A cruel injustice was inflicted on thousands of Queensland women who found themselves young, unwed and “in trouble” at a time of strict social mores. JO CRANSTOUN investigates the enduring impact of forced adoption on the young mothers who are now grandmothers.

From the 1950s until the mid-1970s the babies of young mothers were forcibly removed at birth and adopted by married couples.

Those mothers are now broken-hearted seniors living with the trauma, some never speaking again of a stolen baby, others struggling to reconnect decades later with their estranged adult children.

These women consider their babies the “other stolen generation”.

Tireless campaigns for justice led to apologies from the Queensland government in 2012 and the federal government in 2013. Several churches and hospitals involved in forced adoptions have also apologised.

Sandra DeVries

Sandra De Vries

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Manager Programs Kinship Questions and Adoption Services

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EXCLUSIVE: Woman given up for adoption in Australia by unwed mother who was sent Down Under to have her is reunited 60 years on with British family she never knew she had

Suzy Fraser, 64, was given up for adoption after her mother was sent to Australia

Her unwed mother Janet was packed off from Portsmouth to give birth in 1958

Janet had asked not to be contacted but Suzy did and found out she had siblings

Suzy has been reunited with her siblings Sharon, 57, Eileen, 54, and Steve, 61

The commission has asked the directorate of women and child development to ensure that specialised adoption agencies in Goa set up cradles to receive abandoned children

A child rights body in Goa on October 31 issued an advisory to various agencies of the State Government about the rise in cases of infants being abandoned at unsafe places, an official said.

The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued an advisory to the directorate of women and child welfare, health department and Goa police to help parents in distress to surrender their infants.

“The recent incidences of newborn abandonment in Goa, most of it in unsafe places recently, is very perturbing,” the commission stated in the advisory.

It noted that the State had recorded 11 such cases in five years (2017-2022), and four of these were registered this year alone.

With National Adoption Month quickly approaching, the adoptee and former foster youth side of the adoption community on social media have been diligently sharing content to help bring attention to the nuances of adoption.

And while the internet is a powerful tool, I can safely say that I never thought adoptees would be going toe to toe on TikTok with Rosie O’Donnell, a white adoptive mom and celebrity, who said she was sorry that “adoption didn’t work out” for some adoptees, but wants to know what should happen to children without families?

Like Rosie, I wanted to believe that adoption was a solution to the many children in need of homes, and when I stumbled into the online adoption community many years ago after discovering I was adopted, I remember feeling overwhelmed—and even defensive—about how negatively people were depicting something that helped so many.

Queer Kids Are Getting Blasted With Too Much Doom and Gloom

This is what I now refer to as toxic positivity and saviorism in the workshops I teach to parents and adoption professionals—because so many people are unaware of the dangers and ethical problems of adoption in the United States. Objectively speaking, adoption in the U.S. is often not child-centered, and the desires of adoptive parents and professionals are prioritized along with profit-margins.

While Supreme Court has voiced concerns over their increasing use to prove a case, women’s rights activists deem the technology an empowering tool

Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA tests occupy a grey area in the quest for justice, vacillating between the dangers of slipping into self-incrimination and encroachment of individual privacy and the ‘eminent need’ to unearth the truth, be in the form of evidence in a criminal case, a claim of marital infidelity or proving paternity.

More and more complainants are seeking DNA tests — a senior official associated with a government laboratory estimates such requests increasing by around 20% each year. DNA Forensics Laboratory Private Limited, one of the biggest centres which is accredited with the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), says it tests around 300-400 samples each month that are both private requests and court-mandated. The numbers were only around 30-40 till five years ago.

funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland

The DIH researches together with partners: within a scientific network politically motivated forced adoptions in the GDR.

It is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) for a period of 36 months with around 970,000 euros .

Start: 07/01/2022

End: 6/30/2025

Whistleblowers House for litigation support

House for Whistleblowers - The Hague

The Bill for the Protection of Whistleblowers (hereinafter: the new law) is currently being discussed. This new law, which replaces the current House for Whistleblowers Act, has direct consequences for the work of the House for Whistleblowers (hereinafter the House).

As a competent authority, the House must have set up a reporting channel by 17 December 2021 for receiving and processing information about abuses with a social interest (hereinafter: abuses) and violations of Union law (hereinafter: violations). To enable effective communication with staff responsible for handling reports, the Whistleblowers Authority must have a channel that is user-friendly, secure, and ensures confidentiality in receiving and handling information provided by the reporter about breaches and suspected wrongdoing and which offers the possibility to store information permanently so that it can be further investigated. The notifications, questions and requests arrive at the front portal, where the selection should take place or whether there is a request for advice, a report in connection with an infringement, a report in connection with an abuse or a request for a treatment investigation. Due to the terms that apply in the event of a report in connection with a breach (and as of 17 December 2021, these terms also apply to reports in connection with wrongdoing), the internal process registration must be adjusted.

Due to the expected increase in activities due to the European Whistleblower Directive and new legislation, we are looking for temporary reinforcement by a process assistant.

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.