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First they need to make sure the child doesn’t have a responsible relative

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Adoption process snarled up
02-17-2009 | IRLANDA SOTILLO
First they need to make sure the child doesn’t have a responsible relative
Panama Star PANAMA. At the Social Development Ministry (MIDES), only 41 children are recognized as ready to be adopted.
Rosaria Correa, national director of the Childhood and Adoption department at MIDES explained that a child should be open to adoption only when her department rules out any possibility that a family member can take care of the minor.
Despite the fact that such an investigation takes close to three months, the MIDES has not been able to grant children a new family.
Correa believes the problem is that couples are only interested in healthy babies, a characteristic far from reality, seeing as 16 children suffer some type of disability, 20 are 8 years old or older, and some have siblings, which makes the adoption process more difficult.
In the meantime, the adoption law (Ley 61) gives preference to children of Panamanian parents, as well as looking out for the minor’s well-being.
Correa recognizes that three years are not enough to do everything pertaining adoptions, as it is a subject that has been neglected in previous years.
http://www.laestrella.com.pa/mensual/2009/02/17/contenido/65430.asp
2009 Feb 19