Back in 1991, when China passed its first stand-alone adoption law, state-run orphanages routinely gave foundlings the surnames “Dang” (meaning Party) or “Guo” (meaning Country). These unusual names marked children for life and were meant to. That way foundlings would not forget what they owed the Communist Party. Such names were banned in all orphanages only in 2012.

It is a mark of how China has changed that its first-ever Civil Code, a fat volume of laws covering everything from marriage to property rights, approved on May 28th, revises adoption rules to make it easier for children to be raised in private homes. A big change eliminates the rule that—except in special cases, for instance involving adoptions of disabled children from orphanages—only childless Chinese may adopt. From next year, the childless will be allowed to adopt two children, whereas parents with one biological child may adopt another. Those changes reflect a broader easing of laws that, from 1980 to 2016, restricted most urban families to a single child. A further amendment raises the maximum age for being adopted from 14 to 18.

A Queensland coroner's recommendation that adoption be "routinely and genuinely" considered for children in out-of-home care has been met with scepticism by some child protection advocates, who describe adoption as a "drastic" move.

Key points:

The deputy state coroner recommended the child safety department ensure adoption is routinely considered

Some child protection advocates say adoption is only suitable for a very small number of children

The State Government is considering all the deputy coroner's recommendations

Hundreds of published studies over the last decade have claimed it's possible to predict an individual’s patterns of thoughts and feelings by scanning their brain in an MRI machine as they perform some mental tasks.

But a new analysis by some of the researchers who have done the most work in this area finds that those measurements are highly suspect when it comes to drawing conclusions about any individual person’s brain.

Watching the brain through a functional MRI machine (fMRI) is still great for finding the general brain structures involved in a given task across a group of people, said Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University who led the reanalysis.

“Scanning 50 people is going to accurately reveal what parts of the brain, on average, are more active during a mental task, like counting or remembering names,” Hariri said

Functional MRI measures blood flow as a proxy for brain activity. It shows where blood is being sent in the brain, presumably because neurons in that area are more active during a mental task.

“It was always my goal to be able to have a boy,” wrote Dennis S. in a chat. “Pictures don't replace a boy.” The 38-year-old from Berlin-Hellersdorf had his child carried by a surrogate mother in Cyprus. Now he faces long imprisonment. Because the prosecution assumes that the “acquisition” of a child should specifically serve to “act out the pedophile inclination ”.

Dennis S. stared at the floor as the defense attorney supplemented his testimony in the district court on Tuesday. There was talk of a great "desire for children", for which the homosexual man had sought a way to fulfill. Since surrogacy is forbidden in Germany, he went abroad.

After the birth in August 2016, there was a court hearing in Cyprus. "The surrogate mother waived custody," said the defense attorney. What he paid and where he got the money from remained open.

The Father's Outrageous Motive: Child Abuse. Dennis S. filmed sexual assault on Finn (name changed). 16 cases from June to October 2019 are charged. The boy is two years old when he first acts.

How could Dennis S., a bachelor, bring the boy to Berlin? "Tricky", they say. An employee of the Marzahn-Hellersdorf youth welfare office said that S. had reported about a woman. You left him for another partner in Russia. He was given the choice - "Abortion or I'll take the child". With valid papers, he traveled to Berlin with the baby in October 2016.

See mail Laura Martinez Mora: ICAV put subsidiairty on the agneda

Even before she was married, Kavita Baluni Kaktwan knew she wanted to be a mother to a baby girl. But this child would not be a biological one. She wanted to adopt and give her a home and all the joy in the world.

When four-year-old Veda Baluni Kaktwan’s parents got married in 2012, little did they know that she would change their lives, and make them “the happiest parents in the world”. In 2017, when she entered their lives at 16 months of age, Veda made them the first Indian couple to have adopted a baby with Down syndrome. Three years later, as the family celebrates the adoption anniversary on May 30, Kavita talks to indianexpress.com about the journey.

“Adoption was a dream of mine, ever since I was a teenager. I was not interested in having a biological child. This is something I had told my husband before marriage. He was always a feminist, and I knew it when I met him through an arranged marriage setup that we are not going to be an ordinary couple and there is a reason that we have met. When I told him of my plans, he asked for three days to process it. And then he said there is absolutely nothing wrong with the plan; he was game. He said when we do adopt a child in the future, it was going to be a baby girl,” recalls the Ghaziabad resident.

