A Serious Issue
Tuesday, March 14 2006 Filed in: Adoption
Info
Since we've been home from China, this blog has
pretty much been about the fun stuff going on in
Hui-Hui's world (along with a few updates as to the
antics of Stinky-Mouse). However, over the last month
or so, there has been a fair amount of press coverage
regarding the issue of child abduction within China,
and allegations that it is related to China's
international adoption program. I am bringing this up
here because of the obvious connection our family has
with this program, and I hope that by directing a bit
of light on this issue I may help to inform a few
family and friends as to what the "facts" are
regarding this issue as best as they may be known.
At issue here is a recent case in which a Chinese orphanage director and nine other people were sentenced to prison, and another 22 officials were fired in the southern city of Hengyang in Hunan province. Allegedly the director of the Hengyang County orphanage (an orphanage that participates in the international adoption program) brokered children into his orphanage, as well as orphanages in other Provinces. Anthony Kuhn of National Public Radio (NPR) reported this story on February 23rd. You can hear his report by CLICKING HERE. While this case clearly shows that corruption and greed has tainted parts of China's international adoption program and SOME of the Social Welfare Institutes that work within this program, it does not support the inflammatory allegations appearing in current headlines. When this story first broke I followed it closely, as I do almost any news story regarding adoption from China. However, as of late, this story has appeared to spin into something different.
On Sunday Peter S. Goodman wrote an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Stealing Babies for Adoption". In this article Mr. Goodman states a number facts, then creates connections to allege things which cannot be proven. As a parent who has been through the process of adopting a child from China, I obviously have a bias here. However, I also have a fairly clear understanding of the program, and feel that this article does a great disservice to many, many families. In this article, Mr. Goodman references Brian Stuy. Mr. Stuy writes a fascinating blog on issues related to adopting from China called RESEARCH-CHINA.ORG. I have had a link to his site on my "Interesting Links" page for several months now. He has written a number of entries on this particular issue, and if you take the time to bother reading the Washington Post article I strongly encourage you to read what Brian Stuy has to say in response to it.
It seems to me that Mr. Goodman's article is little more than an attempt at generating a sensationalized headline at the expense of the international adoption community. In rebuttal, I will quote Mr. Stuy who wrote:
"Goodman begins by detailing the tragic abduction of a child from the streets of Dongguan in Guangdong Province. He artfully transitions to China's adoption program, leading readers to conclude that somehow the seven month old girl had been kidnapped to satisfy an adopting American family.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence to establish this link, and in fact considerable evidence to disprove it. By Goodman's own admission, 50,000 children were adopted to the U.S. since 1992, an average of 4,000 per year. I suppose Goodman proposes that these 4,000 children represent a significant number of China's 1.2 billion people to result in kidnapping rings to develop, but the sad reality is that annually an estimated 250,000 children (mostly girls) are abandoned in China, 35,000 of which end up in China's foreign adoption program. One can readily see that there is no shortage of adoptable children."
All of this is very unfortunate and confusing. It is my hope that the truth will prevail, and that ultimately the children of China and the rest of the world will one day all benefit by having the loving families they deserve.
At issue here is a recent case in which a Chinese orphanage director and nine other people were sentenced to prison, and another 22 officials were fired in the southern city of Hengyang in Hunan province. Allegedly the director of the Hengyang County orphanage (an orphanage that participates in the international adoption program) brokered children into his orphanage, as well as orphanages in other Provinces. Anthony Kuhn of National Public Radio (NPR) reported this story on February 23rd. You can hear his report by CLICKING HERE. While this case clearly shows that corruption and greed has tainted parts of China's international adoption program and SOME of the Social Welfare Institutes that work within this program, it does not support the inflammatory allegations appearing in current headlines. When this story first broke I followed it closely, as I do almost any news story regarding adoption from China. However, as of late, this story has appeared to spin into something different.
On Sunday Peter S. Goodman wrote an article in The Washington Post entitled, "Stealing Babies for Adoption". In this article Mr. Goodman states a number facts, then creates connections to allege things which cannot be proven. As a parent who has been through the process of adopting a child from China, I obviously have a bias here. However, I also have a fairly clear understanding of the program, and feel that this article does a great disservice to many, many families. In this article, Mr. Goodman references Brian Stuy. Mr. Stuy writes a fascinating blog on issues related to adopting from China called RESEARCH-CHINA.ORG. I have had a link to his site on my "Interesting Links" page for several months now. He has written a number of entries on this particular issue, and if you take the time to bother reading the Washington Post article I strongly encourage you to read what Brian Stuy has to say in response to it.
It seems to me that Mr. Goodman's article is little more than an attempt at generating a sensationalized headline at the expense of the international adoption community. In rebuttal, I will quote Mr. Stuy who wrote:
"Goodman begins by detailing the tragic abduction of a child from the streets of Dongguan in Guangdong Province. He artfully transitions to China's adoption program, leading readers to conclude that somehow the seven month old girl had been kidnapped to satisfy an adopting American family.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence to establish this link, and in fact considerable evidence to disprove it. By Goodman's own admission, 50,000 children were adopted to the U.S. since 1992, an average of 4,000 per year. I suppose Goodman proposes that these 4,000 children represent a significant number of China's 1.2 billion people to result in kidnapping rings to develop, but the sad reality is that annually an estimated 250,000 children (mostly girls) are abandoned in China, 35,000 of which end up in China's foreign adoption program. One can readily see that there is no shortage of adoptable children."
All of this is very unfortunate and confusing. It is my hope that the truth will prevail, and that ultimately the children of China and the rest of the world will one day all benefit by having the loving families they deserve.
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