Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind wants to resume intercountry adoptions and set up a 'new' adoption system with stricter conditions. The best interests of the child must come first [BD April 8; 'Adoption from abroad will now go through the state'].

Opinions differ on what this importance means. "Stop," says one. "Continue," says the other. The minister wants to accommodate both groups. The result, however well-intentioned, is a dragon of compromise that does not resolve structural abuses. It should not be about the supporters and opponents of adoptions from abroad. It is about protecting vulnerable children against the loss of their identity and preventing abuses.

irreversible

One child suffering from intercountry adoption is one too many. The same goes for their birth parents. Intercountry adoption is very drastic for children. They are separated from their birth parents and country of birth. This is irreversible and has a major impact on the development of their identity. When they look for information about their adoption, their original family and origins, that information often proves impossible to retrieve. This causes anger, pain and sadness among many, now adults, intercountry adoptees and their birth parents.

The problem with this adoption is that the system entails structural abuses. An 'adoption market' has emerged, in which the demand for adopted children creates supply. Even the government has been involved in fraudulent adoptions in the past. The minister acknowledges that it is impossible to set up the system in such a way that abuses can be prevented. He wants to reduce the risks by merging the brokerage firms and placing them under stricter government authority. But we already know that this will actually have no effect. The Netherlands has no say whatsoever in the countries of origin. The country of origin itself determines whether a child can be offered for intercountry adoption.

When Sumi's husband (47) came out, she needed time to process that. When a beautiful friendship finally blossomed between the two, Fred (then 38) was murdered by his new partner.

Through House Bill 450, the Legislature decided that it knows what's best for adoption — even more so than the brave women who choose confidential adoption.

I am an attorney, and more humbly, an adoptee. I met my birth parents 18 years after I was placed for adoption — after I received a call from the law firm facilitating my adoption that my birth mother was interested in an update. I loved my birth mother for her decision and would have never sought her identifying information without her consent.

Adoption confidentiality was a right ensured by Louisiana law for women who choose confidential adoption as a part of their adoption plans.

Now, adoptee advocates have framed this debate as an “equal rights” issue and made emotional appeals that they, as adoptees, are “wards of the state” which has somehow “deprived them of their origin.” These advocates have also advanced red herrings, arguing that because most birth mothers choose open adoption, that somehow defeats the fact that some choose confidential adoption.

These advocates also argue they are not seeking their birth certificates for reunion purposes, but simultaneously oppose redaction of their birth parents’ names on the certificates.

It all began on a rainy day in the centre of Canterbury.

I was waiting patiently in line at Costa to grab my usual cappuccino, when this handsome guy started chatting in the queue with me…

At the time I was flattered, but years later I have had to face the truth that Kyle chats with anyone!

‘Forced’ to sit together in the packed coffee-shop, we ended up swapping numbers and, some months later, arranged to meet for a drink in Rochester. When he was 15 minutes late, and I called him, he told me he was ‘just parking the car’.

Years later, he confessed he was just leaving the house – it turns out ‘just parking the car’ would be an excuse he’d use countless times over the years – but I’m so pleased that I waited around for another 15 minutes.

Minister of the Family, pro-adoption message: "It is one of the noblest gestures / The process has been much simplified and will become even easier / Of the more than 47,000 children in the special protection system, almost 6,000 are adoptable"

The Minister of the Family, Gabriela Firea, says that out of the over 47,000 children in the special protection system, almost 6,000 are adoptable and are just waiting for the right family.

"Adoption is one of the noblest gestures people can make. Love does not take into account DNA, ethnicity or hair color. Every child deserves love, a home and a family to guide them in life. Today, June 2, is National Adoption Day. I take this opportunity to tell you that adoption is the only chance that thousands of children in the care of the state have to grow up with the love of a mother and a father ", says the Minister of Family.

She points out that of the more than 47,000 children in the special protection system, almost 6,000 are adoptable and are just waiting for the right family.

"The adoption process has been greatly simplified and will become easier with the new computer system through which we modernize the child protection system. Adoptive parents will no longer be required to come to the "counter" for documents, and everything will be digital, online. A huge step for this complex process. Last year alone, nearly 1,600 children arrived in loving families, a record for the past 20 years. Children are our good and bright future. Everyone has the right to live and grow up with a family ", Firea also writes.

