Belgische Senaat

Handelingen

WOENSDAG 19 DECEMBER 2001 - OCHTENDVERGADERING

(Vervolg)

In the fall of 1985, I flew from Boston to Lima, Peru, to adopt a four-month-old child. some 18 years earlier I had given birth to my first child. During the last 10 of those years, I had struggled to give birth again, combating an infertility problem that had resulted, as is often the case, from use of a contraceptive device during the intervening years. I had been married when I produced my first child, but my husband and I divorced when my son was just a few years old. Years later I decided I wanted more children, regardless of whether I was married. But I found that I was unable to conceive.

I subjected myself to every form of medical treatment that offered any possibility of success. I had operations to diagnose my problem, I took fertility drugs and charted my menstrual cycles and my temperature, and I had sexual intercourse according to the prescribed schedule. I had surgery to remove scar tissue from my fallopian tubes. And I went through in vitro fertilization (IVF) repeatedly in programs in three different states. As a single person in my early forties, I was officially excluded from every IVF program in the country that I learned about. Almost all had a maximum age of 40, and all limited their services to married couples. But I was determined. I begged my way into programs that were willing to consider bending their age rules, and I presented myself as married, with the help of a loyal and loving friend who was willing to play the part of husband. Unaccustomed to a life of fraud, I spent much of my IVF existence terrified that I would be discovered.

Then I got lucky. I ran out of money. IVF treatment was excluded from health insurance coverage during this period, and I had cursed my fate and timing, as it seemed likely that the exclusion would eventually be eliminated. I had been paying the going price, $5,000 for a full treatment cycle, and had about run through what savings I had.

I woke one morning in March 1985--I learned later that it was the month, and for all I know the very day, my son-to-be was born--and lay in bed thinking that I didn't want to spend all my remaining money on IVF. I would need it if I was to adopt. And I didn't want to spend any more time and energy or any more of my life on the fertility pursuit. I wanted a child, and I wanted to move on. I called my IVF program that day and said I would not go forward with another treatment cycle.

I was one of the fortunate infertility patients, because I did move on to adoption and to parenting. Treatment enables only a limited number of the infertile to conceive and bear children, and it prevents many from ever considering adoption as a form of parenting. I now look back in amazement at the person I was, traversing the country from one IVF program to another in search of an infertility fix. I am bemused at my shifting notions of "natural" and of "choice." It had seemed natural to pursue biologic parenting, even when the pursuit led me into the high-tech world of IVF where the doctors and lab technicians took over the business of conception, "harvesting" the eggs they had cultivated in the patient's body and inseminating them in glass dishes. It also had seemed that I was making choices when I decided to move on to new stages of treatment. Indeed, I had felt thrilled with the sense that I was pushing against the social and biologic constraints that prevented a single woman with damaged fallopian tubes from giving birth. Now I look back and see a woman driven by the forces that had told her since birth that she should go forth and multiply, that her ability to bear a child was central to her meaning as a human being, and that "real" parenting involved raising that biologically linked child.

Last update - 01:18 12/12/2001

Romania probes Israeli adoption agency link in organ trafficking

By Ran Reznick

Romanian authorities are looking into possible links between Israeli adoption agencies and an illegal global conspiracy to sell organs for transplants.

The Romanian Embassy in Israel has asked for, and received from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, a list of all children born in Romania who have been brought to Israel for adoption in recent years. The Romanian officials are trying to ascertain if all such children arrived in Israel with all organs in their bodies.

Tandur: adoption racketeers did not just try to take advantage of women who had several daughters and convince them to give away one; they even targetted women who had just one daughter, to make money in the process. the plight of sita bai of chindanur thanda at kunchawaram in gulbarga district of karnataka is unimaginable. for the last nine months she has been desparately trying to locate her baby. "no one is helping me," sita bai told the times of india.with tears rolling down her eyes, she said she had been deceived by parvathi bai, an agent of savithri, into giving away her daughter. sita bai's daughter deepya was nine months old when parvathi bai approached her. "she told me she would show me my daughter every week and took her to the adoption home in tandur. i have never got to see my daughter after that," sita bai said. the woman had given away her daughter just eight days before the racket was busted. when she got to know what happened, she went along with three other women from her village, who had also given away their daughters, to the john abraham memorial bethany home at tandur. but the babies had been shifted from there. she, however, has not come to hyderabad to the sishu vihar to trace her daughter there. "my husband left me long back. i do not have anyone who can accompany me.the police said they would help me but so far i have not got back my daughter," sita bai said. from her village, another lambada kamli bai had given away her three-day-old daughter and another woman, poona babi her four-day-old baby girl. sita bai has a son but her heart is going out for her daughter from whom she has been separated. "i was paagal (mad) to have given away my daughter. i want her back," she cried narrating her tale of woe, near the kunchawaram police station in bordering karnataka state. they had heard it before too, but did little to help sita bai get back her daughter,who could be at the sishu vihar in hyderabad.

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see attached file

SCHRIFTLICHE ANFRAGE E-3261/01 von Joke Swiebel (PSE) an die
Kommission. Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1347/2000 und Ermöglichung der
bürgerlichen Ehe und Adoption durch gleichgeschlechtliche Paare in den
Niederlanden. 