YouTube mom Myka Stauffer had adopted a Chinese child in 2017, just to give him back because he was autistic. Naturally, she was at the receiving end of overwhelming hatred, with many claiming that the entire adoption process was just an act of monetisation as the couple did make a lot of money post adoption. And then there is a couple in India who adopted a 16-month-old child with Down Syndrome.

Kavita and her husband Himanshu adopted Veda in 2017 and three years later, the couple celebrated their adoption anniversary on 30 May. Kavita shared how she was always interested in adopting a child and was never interested in having a biological child. She has confided in her husband about this wish before they got married and he was on the same page and didn’t want them to be an ordinary couple. They had decided beforehand that they would adopt a baby girl.

One would wonder what made them adopt a child with special needs, to which Kavita shared that it was on their trip to the US, they made up their mind. They learned about kids with Down Syndrome and decided that they wanted to fight the stigma attached to special needs and stability. “We wanted to provide an environment, a home and cater to their physical and mental needs.”

They adopted Veda when they were already married for over 5 years. The family was upset over their decision to not have biological children and felt uncomfortable whenever they broached on the topic of adoption. “Our family was not happy when we adopted a child with special needs but we had made up our minds by then. We knew we had to do it for Veda, if not for ourselves.”

The couple did not send Veda to school and have been homeschooling her. They exclusively told a leading website, “We do not believe in formal education. We feel every child is different and has a different learning curve. Their pace is different, too. We let Veda decide what she wants to do. My day starts with having breakfast and doing activities with her. She loves watering plants and painting. We also involve speech and occupational therapy while she does her activities. We go up and down the stairs to strengthen her muscles, and this is pretty much our daily routine.”

THOOTHUKUDI: District Child Protection Unit decided to hand over a toddler rescued in an illegal child adoption case here, to their counterparts in Nagapattinam after the father was arrested for being involved.

Earlier, Ashraf lodged a complaint with Madurai Collector TG Vinay against his friend Hassan Mohammed alleging that he sold his three-year-old girl illegally to a Thoothukudi-based couple.

Thoothukudi Child protection Unit rescued the toddler from the couple and shifted her to Muthukuviyal, a government authorised child home in the district.

Meanwhile, Nagore police investigated Ashraf, who spilled the beans. The investigation revealed that Ashraf was one of the mediators in the case, and that there was a brawl following the money share.

Sources said that there were two more mediators -- Fatima and Kamaru Nisha. It is also said that Ashraf has sold his another daughter to a couple in Kumbakonam.

When Mugalu* was adopted, his birth family says they were told they would still be able to speak to him regularly and he would come back for visits. “They said we would be one big happy family,” says his mother, Sylvia, wiping away tears.

But Sylvia, 40, has not seen her son since he was adopted from Uganda almost seven years ago by an American couple. She is now fighting to get her son back, taking her case to the high court in Uganda and exploring her legal options in the US.

Mugalu’s adoption was arranged through an organisation called Amani Ya Zion, which claimed to be a non-profit that “raises orphans and disregarded Ugandans to be leaders through true self sustainability”, in Kampala.

Sylvia’s family say they were led to believe by Amani Ya Zion that Mugalu, who was five at the time, was going to the US to get a better education, and would be in the care of a couple from Louisiana.

“They [Amani Ya Zion] said we were blessed to have this chance,” adds Sylvia, who works for a telecoms company, and lives in Kampala with her husband, Alex, and their toddler, Lenz.

WEBSITE HELPT GEADOPTEERDEN EN VERLOREN FAMILIE TE HERENIGEN

‘We willen geadopteerden emotioneel voorbereiden’

Contact maken met de oorspronkelijke familie is voor geadopteerden een delicate zaak. Een website wil hulp bieden.

VAN ONZE REDACTRICE ANOUK TORBEYNS

BRUSSELWat als ik geadopteerd ben en mijn oorspronkelijke familie wil zoeken of contacteren? De website A-search tracht geadopteerden met deze vragen een eind op weg te helpen. Hij is gemaakt door en voor geadopteerden.