Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

A Vietnamese court sentenced three people to jail terms ranging from three to seven years for trafficking babies and selling them to an orphanage in Ninh Binh. An additional 12 accomplices were given suspended sentences. They were convicted of selling 12 infants for 130 million dong (approximately $7,600 US) between April 2006 and May 2008. The deputy director of the orphanage, To Van An, committed suicide a month after the arrests last year.

A report from the Associated Press says:

Of the 12 babies sold to the center in Ninh Binh, six were adopted by citizens from the United States, France and Canada, five were transferred to the center in Hoa Binh, and one was returned to the family of an unwed mother, the judge said.

 The full article can be accessed here.

“He says that he’s going to marry me
We can raise a little family
Maybe we’ll be alright
Its a sacrifice

But my friends keep telling me to give it up
Saying I’m too young, I ought to live it up
What I need right now is some good advice, please

Daddy, daddy if you could only see
Just how good he’s been treating me
You’d give us your blessing right now
cause we are in love, we are in love, so please

Papa don’t preach, I’m in trouble deep
Papa don’t preach, I’ve been losing sleep
Oh, I’m gonna keep my baby,
Dont you stop loving me daddy
I know, I’m keeping my baby”

“Papa Don’t Preach” written by Brian Elliot and Madonna

What a strange juxtiposition. Madonna’s chart-topping hit from 23 years ago in many ways describing the circumstances of her newly adopted African daughter Mercy’s conception.

Mwandida, they tell me, had met an 18-year-old student called James Kambewa. They met secretly at his sister’s flat. Mwandida’s friends at school warned her it would end terribly, but she ignored them. She was in love.

Unfortunately, Mwandida’s story did not end happily ever after. She died of complications from childbirth. Her family told James Kambewa that his baby died too. It wasn’t until news of Madonna’s impending adoption hit and the press starting digging that he found out his daughter was still alive. How did he react?

“She is my daughter, my blood,” he says. Why did he disappear? “I was frightened. I was just 18 and my family disowned me.” So why has he appeared now? “The newspapers found me, I didn’t find them. I thought Mercy was dead. Mwandida was my only love. I have not been with a woman since Mwandida.”

“She is my daughter, my blood.”

This child had a family. In fact, in addition to her birthfather, she also had a maternal grandmother who lovingly raised her for the first three years of her life.

The story locally is that Lucy, the grandmother … refused to let Mercy be adopted by Madonna. And for three years - from that day in 2006 until about four weeks ago - Lucy remained implacable, resisting approaches from priests, people from the orphanage and other people she had never seen before, to persuade her to let Mercy go.

However tough Lucy has been in resisting Madonna, Madonna has been tougher. She never gave up on adopting Mercy - not least because no one tells Madonna she cannot have what she wants. And now, after years of being told that adoption was the right thing for Mercy, Lucy caved in. In Malawi, she is an old woman and she had had enough.

Some people say that Mercy is “lucky” to be adopted by a rich celebrity like Madonna. They say her birthfamily should be grateful. Sound familliar? It’s the theme we hear all too often in the adoption world - “lucky baby” - casting adoptive parents in the role of savior. Most of the time we shake our heads, knowing that our children are the blessings and we are humbled to be part of the miracle that brings orphans and families together. But what about cases like Mercy’s - a child who is not an orphan, who literally has multiple family members who love her and want to raise her? How is it “lucky” that she is ripped from their arms, now suddenly living on the covers of tabloids, a poster child for her new mother’s charity work?

Can we honestly say this adoption was in Mercy’s “best interests”?

Some international adoption advocates apparently think so.

“The Malawi court’s ruling is consistent with the core principles in our Policy Statement,” said [Professor Elizabeth] Bartholet.

And what did the Malawi court rule?

(3) technical “residence” requirements for adoption must be read in light of the new international order characterized by “globalization and the global village.”

Oh I see. So that 18 month residency requirement just meant a petitioner had to live somewhere on the globe. I’m sure it’s not that Madonna’s massive cash infustion via her own Kabbalah-sponsored charity convinced them to bend the rules so far they no longer make any sense.

Why do I care about one little girl in Africa? Why do I feel the need to analyze Madonna’s adoption here on a website dedicated to adoption integrity in Vietnam? Consider what another advocate has to say:

Madonna’s victory in the Malawian court may further endanger the vulnerable children she purports, so vociferously, to want to help.

Consider the legal system that has endorsed the U-turn in the country’s adoption policy. And I have no doubt that corrupt adoption agencies and child traffickers, newly alerted to the ease with which Malawian laws can be circumvented, are even now planning to target the country.

We are also witnessing the rise of a distressing new phenomenon dubbed the Madonna Effect, in which destitute mothers abandon their babies in the hope that they will be adopted by wealthy foreign mothers.

It is a tragic corollary of Madonna’s personal triumph that such abuses are now flourishing.

And there lies the rub. This isn’t simply about one child, though in my mind that would be tragedy enough. This is about countless other children, in Malawi and possibly around the world, who will fall victim to circumvented adoption laws and the “Madonna Effect”.

Some will say I’m over-reacting. Being too negative. But just this week I heard about a boy who experienced this “Madonna Effect” first hand - though Madonna can’t take the credit.

