Utahn Ashley Mitchell placed her son up for adoption 20 years ago.

“I think it's very scary with a lot of unknowns,” she said. “When people step in and claim to care about you and your best interests and the best interest of your baby, they are going to offer solutions that are very permanent solutions to this temporary issue.”

She sat in the second row of a packed committee room at the Utah State Capitol and listened intently to the proposed amendments to Utah’s adoption code. She works for Utah Adoption Rights, an advocacy group that lobbies for better laws for birth mothers and adoptive parents.

Utah is known for having some of the loosest adoption laws in the country. But that could change with draft legislation being discussed in the lead-up to the 2026 legislative session.

One of the leading issues Rep. Katy Hall wants to change is the restriction on birth mothers’ consent.

Evaluation of partner organizations in the context of investigation of adoption files

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In collaboration with: International Social Service (ISS)

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The Danish sperm bank ESB has also supplied donor sperm to private individuals in Belgium, even though this is not permitted under Belgian law. In Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health (FAMHP) stated that it is aware of "a limited number" of private individuals receiving donor sperm directly from the Danish sperm bank. The bank came under fire after it emerged that a single donor had fathered more than 50 children with 39 women in Belgium.

The donor scandal broke in May. It then emerged that 53 children in Belgium, born to 39 women involved, were born with sperm from a Danish woman carrying a cancer-causing gene. Furthermore, the rule that only six women can be treated with sperm from a single donor was violated. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the House Health Committee heard from representatives of the FAMHP and the Federal Internal Audit Service (FIA). The agenda included the inspection reports prepared by the FAMHP on fertility centers, as well as the FIA's report on the FAMHP itself. 

For two and a half hours, officials at the FAMHP answered a long series of questions from members of parliament in detail. Open VLD wanted to know whether the Danish sperm bank in question had also delivered sperm directly to Belgian prospective parents at home. "The FAMHP is indeed aware of a limited number of private individuals receiving donor sperm directly from the Danish sperm bank in the past," said Ethel Mertens, Director General of the FAMHP's DG Inspection, who emphasized that this practice is illegal in Belgium. 

Mertens also said that the identities of the individuals could not be determined, despite requests to the Danish sperm bank and the Danish authorities. "Therefore, it cannot be determined whether the individuals were informed of the problems with the donor."

25.4415The Council of States' Committee on Legal Affairs (RK-S) unanimously adopted a committee motion (25.4415) instructing the Federal Council to develop appropriate adjustments to the legal basis for the enforcement of sanctions.

The Commission also conducted a preliminary review of two parliamentary initiatives from its sister commission, which address various aspects of the enforcement of sanctions. These include a ban on unaccompanied leave for detainees24,464ffenders undergoing closed inpatient therapeutic measures (24,464), as well as adjustments to ensure that the benefits and costs of in25,435t measures under Article 59 of the Swiss Criminal Code are proportionate (25,435). The Commission acknowledges the fundamental need for action in both initiatives. However, it considers a revision of the enforcement of sanctions to be a project requiring a comprehensive overview and close involvement of the cantons. Against this background, it believes that a motion and a legislative25,435ect led by the Federal Council are the more effective approach. The Commission has acted on initiative 25.435, "Inpatient measures (Art. 59 of the Swiss Criminal Code) only with good prospects of success," assuming that its sister commission will24,464end its work until the Federal Council's message is available. However, by a vote of 5 to 6, it rejected initiative 24,464, “Measures in the enforcement of sanctions”.

Various transactions concerning the right to a parent-child relationship

The Motion Nantermod 19,3597The motion, "Criminal Code. Offenses against the family. Penalty for denying the right to personal contact," was adopted by the National Council and then suspended by both chambers pending the submission of the Federal Council's report, "Family Courts and Family Proceedings: Inventory and Reform Proposals," in response to various parliamentary motions. After the Federal Council submitted its report on June 6, 2025, the committee revisited the motion. It concluded that already fragile family situations would become even more complicated with the introduction of criminal sanctions and that mediation or other civil measures would be appropriate in such cases. Therefore, the committee recommends that the Council reject the motion by a vote of 8 to 2, with 2 abstentions. The minority recommends its adoption. The Council of States will decide during the winter session. Furthermore, the committee has begun the preliminary review of the parliamentary initiative Nantermod.25,425The initiative, entitled "Consequences of an unlawful change of the child's place of residence," has been included in the list. The commission will continue its preliminary review of the initiative at one of its next meetings.

Ban on international adoptions

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 10 children from the Child Welfare Committee have been placed under the care of single parents. A total of 80 children up for adoption by the Child Welfare Committee this year. Of these, 10 were placed under the care of only a mother or father. 22 children, includi individuals with disabilities, were adopted abroad. 

Parents with up to three children of their own are also coming to adopt. Adoption is granted to a single parent through the Central Adoption Resource Authority(CARA) guidelines of the central government. 

