AN English couple who adopted a baby girl for $19,000 (£12,700) from a Texan adoption agency have been ordered by a High Court judge in London to send her back to America.
Social services in England had contacted the American adoption agency to say there were compelling reasons to believe that the couple were not suitable adoptive parents. The judge was highly critical of how the adoption process had been handled, saying he did not think "anybody could begin to believe this was a proper way of deciding the future of a human being".
Mr Justice Johnson, a senior judge in the Family Division, said the girl was born on Dec 18 and immediately handed over to the adoption agency by her mother, who had relinquished all parental responsibility. Two days later the adoptive father flew from England to America, paid the agency $19,000, and the girl, who had been given a new name, was handed over after the signing of an adoption agreement.
The judge said the agreement provided for the adoption to be finalised within seven months if matters progressed satisfactorily and referred to "home visits" being made to the adoptive parents. But after signing the agreement and paying the money, the adoptive father returned to England with the child and no home visits had taken place, said the judge.
The adoption had proceeded on the basis of a report from an independent social worker with no professional qualifications. It was surprising, said the judge, that the adoption agency made an important decision as to where the girl, identified only as "J", should be brought up on the basis of such a report.