There was a poignant report about adoption in the Volkskrant . 'It is around the age of 18 that Zenebe, who comes from Ethiopia, says out loud for the first time that it might have been better if he hadn't been adopted. Zenebe: 'Then I might live in poverty, but I would live with my family and without this hassle in my head all the time.'

Being able to grow up in the family where you were born is a foundation in human life. I am surprised that in the discussion on custodial placements we are no longer learning from the insights of the adoption debate. In general, adopted children are placed in fairly close-knit families. But even then, adoptees often struggle with attachment problems, trauma and grief for life.

Poverty

Poverty plays a fundamental role in adoption and also in youth care and it leads to children being separated from their parents.

Poverty alone is not a ground for the removal of a child, ministers emphasized time and again after parliamentary questions about the children of benefit victims who have been removed from their homes. 'But the practice turns out to be complicated', commented Mariëlle Bruning, professor of juvenile law. 'The government has a duty to provide money and housing, but in the Netherlands you see that this is often not fulfilled. Due to financial problems, stress can become so high that you as a parent can no longer function well enough.'

In a mix-up, the hospital handed over the living baby to another woman instead of the actual mother, Nazma Khanam, due to the similarity in their names.

Three years after a hospital switched a woman's newborn in Assam’s Barpeta district, she was finally able to unite with her son following a court directive.

Three years back, two pregnant women were admitted to a government-run hospital in Assam’s Barpeta district where they gave birth to two babies, but one of the infants was stillborn.

In a mix-up, the hospital handed over the living baby to another woman instead of the actual mother, Nazma Khanam, due to the similarity in their names. Following the court’s directive, as per the DNA report, the original mother has been able to get her baby after three years.

Advocate Abdul Mannan said that the family members of Nazma Khanam’s claimed that she gave birth to a healthy baby and the baby couldn’t die.

Rob Marrevee (60), adoptive father of sons Zenebe (25) and Jarra (22), in his book Vaderland puts an end to the 'fairytale' that a child from a poor country can be 'saved' with enough love. His sons support him. "My mission is to break something open."

"And where are you originally from?"

"From Ethiopia."

'Oh, you speak Dutch very well.'

'Yes, that's right, I grew up here. I've been adopted.'

More than ever, India is witnessing an increase in divorce cases, multiple marriages, live-in relationships, having stepchildren, children from previous marriage, adopted children, children born out of wedlock. In this article we explain to you the inheritance rights of the partner and the child in context of the succession laws and the court judgements for Hindus in India.

Rights of children from divorced parents:

If you have children from your divorced spouse, then such children (your biological children) would be your legal heirs as specified under the Class I legal heirs of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. Even if you do not have the custody of your child and do not have any ties with your children, they would still be entitled to inherit your properties unless you prepare a succession plan and mention otherwise. The children from divorced spouse will have an equal right over the properties in addition to the other legal heirs even though you may have settled off the matter with your divorced partner in terms of alimony and maintenance. Your biological children will have a right to inherit from your assets and if you wish to distribute your assets in a different manner due to remarriage, change in relations, then you need to prepare a succession plan accordingly.

Rights of stepchildren:

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 does not recognize stepchildren (children of your spouse from his/her previous marriage), as natural legal heirs unless you lawfully adopt them. In order to bequeath a share of your property to them, you need to include them under your succession plan. Your step son or step daughter will not have any right in your property because under the Hindu Succession Act 1956, a step son or step daughter does not fall within the purview of a “son” or “daughter” and therefore, has no legal right to your property, unless you specifically bequeath a share to him or her under your Will.

This is a summary of the research report Health and social living conditions of internationally adopted adults , a report from CHESS and Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University on behalf of the Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support (MFoF). The report in its entirety can be downloaded hereLink to another website.. Behind the report are Anders Hjern, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet and CHESS, Stockholm University / Karolinska Institutet, and Bo Vinnerljung, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University.

There are about 60,000 internationally adopted in Sweden today. 20 years ago, register studies from the National Board of Health and Welfare showed that the internationally adopted had a significantly increased risk of psychiatric care and suicide during adolescence and young adulthood. This new report examined whether the high psychiatric morbidity of internationally adopted patients persists into adulthood. The report also focuses on social living conditions in adulthood in the form of family formation, childbirth and work, where the follow-up time in previous studies has been too short to allow any definite conclusions.

Study population and data

The study was based on anonymised data from national registers provided by Statistics Sweden and the National Board of Health and Welfare. The study population consisted of internationally adopted and refugees originating in Asia, Latin America and Africa who arrived in Sweden before the age of eight and native Swedes with a Swedish background. The analyzes of psychiatric morbidity were based on longitudinal data on 1.6 million individuals born 1973-1986 who were followed from the age of 18 until 2017 (31-45 years), of which just over 18,000 were internationally adopted and 22,000 refugees. The analyzes of social living conditions were based on people born in 1972-1983, and this also included a group of more than 900 Swedish adoptees, adoptees who were born in Sweden and had been adopted in early childhood.

Doubled risk for inpatient psychiatric care

NEW DELHI: In an important judgment relating to partition of property among Hindus, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that an illegitimate child of a couple cohabiting for long without marriage would be entitled to a share in the family property.

Reversing a Kerala HC judgment that disallowed property share claim of an alleged illegitimate son of a couple who did not marry, a bench of Justices S ABdul Nazeer and Vikram Nath said the couple in question had cohabited for a very long time to make their relationship as good as a married couple and hence, their son would be entitled to appropriate share in the ancestral property.

