There must be an investigation into the thousands of children that unmarried mothers of the church had to give up for adoption. This is what Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt said after the emotional testimony in the Chamber of Yngvild Ingels. The N-VA politician from Lauwe was also compulsorily given up for adoption at birth. 

The emotional testimony about Ingels' search for her biological mother makes a special impression on her colleagues in the House. The church forced the mother of the politician from Lauwe to give her up for adoption at birth. 

"I only know that I was born in the north of France, in Dunkirk. And that five days later I was dropped off by a Catholic organization, Caritas Catholica, at my parents' home here in Lauwe. I have an original birth certificate with a name on it that is no longer the same as it is today," says Yngvild Ingels. Although the politician hopes that she can one day tell her biological mother that she is doing well. 
 

"I hope that one day I can tell my biological mother that I ended up well, that my adoptive parents are fantastic and that I have been in a warm nest."

Yngvild Ingels

New procedures for intercountry adoption have been stopped for the time being. This is the result of a decision by the Flemish government not to recognize a central adoption service. “This is not a simple measure,” says Welfare Minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V).

Giving a child from abroad a better life in Belgium. That is the motivation for prospective parents to adopt. However, it has often become apparent that such adoptions do not proceed according to the book. Recently, an investigation into the files of twelve adoptees from Ethiopia showed that not all of them had been given up voluntarily. Information about their biological parents in their files also often turned out to be incorrect. The sector was plagued by scandals on the one hand, and by a major legal battle on the other.

This has now led to an adoption freeze. No service is anymore recognized to carry out intercountry adoptions. The government wants to wait until a new adoption decree has been adopted. “I realize that this is not a simple measure,” says Crevits. “This can be hard. But this way, everyone involved will have the opportunity to organize themselves in accordance with the new decree.”

The decision is a new episode in a long-running saga. The government hoped that the three existing adoption services would merge into one, because all expertise would then be brought together in one place. But the water between the different services turned out to be too deep. This spring, Het Klein Mirakel was designated by the Growing Up Agency as the organization that should be responsible for all future adoptions. But two other services, Ray of Hope and Fiac - which merged into VIA - objected to this.

SOFIA, Bulgaria – The Parliament adopted revisions to the Family Code that ease adoptees' access to their adoption records.

The revisions scrap the requirement for "significant circumstances" that can start the procedure for granting adoptees access to the information about their biological parents and broadens the scope of people who can request disclosure of this information.

The information can now be requested by the adoptee, the adoptive parents, the heirs and spouse of the adoptee.

Adoptees who are 18 and older, their heirs and spouse can ask the regional court that has allowed the adoption, to grant them access to the information about their origin.

The regional court will make a decision at a hearing behind closed door after notifying the biological parents of the adoptee's request and after hearing the position of a prosecutor.

Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany. Nevertheless, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main allowed a German couple to adopt a stepchild born abroad to a surrogate mother.

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Frankfurt am Main has ruled that the stepchild adoption of a child born abroad to a surrogate mother is possible despite the ban on surrogacy in Germany (decision of December 14, 2023, case number 2 UF 33/23). With this ruling, a German couple can proceed with the corresponding stepchild adoption.

The background to the case was the German couple's previously unfulfilled desire to have children. They had contacted a Ukrainian fertility clinic to arrange a surrogacy. With the help of an egg donation, a pregnancy was subsequently induced in a Ukrainian woman.

At the beginning of 2020, the husband had already acknowledged paternity of the child born to the surrogate mother in Ukraine. In the summer of 2020, the German couple took in the child, and now the wife wanted to adopt the child to legally secure her position.

The Catholic Church sold around 30,000 children to adoptive parents without their mother's consent or knowledge, new testimonies reported by Het Laatste Nieuws reveal.

Created just after World War Two, institutions run by nuns took in underage girls and pregnant unmarried women until the late 1980s. These women were subjected to unpaid labour, humiliating conditions, and in some cases, sexual abuse.

During childbirth, some women were given general anaesthetic while others had to wear a mask – all ways to prevent mothers from seeing their child, who were immediately separated after birth. Some women were even sterilised. Others were forced to sign a document renouncing their child or were told the child was stillborn.

The children were then sold for large sums – between 10,000 and 30,000 Belgian francs (roughly between €250 and €750), sometimes much more – to adoptive families.

Unkept or destroyed files are now making reunion processes extremely difficult, says Debby Mattys (57), who was put up for adoption by the nuns and spent over 20 years looking for her birth mother. "My mother was 18 years old when she had an unwanted pregnancy," she told Het Laaste Nieuws.

UDUPI: A few hours after their 17-year-old adopted daughter went missing from home in Majoor village of Udupi district’s Kaup taluk, acclaimed theatre artist Leeladhar Shetty (68) and his wife Vasundhara L Shetty (59) hanged themselves with a nylon saree in their bedroom on Tuesday night.
Police sources said the girl was adopted by the couple about 16 years ago. Cops have registered a case of kidnapping and are conducting an investigation to trace the missing teen, on a complaint lodged by a relative of the Shettys.
 

Leeladhar once contested from Kaup assembly constituency and had served as head of Majoor gram panchayat. His well-regarded drama troupe reflected his popularity.

Gerard Depardieu stripped of Order of Quebec after vulgar comments caught on camera

French actor Gerard Depardieu speaks on the final day of the Montreal World Film Festival in Montreal, Monday, Sept.6, 2010.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Daniel J. Rowe

BARO

“Professional and free support for all adopted people”

“A restorative approach centered on the needs of the person”

Research to scope the support needs of people affected by historic forced adoption in Scotland.

Acknowledgements

The research team would like to acknowledge and thank the people affected by historic forced adoption who shared their experiences with us. Without your involvement, this research would not have been possible. Thanks also to the campaigners, support organisations, local authority representatives, and academics who took part in interviews, completed and publicised our online survey, and supported the recruitment of interviewees.

Research to scope the support needs of people affected by historic forced adoption in Scotland.

Acknowledgements

The research team would like to acknowledge and thank the people affected by historic forced adoption who shared their experiences with us. Without your involvement, this research would not have been possible. Thanks also to the campaigners, support organisations, local authority representatives, and academics who took part in interviews, completed and publicised our online survey, and supported the recruitment of interviewees.