PEAR issues Position on Tuberculosis(TB) Management in International Adoptees

PEAR has issued a Position on Tuberculosis Management in International Adoptees due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rollout of TB screening for immigrants that now includes adoptees aged 2 to 14 from the high-TB-prevalence countries of Ethiopia, China and Haiti.

This position also addresses a summer petition issued by the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS) for waiving this TB screening requirement.

This is a complex medical issue that requires an understanding of TB itself, the increasing spread of all versions of TB across the world, and how adoptive parents in the US manage screening and treatment of all forms of TB. The PDF can be linked to on our website at http://www.pear-now.org/PEAR_Position_on_TB_Management.pdf


Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Vietnamese Officials Sentenced to Jail Time for Participation in Fraudulent Adoptions

The Irish Times is reporting that six health officials and health care workers in Nam Dinh province have been sentenced to jail for arranging over 300 fraudulent adoptions.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0930/1224255526541.html

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

DOS Adoption Notice: Nepal

Nepal Adoption Notice

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Office of Children’s Issues
______________________________________________________

September 29, 2009

On January 1, 2009, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) announced procedures for processing adoptions pursuant to the Government of Nepal’s (GON) new “Terms and Conditions” for adoptions. The initial announcement stated that only 10 applications will be processed from each Embassy, Mission, or approved Agency in 2009. The GON provided copies of the new requirements, to all approved agencies.

According to Nepali officials, the new requirements apply to all intercountry adoptions. There is NO provision to permit prospective adoptive families who had already begun an adoption to be “grandfathered” under the previous Nepali regulation. All but one of the prospective adoptive parents matched with children under the previous system relinquished the match so the children could be available for adoption under Nepal’s new Terms and Conditions. Some of these children have since been matched with new prospective adoptive parents.

On September 2, 2009, the Nepali Prime Minister appointed a new minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare. This minister has authority to sign final adoption decrees. Since then, under its new “Terms and Conditions,” the GON has granted adoptions to U.S. families in four cases. As a result, these families have now approached the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu to complete their processing under U.S. law. The GON has also indicated that they will likely process several more adoption cases for U.S. families in October and that approximately two dozen additional case referrals have been sent to U.S. families. The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu continues to meet with GON officials and is working with the Office of Children’s Issues to provide timely public updates.

As part of required processing for orphan adoption cases, the Embassy conducts a thorough investigation of each case. Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that the investigation process may take several months, which could mean that prospective adoptive parents who travel to Nepal before the investigation is completed will need to spend a significant amount of time in country.

http://adoption.state.gov/news/nepal.html

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

UPDATE: China

According to the JCICS, the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) will require all adoptive families to register with a Hague Accredited ASP as of December 1, 2009. This applies to all waiting parents who filed a dossier with China prior to the Hague coming into full force in the US on April 1, 2009. Please note that this information has not been confirmed by the US Department of State, nor does it appear on the DOS Adoption Website, UCSIS, and the US Embassy websites.

Thank you to Linh Song of Ethica for getting permission from JCICS to pass this news along to prospective adoptive parents:

Dear Colleagues,

During a meeting with the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on Tuesday
September 15 2009, Director General Lu announced that beginning December 1
2009; all adoptive families must be registered with a Hague Accredited
Adoption Service Provider (ASP). If an adoptive family is currently
registered with a non-Accredited ASP, they are required to transfer their
adoption to a Hague Accredited ASP no later than December 1, 2009.

Director General Lu also clarified; families currently using the I-600A and
I-600 process (non-Hague) may continue with this process. Families are not
required to transfer to the I-800A and I-800 process, unless deemed
necessary by the United State Government.

The specifics of this new policy can be found on the CCAA website for ASPs
only.

Best wishes,

Tom

PEAR hopes that the JCICS will encourage member agencies to cooperate in planning and transfer of cases in way that does not overly burden waiting families.

~PEAR Board
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

MEDIA: Vietnam - Vietnamese doctors 'sold' babies for overseas adoptions

Sixteen Vietnamese doctors, nurses and officials sold 266 babies for overseas adoptions, a court heard on Tuesday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/vietnam/6218586/Vietnamese-doctors-sold-babies-for-overseas-adoptions.html

By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok
Published: 2:18PM BST 22 Sep 2009

The defendants from a number of clinics and social welfare centres in the northern province of Nam Dinh allegedly solicited the infants from unmarried mothers and impoverished families.

To make the children eligible for adoption, and the process legal, they ring forged documents so it appeared the children had been abandoned at village clinics, it was claimed.

The accused the directors of two social welfare centres, doctors, nurses and district officials face jail terms of between five and ten years if convicted of "abuse of power and authority".

The babies were allegedly sent for foreign adoption by the ring between 2005 and July 2008, when the racket was busted just three months after damming report into the trade.

Each member of the group allegedly illegally earned between £170 and £340 for their part in the scheme. Most of the babies ended up in France, Italy and the US, according to court officials.

Couples in the US had adopted the most Vietnamese children before a bilateral agreement expired a year ago.

In 2007, 828 Vietnamese infants were adopted by parents in the US, including the fourth child of movie stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, though there is no suggestion of impropriety.

That tally of adoptions would have been surpassed last year had the agreement not lapsed.

Each year around ten Vietnamese babies had been adopted by couples from Britain.

The US-Vietnamese adoption agreement expired after an exhaustive investigation uncovered widespread irregularities. The US embassy in Hanoi revealed Vietnamese authorities' failure to police the system.

Rampant abuses included flourishing sales of babies, and fraud and corruption perpetrated by care officials and orphanage directors.

Hospitals sold babies whose mothers could not afford the medical bills for delivery, brokers scoured villages for infants, and in one case a grandmother sent a baby girl for her parents' knowledge.





Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/