I can.

He lives in Cambodia. In 2001 when my family and so many others in America and around the Western world were making Cambodia one of the top ten sending countries, his destitute parents decided to place him in an orphanage in the hopes that he would be adopted by wealthy Westerners. He was just a toddler, but he still remembers how it felt to watch his mom and dad walk away. He was never adopted. Cambodia’s adoption system was corrupt to the core. The FBI found evidence of baby-switching, coercion and money laundering. The doors of international adoption slammed shut right in front of him. And now, eight years later living in a childrens home with other orphans too old to be adopted even if the law allowed, he still feels that pain and rejection.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”

Madonna by her fame and riches and celebrity forces us all to consider the ramifications of her adoption. But we mustn’t stop there. For though we are not famous celebrities, our actions have consequences too. Vietnam shut down because of widespread evidence of corruption. Our money provided the incentive. Who will untangle the web?

Statistics on Irish international adoptions were released yesterday in the Independent. The article said:

• In 2008, there were 397 International adoptions in Ireland.
• Vietnam was the most popular country with 182 adoptions.
• There were 117 babies adopted from Russia, and 26 from Ethiopia.
• The Adoption Bill 2009 is due to be published later this year. The Government will ratify the Hague Convention meaning that Irish couples will only be allowed to adopt from countries who have also ratified the convention, or who have state to state agreements with Ireland.
• Around 275 couples have been approved to adopt babies from Vietnam, but the bilateral agreement was suspended on May 1. Minister for Children Barry Andrew is currently asking Vietnam to re-open adoptions to Ireland on an interim basis.

According to the Adoption Board of Ireland, Vietnam stopped accepting applications from Irish couples on April 1, 2009, and the adoption agreement between Ireland and Vietnam expired on May 1, 2009. Any Irish family who did not receive a referral before May 1, 2009, will not be able to adopt until a new agreement is reached.

Critics of Ireland’s Children’s Minister Barry Andrews argued that Andrews did not give adequate attention to the development of a new adoption agreement. However, Andrews cited concerns over adoption procedures and reports on adoption abuses by the United States government. A statement by the Department of Health and Children said,

In light of concerns raised by other countries and which emerged during 2008, the Government decided it was necessary to seek a strengthening of the existing agreement with Vietnam. With the publication of the Adoption Bill, 2009, it was also considered necessary to ensure that both the content of a new agreement and its implementation would meet the minimum standards set in that Bill and under the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

An article in the Irish Times says,

Mr. Andrews said he could not discuss the details of the negotiations with the Vietnamese government, but confirmed that national oversight of the process was one of the issues under discussion.

He said another was clarity in the level of fees paid by parents, and where those fees went. The Government would insist there were no cash payments and that money was lodged to identifiable bank accounts.

He said two delegations from the Department of Health had visited Vietnam last year and had prepared a comprehensive report detailing their concerns, which provided the basis for the current negotiations.

“The issues are not insurmountable, but they have to be resolved,” he said. “I do believe the Vietnamese want to improve standards… It is a challenge for them to put in place the administrative structures. There is a lot of provincial autonomy. We are looking for a central authority to have control over the referral process.”

 Further, the article quotes Andrews as saying,

“I think we’re being properly cautious. No-one is going to thank us if we sign without exercising due caution. We have to absolutely satisfy ourselves that the best standards apply. In 15 or 16 years these children will see the American report and ask what we did to ensure their interests were protected.”

While many, many of our readers have questioned our motives, and even wondered if we are anti-adoption, we all feel that the ‘job’ we do here, voluntarily, due to conviction, is a job that is really important.

Why is it so important?  Because we want adoption to continue.  Yup, that’s the truth.  As long as there is a genuine need for families for children, we are PRO-ADOPTION.

I am waiting for Vietnam to reopen.  Our hearts are in Vietnam, and my husband and I feel that it is really important for our son to have sibling who shares his Vietnamese heritage.  But if every safegaurd is not taken to ensure that the next child we adopt is not truly from Vietnam, from a family that TRULY could not care for him, we won’t adopt from Vietnam.

So that is why we keep posting links to articles like this reported in the Brisbane Times:

Baby-trafficking horror exposed

Mark Russell

May 24, 2009

CHILD-TRAFFICKING gangs were moving pregnant women from country to country, then waiting for them to give birth before selling their babies, Australia’s chief federal magistrate said yesterday.

John Pascoe said the infants were being sold mainly for illegal adoption but also for sexual exploitation, slavery and begging.

He said demand for babies who only knew their adoptive parents was high. “More importantly, the children have no official identity or proven nationality and, therefore, an identity can be easily forged to suit the purpose for which they are intended,” Mr Pascoe said in Singapore, addressing a conference on the trafficking in unborn children.

We don’t link to these article to try to bring down international adoption.  In fact, we link to bring awareness to AP’s, PAP’s adult adoptees, and  random people who stumble upon our blog, so that all of us together will not tolerate outright corruption, shoddy business practices, deception, scare tactics and greed as they relate to adoption, specifically adoption in Vietnam.

Read the links, decide for yourself where you stand.  Are we going to disagree and have a dialogue sometimes? Of course.  That is one of the many things that make us better parents and ultimately, better people.

Read the whole article here.