Exposing Corruption in International Adoption

Had to laugh at the final observation:

When rose-colored glasses don't block enough of the negative out, switch to BLINDERS!

I believe "give harsh criticism" needs to be added to the short-list of what an adamant AP is known to do to those who wish to shed a little light on a subject many would like to keep hidden or for those still in-the-dark.

As an adoptee, I find myself in awe of the twisting of dictionary definitions once one enters Adoptionland's Pro-Adoption Speak.  ["Orphan", anyone?]

This pro-adopter language I hear and read helps support and perpetuate the strong-held belief that those who pay the fees and pass the rigorous <cough, choke, sputter> home study test are, in essence, entitled  to the child they paid for seek.   

What gets me is this "every child deserves a family" rhetoric.   What people like Elizabeth Bartholet  really mean is, every foreign orphan deserves an American home.

Ah... the arrogance!  As if "American" is best or rated number one in categories that demonstrate high levels of happiness, good health, safety, or well-being. 

As an adoptee from another country, I  find it offensive and outrageous that an unknown percentage of "pseudo-orphans" (children who DO have living parents and extended family members, but are in a care-home) are being sold as "adoptable orphans" through American adoption agencies.  I am repulsed by the power of the American Orphan Crusade, and what certain fundamental beliefs can do or mean to a foreign-born adoptee.

I am also disgusted with the idea that a country, like the USA, with thousands of adoptable children floundering in a failed foster-care system, will seek additional ICA agreements, all for the sake of the adults wanting a child.  Because, hey... that's just good for business.

So by all means, let's keep  the "desperate" and "entitled" adopters in America happy and pleased, and let's pretend falsified documents do not equal or relate to corruption within the billion-dollar adoption industry.

<Kerry, breathe...>

I wish more deeply concerned PAPs would take a closer and more detailed look at the way in which adoption agencies and foreign orphanages work together.  [I'll make it easier for readers... see:  orphanage donations.]  Surely those with more than one functioning brain cell can manage to catch a sober glimpse into the marketing of  "orphans" for those who aren't afraid to pay extra cash for the exotic "orphan" label. 

But don't take it from me.

Below is an offering found on Mirah's blog... a comment from an adoptee that says more than I ever could, as I was adopted just before my first birthday..."before memory"...

I am a Korean adoptee.
I was once an "orphan" living in an awful orphanage in a poor country (back then Korea was a poor). It was so awful that anyone would say it's better to find the poor little children good homes in another country than letting them languish.

In fact, I wasn't an orphan (and there were no orphan at the orphanage). I had a father, three older siblings, nephew and niece, many aunts, uncles and cousins.

That awful orphanage was source of adoptable children for adoption agencies and other orphanages.

That's how I was transferred from that orphanage to a second orphanage where I was put up for adoption without the knowledge of my family.

In both orphanages I went through, children were either abandoned or placed temporarily due to poverty; some children were lost. In the first orphanage, some were runaway children or delinquent.

In both orphanages, I saw mothers who had come to fetch their children, but they returned home without them because they were "advised" to let their children at the orphanage. At my second orphanage, one single mother took back her two daughters, but before taking them back they tried to convince her to let them at the orphanage.

I've seen and heard much more while living in the orphanages.

I can understand people wanting to save the children, however I hate that people are using such kind of orphanages to justify the adoption industry instead of helping the families to keep them or even building good orphanages.

Prospective adopters, the money you are spending to buy the children to build your "own" families are destroying families.

Adopters, the money you spent to buy children to build your "own" families destroyed your children's families.