International Adoptions

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve
Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Gwen Outen. Our subject this week is international
adoptions.

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VOICE ONE:

Adoption is the legal process where people take a child of other
parents as their own. The Census Bureau says more than two percent
of children in the United States are adopted. That is about
one-point-six million children. These numbers are from the national
population count in two-thousand.

But since the nineteen-sixties and seventies, the number of
American-born children in need of adoption has decreased. So today
many people go to other countries to adopt a child. In
nineteen-eighty-nine, Americans brought eight thousand foreign
children to the United States. By last year, the State Department
says the number was more than twenty-one thousand.

VOICE TWO:

The Census Bureau says thirteen
percent of the adopted children in the United States were born in
another country. Of these foreign-born children, one-sixth are from
Europe. One-third are from Latin America. And almost half are from
Asia. The largest number of foreign-born adopted children in the
United States, twenty-two percent, are from South Korea.

But immigration reports show that, in recent years, the largest
numbers of foreign children brought here are from Russia and China.
By last year South Korea was fourth, behind Guatemala.

Four years ago, Romania suspended most international adoptions.
Romania used to be one of the top countries where Americans adopted
children. By last year Romania was twelfth on the list of countries.
Two hundred Romanian children were brought here to live.

VOICE ONE:

Romania's president, Ion Iliescu, signed a bill into law last
month to bar most foreign adoptions of Romanian children. The law
will permit grandparents who live in other countries to adopt their
Romanian grandchildren.

Romania wants to join the European Union in two-thousand-seven.
E.U. officials were concerned that Romania's adoption system could
not prevent the illegal sale of children. So the E.U. urged Romania
to pass a new law.

But, in April, American Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage called the plan a "tragedy" for children in state care.
Critics of the new restrictions on international adoption say
Romania does not have enough families for all the children who need
parents.

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VOICE TWO:

Americans who want to adopt mainly
want healthy babies or very young children. But there are not enough
in the United States to meet the demand. Birth rates are down. And,
in nineteen-seventy-three, the Supreme Court ruled that women have
the right to end unwanted pregnancies. This meant fewer babies to
put up for adoption.

Yet there are many older children in the United States who need
adoption but cannot find new parents. Thousands live in temporary
homes under adult supervision as dependents of the state.

VOICE ONE:

Years ago, few unmarried Americans or couples older than about
forty adopted children. Today, it is much more common for single
people to adopt. The same is true of older married couples as well
as older singles. Some couples of the same sex also adopt children.

Laws about adoptions within the United States differ from state
to state. People who want to adopt are asked to show that they can
provide a safe and loving home. Then they wait until an adoption
agency finds a child for them. Sometimes people wait years. Other
adoptions happen much more quickly.

Costs differ greatly. Some estimates say the average may be about
ten thousand dollars; others say at least twenty thousand dollars.

Adoptions also take place without the services of an agency. In a
private adoption, a lawyer or doctor brings together a pregnant
woman with people seeking a child. But this does not always
guarantee there will be a baby to adopt. Biological parents who
decide to surrender a child for adoption are given time to
reconsider.

VOICE TWO:

Many adoption agencies in the United States also handle foreign
adoptions. For parents, the easiest adoptions often involve what is
called direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents may
be dead. Or they may have already surrendered their child to an
orphanage. The new parents then may take the child directly home to
the United States.

Like most adoptions within the United States, international
adoptions take time -- in some cases, many months. Adoption agencies
and the State Department have a number of requirements for people
who want to adopt a foreign child.

A social worker visits the home of the prospective parents, to
make sure the home and family will be good for the child. For
example, the prospective parent must show the ability to provide
financial support. Officials also look for criminal records.

VOICE ONE:

Prospective parents must also meet any requirements by foreign
agencies and governments. For example, China recently has been a
major provider of children for adoption in the United States.
Americans adopted almost seven thousand children from China last
year. One American adoption agency says most children adopted from
China are baby girls about seven months or older.

Chinese officials will permit single people as well as married
couples to adopt children. But China makes a legal difference
between children whose parents are dead and those who have been left
without care.

Generally only childless people age thirty-five or older can
adopt a healthy child who has a living biological parent. People
under thirty-five can only adopt children whose parents are dead.
This is also true of people who already have a child.

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VOICE TWO:

Many foreign adoption centers require prospective parents to make
two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a
child. On the second, they complete the adoption process. Parents
also are advised to repeat the legal process in the United States
when they return.

Foreign adoptions can be costly. For example, to adopt a Russian
child can cost thirty thousand dollars or more.

International adoptions involve more than just time and money,
both for the adoption itself and the travel. They also require
energy. And sometimes they even involve safety risks.

For example, many Americans over the years have adopted children
from Haiti. But the State Department has lately advised Americans
not to travel to the Caribbean nation for any reason, because of
political unrest.

Last year, many prospective parents had to delay trips to China.
That was because of the health risk from severe acute respiratory
syndrome, SARS. Some people had already waited a long time to become
parents or add to their families.

Earlier this year, cases of measles led the United States to
suspend adoptions from an orphanage in Hunan province. American
health officials ended the ban last month.

VOICE ONE:

Parents do not always know much about the physical or mental
health of a child they adopt in another country. Or problems may
develop later. Experts say children who have lived in large
orphanages often develop more slowly than others. Children kept in
group situations also have a greater risk of infections. And
children from some countries may have diseases that American doctors
rarely see.

Some doctors in the United States provide special services for
parents who want to adopt a foreign child. A doctor can meet with
families before they go out of the country to adopt. The doctor can
study any medical records that foreign agencies provide for a child.
Agencies may also provide videotapes of the child. And the doctor
can examine the child after the adoption is completed.

VOICE TWO:

But for many people, all the work and the chances they might have
had to take are clearly worth the effort.

Gordon and Jan Forbes live in Rockville, Maryland. They adopted a
Korean girl more than thirty years ago. They say it is difficult to
express the happiness that their daughter has brought them.

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario
Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA
in VOA Special English.