Swiss couple told to give back adopted daughter

A Swiss couple living in Nicaragua have been told to give back the baby daughter they adopted nine months ago.

Daniel and Esther Schär, who work for an NGO in the Central American country, adopted a two-month old girl through the adoption service of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Families (Mifamilia) last year, reported the Nicaraguan press.

Nine months later, the child’s biological mother – a minor – demanded her daughter be returned to her, claiming she was put up for adoption without her consent.

Last week a court ruled in her favour, to the heartbreak of the Swiss couple.

“We don’t understand how they can do such a nasty thing as take away the baby... if the biological mother abandoned her why does she now want her back when she didn’t seek her out for nine months?” adoptive mother Esther Schär told El Nuevo Diario.

“We cannot accept this. The child is not an object,” added Daniel Schär, saying that the couple now consider the baby their daughter.

According to El Nuevo Diario the couple were fully approved for the adoption and have certificates to prove it.

Speaking to La Prensa, their lawyer Guillermo Cordero said the baby was given up by the mother voluntarily because she didn’t have the financial means to keep her, circumstances that have now changed.

He also pointed out some irregularities in the adoption process, saying that a judge should have ruled in the case before the adoption was made final, not after.

Contacted by Swiss paper 20 Minutes, Esther Schär said there seems no way of appealing the decision.

“We will continue to fight. Not against the mother but for the well-being of our child,” she said.

At the moment the baby girl has been placed in care until her biological mother can take her back.

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