22 April 2008
U.S. Adopters of Foreign Orphans Undergo Tough Scrutiny
China, Guatemala, Russia and Ethiopia remain lead source countries
Washington -- Of the 143 million orphans in the developing world, the United States takes in more of them than all other countries combined, according to adoption experts.
“The United States adopts so many because there is a culture of adoption here. In the United States, a child doesn’t have to be genetically linked to be loved as one’s own child; that is rare in many other countries,” says Chuck Johnson of the National Council For Adoption, an adoption advocacy and research group based in Alexandria, Virginia.
According to Peter Selman of Newcastle University in England, a leading expert on adoption, in 2006, people in the United States adopted 20,679 foreign orphans while all other countries adopted 19,121.
Most adopted children are coming from China and Guatemala, followed by Russia and Ethiopia, according to recent U.S. Department of State statistics. Many orphans also are adopted from South Korea, Vietnam, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, Liberia, Colombia, the Philippines, Haiti and Taiwan.
Experts say the large numbers of U.S. adoptions from abroad reflect, in part, the understanding other countries have about the extent to which the United States goes to protect its adopted children.
“The net is cast very deep and very wide,” said Tom DiFilipo, president of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, one of the oldest and largest U.S. child welfare organizations. “In the United States, there are a myriad of agencies, both public and private, involved in child protection at the county, state and federal level. In terms of overall child protection, the United States is certainly in the top echelon.”
For example, U.S. child protection laws require courts to act in advance of problems in the protection of children. “In many countries, courts cannot terminate parental custody until the child has been abandoned. In the United States, however, the courts have the power to terminate parental custody when there is suspected child abuse,” DiFilipo said.
Generally, if a teacher or other school administrator suspects that a child is being abused, that individual is required by law to report it. In some states, the law is even broader. In New Jersey, Difilipo said, any person that suspects child abuse is required to report it to the authorities.
U.S. law makes no distinction between parental duties of adoptive and natural parents and extends the same protection to all children. In fact, all foreign adopted children become U.S. citizens at the time they enter the country and, as such, are afforded the same rights as U.S. citizens.
At the same time, the many safeguards built into the process of adoption allow flagging of possible problems at an early stage -- even before a family is approved to adopt, experts say.
Linda Perilstein, executive director of the Cradle of Hope Adoption Center, an accredited adoption agency that helps families through the process, explains: “Families adopting internationally go through many levels of screening to be sure that they are qualified to adopt and would provide a loving and safe home for a child in need.”
On a state level, she said, families must present a report that they do not have a past history of behavior that would raise concerns about their fitness for raising a child, obtain references from other sources, allow home visits, present medical clearances and proofs of sufficient financial resources, and more. On a federal level, they undergo a further background check by the FBI.
If the prospective parents pass the initial screening, they are required to complete several hours of training that gives them general information on the adoption process, on the needs of children awaiting adoption and on specific country conditions that may affect the long-term health of the children, such as the effects of malnutrition and relevant environmental factors.
Such pre-adoption training has been common for some time in the United States, but the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (HCIA), which the United States implemented on April 1, 2008, now requires that all adoptions between participating countries involve at least 10 hours of parental training.
After the child arrives home, adoptive families must submit to at least three post-placement home visits conducted by a licensed social worker who can assess the family’s post-adoption adjustment, provide support and refer them to additional services if needed.
“Post-placement supervision is the best way of catching potential problems and preventing them,” DiFilipo said.
In spite of all the safeguards, instances of abuse or neglect of adopted children in the United States do happen. Following abuse reports of several adopted children from Russia by their U.S. parents over the past 15 years, the authorities took measures to close down the nonaccredited agencies most of these cases involved. But experts point out that over the same period more than 50,000 Russian orphans, most from institutional orphanage care, have been adopted by loving American families.