Single paren register with the central digital database, CARA, to adopt children. Female guardians are granted adoptions of both sexes. Male guardians are give 

There are currently 186 children in the Child Welfare Committee. Child returned The child who was adopted by a single parent was returned to the Child Welfare Committee after months. 

The woman, a native of Thiruvanantha registered to adopt the child with her husband, but her husband died in the meantime. The woman adopted the child still. However, as she could reconcile, the child was returned to the committee within months. 

Mumbai: A four-year-old girl, kidnapped from near Mumbai CSMT railway station in May, was traced to a Varanasi orphanage, from where she was taken into custody by police and reunited with her family, an official said on Friday.
 

Investigations revealed the girl was abandoned by the roadside by the kidnapper and a woman, on spotting the child alone, took her to the orphanage in the Uttar Pradesh city, he said.
 

A case was registered at the Mata Ramabai Ambedkar (MRA) Marg police station on May 23 after the girl was kidnapped by a man aged around 25 while her parents, originally hailing from Solapur district in western Maharashtra, were asleep near Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station, the official said.
 

During probe, the police examined CCTV footage from the station premises and spotted a man walking away with the child, he said.
 

It was also revealed the kidnapper boarded a local train to Dadar and alighted at Kurla before proceeding to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT), from where long-distance trains depart.

Suspecting the girl was taken to Uttar Pradesh, a Mumbai police team later travelled several times to Varanasi, but could not trace the child initially, he said.

One of the US's most wanted sex offenders has been arrested in France after 14 years. A few years ago, he was able to adopt two children from Vietnam under his assumed name. Now, he is also facing charges in France for the rape of minors.

"A sexual predator with an icy stare," is how Arizona media describes him. The United States has already officially requested the extradition of Michael Wiseman, a man in his forties who has multiple convictions for child sexual abuse.

Wiseman was arrested on November 1st in the town of Kilstett, in the French Alsace region, but the news only just broke. He will now face decades behind bars in the US. When he will be deported is not yet certain. As soon as possible, according to the US authorities.

Wiseman was first arrested in Arizona in February 2008 on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to a spokesperson for the Scottsdale Police Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU). He was suspected at the time of raping minors under the age of 15. In November of that year, while under judicial supervision, he cut off his ankle monitor and fled the US. His name then appeared on Interpol's Most Wanted list for the first time.

SALT LAKE CITY — As she looks back on her experience traveling to Utah to place her child for an adoption, an Arkansas woman says she feels like “giving birth to my baby was a transaction.”

“I was told, ‘You’ve got to have the baby or you’re going to have all these doctor bills and you’re going to have pay this and you’re going to have to pay that,’” Lakaiya, who introduced herself only by her first name, said before the state Legislature’s Judiciary Interim Committee last month.

During her time in Utah earlier this year, documents the group Utah Adoption Rights shared with FOX 13 News show she received more than $18,000 for housing, telephone and utilities; nearly $9,000 for food, household supplies, clothing and entertainment; and $6,000 in postpartum expenses.

“Money, money, money was the stronghold,” she told lawmakers shortly before bursting into tears and rushing out of the room. “Care, support and stability was the illusion.”

Lakaiya's story highlights concerns raised recently by adoption reform advocates, who are seeking changes to laws they say have led the state to become a destination for so-called adoption tourism. Utah’s loose regulations around payments to birth mothers and agencies’ prolific online recruitment practices have led some to deem the state the “wild west for adoption.”

In 2016, LWB decided to expand our successful family-based care model to India. We knew that implementing foster care there would be challenging due to cultural and administrative difficulties. Despite the government passing national laws to promote foster care, most Indian families and officials still see orphanages as the default solution for children without parental care. 

It took us three full years to find a locally-run organization that fit with LWB’s child-centered model for foster care. In 2019, we connected with YCDA (Youth Council for Development Alternatives), who are located in rural Odisha, one of the poorest states in India. For the last six years, we have worked together to help orphaned and vulnerable children grow up in families, not institutions. 

Recently, our local team member, Rini, spent time with the children in our foster care program, asking them simple questions about their daily lives, dreams, and favorite things. Their answers, some quite touching, reveal how much a nurturing foster home can mean to a child who once faced uncertainty.

In this story, we’re sharing some of the children’s responses along with a closer look at how foster care in India is helping children in Odisha grow up surrounded by compassion and hope.

The news

The state government is backtracking on a much-criticised decision that made it difficult for Queenslanders separated by adoption to reconnect with their families.

The Justice Department wrote to Jigsaw Queensland, a forced adoption support service provider, on Tuesday to confirm the reversal of its stance on access to information, based on “further advice”.

This came two months after what had been described as a privacy-related crackdown.

Jigsaw welcomed the change, but lamented the distress and confusion the situation had caused members of the community and called for the rights to be enshrined in law to ensure a similar scenario did not occur again.