Settling a 40 year-old dispute that oscillated between the trial court, High Court and the SC, the bench said, "We have also perused the evidence of the defendants. We are of the view that the defendants have failed to rebut the presumption in favour of a marriage between Damodaran and Chiruthakutty on account of their long cohabitation." The SC restored the trial court judgment which had decreed the suit in favour of partitioning the ancestral property with appropriate share to the son of the couple.

The SC said the documents produced by the so-called illegitimate son were much prior to the controversy arising between parties. The other side, children of the brother of the so-called illegitimate son's father.

The bench said, "These documents, coupled with the evidence of a witness, would show the long duration of cohabitation between Damodaran and Chiruthakutty as husband and wife. The first plaintiff joined military service in 1963 and retired in 1979. Thereafter he has taken the steps to file a suit for partition of the suit schedule property."

The following extract by Mary Harney comes from the essay “Testimony,” which opens the collection REDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice edited by Katherine O’Donnell, Maeve O’Rourke and James M. Smith and recently published by University College Dublin Press.

How will Ireland redress its legacy of institutional abuse and forced adoption? What constitutes justice? How might democracy evolve if the survivors’ experiences and expertise were allowed to lead the response to a century of gender and family separation-based abuses?

In addition to asking such questions, the essays in REDRESS focus on the structures which perpetuated widespread and systematic abuses in the past and consider how political arrangements continue to exert power over survivors, adopted people and generations of relatives, as well as controlling the remains and memorialisation of the dead.

With diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives, they consider how a Transitional Justice-based, survivor-centred, approach might assist those personally affected, policymakers, the public, and academics to evaluate the complex ways in which both the Republic and Northern Ireland have responded to their histories of institutionalisation and forced family separation. Importantly, the essays seek to offer avenues by which to redress this legacy of continuing harms.

Mary Harney is a Maine resident, civil-rights activist, painter and educator; she completed her Master’s Degree in Irish Studies (2013) and Masters in International Human Rights Law (2020) at NUI-Galway.

AMSTERDAM - The pedo activist Nelson M. (27) who had fled from the Netherlands was arrested in Mexico City on Sunday. During his arrest, according to Mexican authorities, data carriers containing files containing child pornography were seized. A firearm with bullets and cocaine was also found. The arrest has been confirmed by organizations working against child abuse.

Mexican media brings up the arrest, portraying Nelson M. as the leader of an international network of pedophiles. The prosecutor's office in Mexico City confirms the arrest and shares images of it.

M.'s Dutch lawyer, Theo Hiddema, reacted with surprise on Tuesday morning about the arrest of his client: "You are attacking me. I'm just reading the whole story. So I can't give a substantive response yet. I was occasionally in contact with him through the app, but I do not know any background to this arrest at the moment.”

Extradition

M. fled last year from the Netherlands where several criminal cases are pending against him. With his flight to Mexico, M. tried to avoid his sentences, including for possession of child pornography. It is still unclear whether the Netherlands will ask for his extradition.

Even as Indians are opening up to the idea of adoption by single parents or adopting a sibling for their biological child, they remain averse to accepting children with special needs.

Fewer than 50 children with special needs found a home within India in the past three financial years, accounting for less than 1% of the total 9,443 in-country adoptions between 2019-20 and 2021-22.

However, applicants from outside India are considerably more open to embracing children with special needs. Such children comprised 39.1%, 56.1% and 73% of the total inter-country adoptions in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively. The category covers non-resident Indians, overseas citizens of India and foreign prospective adoptive parents.

“The motivation of parents outside India is different. They are mentally prepared to take care of such children. Also, it is not just the parents who adopt such kids but the entire country does that,” a senior Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) official told ET on condition of anonymity. “Such applicants have to compulsorily undertake a 34-hour course in their country before applying for adoption.

They also undergo several preadoption counselling sessions.” CARA is a statutory body of the ministry of women & child development.

Do I have much more family? How much more family do I have? Who are my siblings? These are many of the questions counselor and coach Maureen Davis's clients grapple with. Due to the extensive media attention surrounding donor conception and gynaecologists who used their own sperm, among other things, more donor children are now looking for where they come from.

Maureen Davis started at the age of 58 in addition to her work on a four-year college degree as a counselor and coach, majoring in psychology. The years-long search for her information about her silently unknown Indian father runs like a red thread through her life. Her father died during the search. Unfortunately she never got to meet him. Nevertheless, she went on a search for information about her father, met his relatives and got to know her half-brother and half-sister. Through her own experiences she understands the feelings of donor children all too well.

During her bachelor's degree in psychology, she researched the desire to know from whom you are descended and placed this desire in a broad social context. In 2014 her book Treasures in Aunt's Basement, Search for the Unknown Biological Parent was published . It is Maureen's personal conviction that wanting to know who your biological parents are is a primal urge, a primal desire. During the course of his life, someone who does not know his origin is confronted with a variety of complex feelings, such as insecurity, lack of self-confidence and identity problems. Feelings that – out of fear and shame – are often suppressed and concealed for years.

No research has yet been conducted in the Netherlands into how not knowing your biological father can influence the development of donor children, but international studies and the demand for help that has already arisen in the Netherlands have shown that it does have an influence.

Guidance