Binnenlands geadopteerden vragen meer aandacht: ’Maak haast met het onderzoek naar de praktijk van afstand en adoptie. Straks ka

Binnenlands geadopteerden vragen meer aandacht: ’Maak haast met het onderzoek naar de praktijk van afstand en adoptie. Straks kan het niet meer’

Domestic adoptees demand more attention: 'Hurry up with research into the practice of distance and adoption. Soon it won't be possible anymore

Domestic distance children are beating the drum, in the wake of the distance mothers who have been doing so for some time. The distance children hope that research into the practice of distance and adoption will be speeded up in the years 1956 to 1984, the years in which more than 15,000 children were adopted.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, a study is being conducted into the practice of renunciation and adoption in the Netherlands between 1956 (the adoption of the Adoption Act) and 1984 (the implementation of the Abortion Act). In those years, 15,290 babies were given up immediately after birth and later adopted, according to the report 'Strapped in the hinges of time' from 2017 by the Scientific Research and Documentation Center.

Developmental delays

In the time after their birth, the distant babies stay in homes and monasteries, awaiting placement with the prospective adoptive parents. Some of those babies later, when they are adults, read in their files that they were developmentally delayed for the first year of their lives. For example, it says 'retarded' (delayed). Cause: a lack of attention, loving care.

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Other distant children know this because their adoptive parents have told them. Some distance children wonder if this was also the case with them, but there are those who will never find out because their files have been destroyed or lost, as is evident from the stories of Maria's fellow sufferers during meetings of Verleden In Zich (VIZ), the foundation for Dutch distance children and domestic adoptees. VIZ strives to prevent further destruction of files and urges the organizations that have been involved in distance and adoption to place the files in the National Archives in The Hague. The foundation is working on a website: verledeninzicht.nl .

Second examination

The research is led by Emeritus Professor of Pedagogy Micha de Winter. It is the second study. The first was terminated prematurely because the privacy of the participating children and mothers had been violated. Intimate personal data ended up at the offices of the ministry without their consent. The reporting would contain many inaccuracies. In addition, the participants were very critical of the way the study was conducted. They thought they were talking to employees of the Verwey-Jonker Institute, but some participants had, without knowing it, employees of Fiom on the phone. That was because the role of that organization, at the time involved in relinquishment and adoption, itself should have been subjected to investigation. De Winter will look at the role of Fiom. Distant mothers were put under great social and societal pressure to give up their child. To what extent did organizations such as Fiom play a role in this?

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The ministry promised to destroy all collected material from the initial investigation. Initially against the wishes of the VIZ, the Verwey Jonker Institute nevertheless published data from archives and newspapers last year that had been collected in the context of the first investigation. The distance children hope that De Winter will hurry because the mothers and care workers involved are getting older and some have already died.

Fertility treatments

Emeritus professor of adoption René Hoksbergen writes in the introduction to the book 'But I may still stay?', by the domestic adoptee Maria Kiebêrt (see the link below): “Once again, a Dutch-born and bred adoptee has found the courage to give us about her struggle with the question of who she really is.” He (again) speaks out against adoption because of the far-reaching consequences for the adopted child as it used to be called. “Rightly there are more and more voices, especially from adoptees themselves, to prevent adoption as much as possible. If it is nevertheless decided to adopt, complete openness about the reasons for the abandonment and the background of the biological parents and their family is a fundamental condition for the psychological well-being of the adoptee.”

The Council for Child Protection reports on its own site that few parents in the Netherlands choose to completely renounce their child and their rights as a parent. Maria Kiebêrt is happy about that. She is saddened to see what is happening now when it comes to fertility treatments. “In Denmark you can buy anonymous seed on order. Eggs in Spain. If you don't know who your father or your mother is, that's terrible. You want to know who you are descended from. Again, the desire to have children comes first, not the interests of the child.”

Vriendelijke groeten,