In New York, a gay couple fighting to make their insurers pay for fertility treatment have found themselves in the middle of a culture war. What happens when the right to parenthood involves someone else’s body?

Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto met in law school in 2011, were engaged by 2014, and had their 2016 wedding announced in the New York Times. They moved to a waterfront apartment block in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a bright playroom for families on the ground floor.

“We got married and then we wanted all the trappings: house, children, 401K [retirement saving plan], etc,” Maggipinto, 37, tells me in their building’s shared meeting room, tapping the table in sequence with the progression of each idea.

Briskin, 33, grew up assuming he’d have children. He came out in college. “Once I had come out to myself and others, I don’t think my expectation of what my life would look like changed all that much.” With marriage equality won years ago, they expected to be able to have a conventional married life.

Six months before their wedding, a targeted ad from an organisation called Gay Parents to Be landed in Maggipinto’s Instagram feed, offering free consultations with a fertility doctor who’d give them “the whole rundown” on how they could start a family. “We had the appointment and we were 100% on the same page – let’s move forward with this,” says Maggipinto.

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The Ghaziabad police on Thursday took into custody a 14-year-old girl, the adopted daughter of a 58-year-old man who was found murdered in their flat in Vaishali on September 22, and her 23-year-old friend from Jalgaon in Maharashtra, on charges of planning and executing the murder.

Police said the two were traced and nabbed from Jalgaon and brought to Kaushmabi in Ghaziabad, where they admitted to the crime during sustained interrogation.

The girl was legally adopted by the couple -- the deceased and his wife -- about a week after she was born 14 years ago, police said. She is currently a class 7 student at a private school in Vaishali and lived with her parents till the day of the murder on September 22. That evening, the CCTV cameras caught her leaving home with her schoolbag around 5pm, in the company of a young man.

Later in the evening, when her mother returned home from her office in Delhi, she found her husband dead, with his limbs tied up and mouth taped shut. The police, quoting the autopsy report, said the man was strangled to death with a rope.

An Indonesian man who had built a reputation as a savior of unwanted children has been arrested on suspicion of child trafficking.

Dubbed the “father of a million children,” the story of 32-year-old S moved many in the country after he took in 55 children under his care. The children were mostly born to women who conceived out of wedlock, who would have terminated their pregnancies or ditched their babies to escape social stigma.

On Wednesday, police in Bogor, West Java said they arrested S after uncovering a sinister plot behind his adoption of the 55 children.

“The culprit offered to help the pregnant women. After the children were born, [he would take them in but] they would eventually be given up for adoption. But the adoption process was illegal,” Bogor Police Chief Iman Imanuddin said, adding that S had faked documents to set up his organization, the Father of A Million Children Foundation.

“If somebody wanted to adopt one of his children, they would have to pay IDR15 million (US$985) to the culprit. The culprit used the Father of a Million Children Foundation as a front.”

Biological or not, having children is a wonderful blessing. However, matters of adoption have always invited unwanted questions in the past. Thankfully, the stigma has now lessened down and we have to thank celebrities for that. While Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have won hearts for their beautiful rainbow family, Indian celebrities aren't any far behind.

If there's one celebrity, whose name comes into mind when we talk of adoption, it has to be Bollywood ace choreographer Sandip Soparrkar. The Choreographer was just 40 when he adopted his first child, Arjun, for which, he had to face a long legal battle. Making him the first single father to adopt in India.

Recently he went on to adopt another child, Kabir in the year 2021. While Sandip Soparrkar decision to become a single parent was quite unheard of, the choreographer often mentioned that he never felt the need to second guess his decision, and it all felt natural to him. Now he's become first Indian for being single father of two kids. Sandip's decision definitely opened a lot of doors for people who wished to embrace single parenthood in the country.

About Sandip Soparrkar's Adoption, Madhavi Mhatre, Director, BalAnand, Worldchildren Welfare Trust India, says, "It has been a very positive experience and pleasure to have Sandip Soparkar adopt yet again from our children's home. We had the joy of placing his first son Arjun with him, when we were convinced of his dedication and commitment. We have seen Arjun grow up to what he is today and had no hesitation in processing the adoption a second time when Kabir was chosen. What makes Sandip special, is not the fact that he has adopted, but his complete acceptance of the Child he adopted.”

