Ethical Questions About Adoption Of Romanian Children
By Joan D. Ramos
THE Washington State Adoption Council is a coalition of individuals, groups and agencies that aims to promote understanding and cooperation about adoption.
Ethical questions must be raised about the process by which some U.S. citizens have been adopting children from Romania, and about the information dispensed by individuals and groups in the Pacific Northwest that are organizing to facilitate adoptions.
While the intentions of these people are sound, many do not possess the necessary expertise in adoption, health care, or international relations.
In late 1989, dramatic changes took place in Romania as the Ceausescu regime was deposed. The Western world became aware of the suffering endured by the Romanian people for almost 40 years.
Women were subjected to forced pregnancy tests; punished for not producing children (at least five were expected from every loyal Romanian couple); denied access to contraceptives and abortion.
Most women bore more children than they could hope to care for. Many children were placed in state-run homes by desperate parents, who ostensibly hoped to reclaim them in better times.
Last year, the media brought into our homes graphic scenes of the suffering of these children. At first, the plight of the kids in institutions (these children are not ``orphans''; the vast majority of them in institutions have living parents) spurred an outpouring of material aid from the better-off countries.
Such established organizations as the Red Cross, World Concern, and Peace Corps have begun work in Romania, concerned not only with meeting immediate needs with ``handouts,'' but also with giving the Romanian people a ``hand up'' for the future. It will be a long time before their nation can recuperate after so many years of oppression.
The media reports also began to feature foreigners who had traveled to Romania to adopt children housed in institutions. Prospective parents came not only from Western Europe, but also from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; some traveled in large groups.
With approved documentation from their country of origin, most adopters arrived with little plan of how they would proceed. For many of them, the principal attraction was the prospect of adopting a relatively healthy, young Caucasian child.
The ensuing adoption proceedings have no counterpart anywhere in the world. In many cases, prospective adopters have presented themselves at the doors of institutions, demanding to be shown children. In other cases, adopters travel through the countryside, looking for ``adoptable'' children and also for their biological parent(s), needed to formally release the children.
The adopters employed local drivers and translators, turning the process, in the words of one adoption publication, into ``the largest cottage industry in Romania.'' Frequently, sums of money equivalent to
several hundred times the minimum wage in Romania (about $35 a month) have changed hands.
Romanian biological parents, who receive no counseling on adoption, are often asked repeatedly to release their children by an ever-increasing number of adoptive parents. Some adopters seek a child of a certain sex (usually female) or complexion.
The Romanian government says it is centralizing its adoption system in an attempt to prevent abuses. One priority is to implement a child-welfare reform. But looking at the system in our country can give us pause to reflect on the enormity of such an undertaking in a nation as bereft of resources as Romania.
The phenomenon of adoptive parents traveling abroad to select a child is not like other international adoptions. In virtually all other cases, whether a private or agency adoption, a specific child - legally free for adoption - is assigned to specific parents.
The Washington State Adoption Council fears that some individuals promoting Romanian adoptions do not understand the issues inherent in ethical adoption practice, and that adopters have been given inadequate advice.
One group with which we have been in contact requires a mandatory donation of a considerable sum, to be used for relief supplies and for information obtainable elsewhere for minimal or no charge. Others suggest that adopters make donations to Romanian children's homes or government personnel.
WSAC members have attended local public-information meetings where speakers displayed a lack of information about parent-child attachment; cross-cultural adaptation; development of children who have been institutionalized; the role of biological parents in adoption, and health and nutrition factors.
Certain endeavors are intent on fund-raising to develop mega-institutions for Romanian children, apparently because their founders do not understand that institutionalization itself is detrimental to child development.
Some Romanian relief groups give the public the impression that they are adoption agencies, but do not possess an agency license. Furthermore, these groups are not informing prospective parents about the information and support resources in our community.
Local adoptive-parent support groups, for example, have decades of experience with international adoptions of children of all ages.
Adoption is a viable way to build a family, and the state council seeks to educate the public about difficulties in the present situation. We do not want to discourage international adoptions, and we recognize that a same-race placement may very well be a placement of choice for most families.
But we believe that those contemplating an independent international adoption need to understand the responsibilities and ramifications that such a process entails, and that these needs are not being met by those promoting Romanian adoption in our community.
Joan D. Ramos, MSW, is a member of the ethics committee of the Washington State Adoption Council.