[Devora]

I couldn't get the link to open up, but I'm assuming this is the same article with this title that I read on a different adoption forum. All of the adoptive parents on that forum also had concerns about the article, but we also thought it raised some legitimate issues that need to be addressed. There is much need for reform in adoption, both internationally and domestically.

Here's the response I made on the other forum:
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I think this is a provocative article, even if there are points where I don't care for the language being used. I think it does raise some important points. However, I think even in its attempt to present a more complex (and realistic) picture of the issues it falls into oversimplifying the situation. A couple of points particularly stood out to me:

(1) Definition of orphan: Yes, what most people think of when they say "orphan" is not the same as most of the children's reality. However, I don't think this is anything new. I remember reading about the "Orphan Trains" in the US in the early 1900s. The popular image is that those were orphans who were sent from the cities out west where they found new families. But reality is that most of them had families. In fact, a high percentage of the children were sent by their parents to the aid society running the program with the expectation that their children would be cared for and taught a trade -- it wasn't about abandonment, orphaning, or adoption. And many of the children returned to their biological families after a few years. There was no expectation of "permanency" for many of them. Yet, they are described as "orphan trains".

Also, even if a child has one living parent or other living family members, if they cannot care for them and there is no reason to expect that to change in the near to moderately-near future, then I think it oversimplifies the situation to say "they're not orphans because they have living family." And what about the right of a parent to choose adoption for her/his child as the best way they see to parent/provide for them? What about a parent who does not want extended family or the other parent raising the child because those people are known to be abusive? Very, very few domestic adoptions involve "true" orphans either. So the same critique could be leveled against domestic adoptions, whether they are private adoptions or through foster care. Yes, families should not have to relinquish a child due to poverty. But we are many, many generations from eliminating abject poverty, famine and war. These children need families now.

(2) Older children: While I agree that there are concerns about the "industry" of adoption and the focus on parents wanting children versus on the needs of children, the article makes it sound as if that's all due to the demands of prospective adoptive parents. This is particularly argued in the discussion of Guatemala as an example. However, the fact is that the inability to adopt older children living in orphanages in Guatemala is also significantly influenced by Guatemalan law. Those children are largely not available for adoption by anyone (domestically or internationally) because of the stringent requirements to declare a child abandoned (even if the child has lived in the orphanage for years) and the fact that the orphanages bear the legal costs of getting the abandonment decree so most of the children never even have the chance of being adopted because the orphanages can't afford the legal process of filing for an abandonment decree. So children can live for years in an orphanage and never be able to be adopted -- even if there were families wanting to adopt them. Many of the younger children (preschool through young elementary) could find families in Guatemala or abroad if only they were declared abandoned. Many agencies, when asked about toddlers or young children, would say that they could not refer any children older than a year because they simply were not available -- and they were being truthful in that. There are thousands of children in Guatemala needing homes, but without an abandonment decree from a judge they cannot be adopted.

I completely agree that international adoption is misrepresented and misunderstood. I think agencies should do a lot more to educate the public, educate prospective adoptive parents, promote transparency, and advocate for the needs of children. One of the reasons we chose the agency we did was because of their work on behalf of children and the ways they embodied serving the needs of children rather than all the focus being on us. So those agencies do exist but there aren't enough of them, in my opinion.

So while I think the article raises important points about education and reform, it also oversimplifies the situation as well.