Amtsblatt Nr. 028 E vom 06/02/2003 S. 0002 - 0003

Meeting of Nina Kostina with Krasnodar Governor
    
    On November 21, 2005 the President of the Frank Foundation, Nina Kostina
    met with the Governor of Krasnodar region Alexander Tkachev to discuss
    the humanitarian programs that Frank Foundation is conducting in the
    region. The Foundation is launching "Crossing the Rubicon", a program
    aimed at financially supporting the higher education of orphan children.
    In the Krasnodar region, 15 students will receive Frank Foundation
    scholarships for a total value of 150,000 rubles. Frank Foundation is
    greatly honored that Krasnodar’s Governor, Mr. Tkachev, has agreed to
    attend the official award ceremony in January 2006

Cette approche extensive de l’acquis de l’Union n’est pas propre à la Commission. Un projet de liste des éléments de l’acquis dans cette même matière, élaboré au sein du Conseil dès le mois de juin 1998, précise que des conventions telles que ,par exemple, la Convention européenne pour la répression du terrorisme ou la Convention d’entraide judiciaire en matière pénale sont des conventions « auxquelles les Etats candidats à l’Union européenne seront tenus d’adhérer en tant qu’acquis communautaire ou de l’Union ». Dans cette même logique, les « partenariats pour l’adhésion » adoptés par le Conseil et qui constituent les instruments majeurs de la stratégie de pré-adhésion imposent aux Etats candidats de signer et ratifier diverses conventions internationales qui sont liées aux questions traités dans le domaine de la justice et des affaires intérieures. C’est ce que rappelle la Commission dans ses rapports sur les progrès réalisés par les pays candidats sur la voie de l’adhésion. Ainsi, par exemple, constate-t-elle que « en mars 2000 Chypre a demandé d’adhérer à la Convention de l’OCDE de 1997 sur la lutte contre la corruption d’agents publics étrangers dans les transactions commerciales internationales comme l’exigent les priorités à court terme du partenariat pour l’adhésion. On le voit, un acquis peut en cacher un autre. Par souci de cohérence, les institutions et les Etats membres de l’Union ont estimé que certains instruments juridiques, élaborés en dehors du cadre de l’Union mais « inséparables de la réalisation des objectifs du traité sur l’Union européenne » devaient être signés et ratifiés par les Etats candidats. Ainsi, une partie de l’ « acquis » d’autres organisations internationales vient grossir la masse déjà volumineuse de l’acquis de l’Union au sens propre de l’expression. cejm.upmf-grenoble.fr/.../delcourt%202001(1).doc

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'Foreign Affairs has been blocking adoptions from Vietnam for weeks'

Eight parents have together instituted summary proceedings against the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which refuses to submit their adoption files to the Vietnamese authorities. In a letter to the parents, Foreign Affairs explains that "the organization of local services in Vietnam does not currently guarantee that the files will be treated seriously."

The eight parents do not agree that an investigation in Vietnam into possible bribery scandals during previous adoptions influences their file. In the interim proceedings, which were initiated this morning, the parents still want the adoptions to take place. The involved families have been waiting for a month and a half for the adopted children they have already been assigned. They all come from the same orphanage in the Vietnamese province of Hung Yen. "We have gone through the entire adoption procedure, have all the documents needed to adopt," says the V. family. "On September 17, the adoption organization gave the green light and we were assigned a child. The only thing we still have was a declaration of intent from Foreign Affairs for our file. " A declaration of intent is a necessary document with which the Belgian government declares all documents in an adoption file to be genuine and also indicates that it will accept the decision-making process of the adoption country.

But Foreign Affairs refuses to deliver the certificates. On September 26, the eight families who want to adopt in the province of Hung Yen will receive a letter from Foreign Affairs that mentions "controversial files (in the province of Hung Yen, SS) in which Vietnamese laws were manifestly violated". When the parents contact Foreign Affairs for more information, they are always prosecuted. "Depending on the day you inquire, you get to hear a different story," says the R. family. "Then the European Commission is conducting an investigation into corruption and child trafficking in Hung Yen. Then again it is the consuls who are sorting out something We will never be told the true facts. "

Several sources suspect that Foreign Affairs is blocking adoptions in the province of Hung Yen because there is an investigation into bribery in the file of another Belgian adoptive mother. He adopted a Vietnamese baby in October last year and had to obtain a visa for the child through judicial channels because there was no principle consent in her file. The eight parents who have been waiting for their adopted child for a month and a half now find it vengeful that they have to bear the consequences. "We do not want to be held responsible for the mistakes of others." Moreover, the parents note, in the meantime other countries can continue to adopt in the province of Hung Yen. Michel Malherbe, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, neither confirms nor denies that the Belgian government is blocking adoptions from Vietnam. "We'll let the judge decide on that." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also keeps a close eye on an investigation into malpractice in the province of Hung Yen. The only thing that Malherbe wants to say is that "our lawyer will request a deferment in the interim proceedings today".