Couples turn to Russia and Vietnam for child adoption
Couples turn to Russia and Vietnam for child adoption
Tuesday January 06 2009
Irish couples are increasingly turning to Russia and Vietnam, rather than China, to adopt children.
Some 160 of the 377 children adopted from abroad who were registered here in 2007 came from Russian and Vietnam, a new report shows.
The shift identified in the latest annual report of the Adoption Authority shows 31 Chinese children were added to the adoption register during the year, compared to 60 in 2004.
The number of children adopted in Belarus dropped from 39 in 2003 to just one in 2007.
The report also shows 17 children from Ethiopia were adopted here, eight from Mexico and eight from the Ukraine. No child was adopted from Romania, reflecting the fact that tighter restrictions are now in place there.
Between 1991 and 2007, there have been 3,565 children adopted here from abroad, 31pc of whom were Russian and 22pc Romanian.
A study carried out on a group of children adopted from abroad found they were on average around 17 months old when adopted and 80pc had spent time in institutional care.
Most children had made an "extraordinary recovery" and were functioning well socially and emotionally. Between 25pc-30pc had ongoing problems, but only in a minority of cases were these severe. It highlighted, however, that there was a lack of support for the particular needs of these children, some of whom were still struggling with the consequences of early neglect and institutional care.
Natural
The board received 229 domestic family adoption applications during the year, mostly in cases where the natural mother has a child outside marriage and later marries a man who is not the natural father.
The natural mother and her husband apply jointly to adopt the children and the couple take on joint legal rights and responsibilities.
As noted in previous annual reports, it remains the board's view that the procedure is not always ideal in step-parent families.
"The board considers that some other legal means should be devised to establish the rights and responsibilities of a natural mother's husband, without extinguishing the rights and responsibilities of the natural father," the report said.
Commenting on progress in the information and tracing service to reunite adopted people, the report said by the end of 2007 there were 6,755 people on the register.
So far, there have been 297 matches between parent and adult child since it was established. It provides a service for people adopted here since 1952.
"The register gives adopted people and their natural families an opportunity to confidentially state their preferences on the extent and the type of contact they wish to have. In particular, the register has given natural fathers and other natural relatives of the adopted person a recognition that many felt they did not previously have."
However, the report noted older natural mothers have been reluctant to add their names to the register and that this group will be targeted in future publicity campaigns.
- Eilish O'Regan Health Correspondent