The world does not undergo any change because a child is adopted, but for every adopted child his/her world changes after adoption. Soparrkar has always chosen the path less chosen and adopting the second time is something even rarer. We hope that many people get inspired by his decision and take steps towards creating a family through adoption.

Letter from Central Adoption Resource Authority follows concerns over delays due to transfer of cases from courts to DMs

The country’s apex adoption body, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), has written to District Magistrates to expeditiously dispose of cases and issue adoption orders, particularly where the matter has been transferred from courts in conformity with the revised rules.

“The amount of court backlog varies, in some instances, hearings have concluded, in others they have not. Although two months is the maximum allowed time for the DM to issue an adoption order, the DMs have the authority to conclude the case during the first hearing itself and to issue adoption orders as expeditiously as possible, particularly the transferred cases,” says a letter from Tripti Guha, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and CEO of CARA, on September 27, 2022.

The letter follows the coming into effect of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021 from September 1, followed by the JJ Model Amendment Rules 2022 which make District Magistrates the authority for passing adoption orders, instead of courts that were assigned this role earlier. This had led to apprehensions about delays in nearly 1,000 cases pending before courts, which would now have to be transferred to DMs for a final order. Activists, lawyers and adoption agencies said DMs and courts were not aware about the new rules and didn’t have instructions to deal with cases where courts had already spent several weeks in hearing arguments and evidence.

Important Note: Please be sure to read this entire page, and especially be sure to watch the video linked at the bottom of this page.

*While this website is mostly geared toward Adoptees who were adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency Korea Social Service (KSS), there is also information here which is relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees, regardless of their Korean Adoption Agency. Please read carefully to note what info. is purely relevant to KSS Adoptees and what is generally relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees.

The National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) in Korea assists Korean Adoptees only after a Korean Adoptee has exhausted all possible options for Birth Family Search through her or his Korean Adoption Agency (in this case, KSS).

Please Note: NCRC assists Korean Adoptees regardless of her or his Korean Adoption Agency. Even if you are not from KSS, NCRC can assist in your Birth Family Search by corresponding with your Korean Adoption Agency.

KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees ONLY should initiate a Birth Family Search through KSS FIRST, BEFORE contacting NCRC.

WARNING: This story discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting.

A man who raped his granddaughters in their beds, shower, a shed and his car told them he would put them up for adoption if they told anyone.

The defendant, who has name suppression to protect the identity of his victims, started when the victims were four or five years old and continued for roughly 10 years.

The defendant appeared before a jury of seven women and six men in the Palmerston North District Court this week facing 67 charges of rape, unlawful sexual connection and performing indecent acts against his two granddaughters and two of their friends.

Today, he unexpectedly pleaded guilty, before the girls gave their evidence.

WARNING: This story discusses sexual abuse and may be upsetting.

A man who raped his granddaughters in their beds, shower, a shed and his car told them he would put them up for adoption if they told anyone.

The defendant, who has name suppression to protect the identity of his victims, started when the victims were four or five years old and continued for roughly 10 years.

The defendant appeared before a jury of seven women and six men in the Palmerston North District Court this week facing 67 charges of rape, unlawful sexual connection and performing indecent acts against his two granddaughters and two of their friends.

Today, he unexpectedly pleaded guilty, before the girls gave their evidence.

NEW DELHI: New adoption regulations issued by the women and child development ministry lay out the process for district magistrates to issue adoption orders which earlier fell in the domain of the courts till the amended Juvenile Justice Model (Amendment) Rule 2022 came into force on September 1.

With the district magistrates (DM) getting a maximum of two months to pass adoption orders, adoption agencies have to file an application for an order from the DM through the District Child Protection Unit within 10 days of matching the child with prospective adoptive parents.

The regulations stipulate a three-day period for the Child Welfare Committees to declare an abandoned or orphan child as legally free for adoption after expiry of two months from the date of the child's appearance before the CWC in case of kids upto two years. For those above two, four months have to pass.

Foster care for 'hard to place' kids in new adoption guidelines

The adoption regulations 2022 elaborate on rehab options for "hard to place" children who are not being adopted after being declared legally free for adoption. This category of children will be eligible for foster care by suitable foster parents.

Tedious process, high demand and low supply attributing in child trafficking rackets

in Nagpur

Nagpur: The tedious process of adoption coupled with a classic ‘high demand and

low supply’ crises are attributing to the rampant child trafficking rackets in the

Second Capital of the State, according to experts.