the family’. He conceptualises family practices as a series of practical and emotional activities that family members and others play in relation to each other. While carrying out the practices, they affirm, reproduce and sometimes define the relationship (Morgan, 2011; 2020). While these practices are important to define the relationships, at the same time, they need to be conveyed to and understood by relevant others to make the actions effective. Finch’s (2007) concept of ‘family display’ contributes to our understanding of how meanings of ‘family’ are conveyed, recognised and understood as ‘family-like’ relationships. Finch argues that the need for display might be greater for families furthest away from ideas of what a ‘proper’ family looks like. For example, she suggests it may be more useful to think about degrees of intensity in the need for display: ‘… the need for it becomes more or less intense at different points in time, as circumstances change and relationships continue to be renegotiated’ (2007: 72).

In 1979, China introduced a law that stated that families could only have one child. The policy was introduced in a draconian attempt to fight poverty and control the population. Unfortunately, this meant many children were abandoned. When Kati Pohler's parents became pregnant with a second child, they knew that they could not keep her. They left her on a bridge with a note saying that in 10 or 20 years' time, for her to come to find them. This is how it all unfolded. 

Meet Me On The Bridge

Originally from China, Kati Pohler grew up in Michigan under the loving care of her adoptive family. Her biological parents Qian Fenxiang and Xu Lida, however, still live in China with Kati's biological older sister. At the time when Kati was born, China still had its now abolished one-child policy. A couple who got pregnant a second time would either face forced abortion or heavy financial penalties if caught otherwise. (1)

Her parents kept the pregnancy a secret because they did not want to abort the child. Still, they knew that they could not keep her. Kati's biological mom gave birth to her on a houseboat, hidden away from the eyes of any doctors or authorities who would have to report them. Next, Qian and Xu took Kati to a covered vegetable market and left her there with a hand-written note.

"Our daughter, Jingzhi, was born at 10am on the 24th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, 1995. We have been forced by poverty and affairs of the world to abandon her. Oh, pity the hearts of fathers and mothers far and near!

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Wednesday said it had ordered a child welfare foundation to temporarily stop accepting new adoption cases after a 1-year-old boy it placed in foster care died after allegedly being abused by his caregiver.

In addition to halting new adoptions, the existing adoption cases being handled by the organization, the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), will also be subject to increased supervision by local governments, the ministry said.

Speaking at a press conference, Deputy Health Minister Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) said her ministry was planning to meet Friday with a group of experts, the Taipei and New Taipei city governments, and the CWLF, which will submit a review report on the incident.

A decision will be made at a later date whether or not to allow the group to resume taking new adoption cases, Lee said.

Including the CWLF, there are currently eight organizations in Taiwan involved in facilitating adoptions. Nationwide, 468 children are awaiting adoption, including around 200 aged three and under, Lee said.

Many adopted children, youth and adults need help now!

Children, young people over 18 and adult adoptees have so far been able to get help via the PAS scheme at the Appeals Board. 

In recent months, the demand for PAS courses has been enormous. In 2023, over 600 PAS courses were completed, and the demand this year is still increasing, which can be attributed to the much mention of the adoption area in recent times.

Everyone agrees that it is very important that we support the adopted at a time when their identity is being questioned. Therefore, it also comes as a very big surprise to us that they do not have control over the funding for this very important PAS work.

No adoptee should be left alone and without the possibility of help.

The Mandate Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Women Affairs Secretariat, Mrs Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi,  disclosed recently, that  the FCT Administration had sealed off an orphanage in Karonmajigi, the Priesthood Orphanage, after 23 children, aged 1 – 14 years, allegedly trafficked from Plateau state were supposedly rescued from the orphanage.

She also added that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had authorised the Secretariat to profile and recertify orphanages operating within the nation’s capital.

But, this case is not an isolated one as issues of orphan abuses in orphanage homes have become a recurring decimal in the nation’s polity.

Before this development, we recall that in 2017, the FCTA had  also clamped down on illegal orphanages operating in the city over alleged negligence and other nefarious acts.

The Mandate Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Women Affairs Secretariat, Mrs Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi,  disclosed recently, that  the FCT Administration had sealed off an orphanage in Karonmajigi, the Priesthood Orphanage, after 23 children, aged 1 – 14 years, allegedly trafficked from Plateau state were supposedly rescued from the orphanage.

She also added that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had authorised the Secretariat to profile and recertify orphanages operating within the nation’s capital.

But, this case is not an isolated one as issues of orphan abuses in orphanage homes have become a recurring decimal in the nation’s polity.

Before this development, we recall that in 2017, the FCTA had  also clamped down on illegal orphanages operating in the city over alleged negligence and other nefarious acts.

A surrogate mother who's currently in a dilemma has taken to social media to seek advice from netizens 

The lady revealed how she carried a baby for a rich couple who unexpectedly divorced and refused to take the baby at the time 

In a chat with a doctor, Amicable Chukwu, she told Legit.ng that a surrogate mother has no right to ownership of a baby 

A surrogate mother who carried a child for a rich couple has shared her experience one year after the contract. 

The lady identified as @chelsea_lugard on TikTok narrated that the couple had refused to take the baby after she gave birth because they had serious marital issues. 

MARGAO:

The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) has called for urgent and decisive action against the troubling rise in illegal adoption and human trafficking in Goa. The commission's plea is directed towards law enforcement agencies, government officials, and the public to unite in combating these illicit activities.

GSCPCR has further urged that there be an immediate formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly investigate these cases, bring perpetrators to justice, and prevent future exploitation.

To back their demand, GSCPCR pointed out that in recent years, they have identified multiple cases that reveal a disturbing pattern of illegal adoptions and potential connections to human trafficking networks.