On October 20th, at 13:00-15:00 in Grotiuszaal (A051 KOG) the advanced International Children’s Rights program and the Leiden Institute of Immigration Law will co-organize a lecture by Ms. Margaret Tuite, the European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child.

The lecture is part of the monthly meeting tradition of the International Children’s Rights program, and will focus on the on-going European refugee crisis, and its implications for children ‘’on the move’’.

Ms. Tuite will introduce the work of the European Commission in relation to child refugees and asylum seekers in Europe, both accompanied or unaccompanied by their family members. She will present the particular issues relating to children in the European migration and refugee context, addressing, among others, figures and data collection, child detention, and access to justice. Following the lecture, there will be a Q&A session, to enable students to raise questions and other relevant topics for discussion.

This is a unique opportunity to learn more on the European refugee crisis, receive a first-hand account on the activities of the European Commission in that regard, and reflect on the issue from a child-centered approach.

Students from the International Children’s Rights program, the Dutch Child Law program and students of the European Migration law course are invited, but the lecture is also open to other students that wish to join. If you plan on coming, please send your registration to Ms. Vera Versluis (Email: v.c.blankestijn@law.leidenuniv.nl).

This temporary commission of inquiry was established as of April 1, 2021 by Minister Grapperhaus of Justice and Security (JenV). This independent commission investigates the phenomenon of organized sadistic abuse of minors. The committee would finalize its investigation report in July 2022. More time is needed, the investigation report will be ready in November 2022.

Task of the Hendriks committee

A motion by Van den Berge (GroenLinks), Van Nispen (SP) and Kuiken (PvdA) (October 2020) requested an independent investigation into the nature and extent of organized sadistic abuse of children. Experiences of ritual abuse survivors and those of their therapists are included. The results of this can help in an effective detection of these networks.

In other motions related to this, an inquiry was also made into the National Expertise Group Special Sexual Affairs (LEBZ). They have also been asked to set up a hotline for victims and families of sectarian abuse. On the basis of the outcome of the assessment of the research assignment by the WODC and the political and social urgency of the problems, Minister Grapperhaus has set up an independent commission of inquiry. The committee has been given the following task:

Report to the minister on organized sadistic abuse of minors in the Netherlands. We use as many sources as possible for this. This includes victims, therapists, scientific sources and experts in this specific field. On the basis of the findings, give the minister an advice about the investigation.

With the help of the Donorkind Foundation, donor children found ten fertility doctors in the past five years who used their own sperm without permission to conceive children with women who wanted to have children. Not all those cases have appeared in the media, board member Ester de Lau of the foundation told NU.nl.

Some cases, such as those of well-known sperm doctors such as Jan Karbaat, Jan Wildschut or Jos Beek, have been extensively in the news in recent years. These doctors used their own semen instead of the intended father's to father dozens of children. For example, Karbaat has at least 81 offspring, which increases the risk of love relationships between siblings.

Donorkind Foundation searches for fathers of donor children in commercial DNA databases. Over the past five years, they found a total of 150 to 200 fathers of thousands of children. De Lau finds it "difficult" that especially the donor doctors and their descendants receive a lot of attention in the press. "It is always very much about the abuses, while Monday (the Day of the Donor Child, ed.) is a day to celebrate."

At the same time, the abuses also generate more attention, concludes the board member. "Every time a doctor is in the news, we get a flood of applications from donor children." The attention also ensures that parents start talking to their children.

'Being the doctor is an extra handicap'

SHAH ALAM: The High Court here has allowed an Algerian man’s application for a paternity test to be conducted on an adopted male child.

The man’s lover had given the child up for adoption, without his knowledge, 12 days after giving birth.

Judge SM Komathy said should the result of the DNA test prove so, the plaintiff will also be declared the biological father.

In her judgment released last week, Komathy said the plaintiff had strong prima facie evidence that he is the biological father as there was compelling evidence that the biological mother and the plaintiff had a sexual relationship.

“The plaintiff has produced adequate corroborative evidence to show that there is a good possibility that he is the birth father, and only a DNA test can confirm conclusively the veracity of his claim,” she said.

Vive research helps to stamp out the government's plans for more adoptions as a social measure, but the report's conclusions lack the necessary reservations and nuances, writes Anette Faye Jacobsen, senior researcher at the Department of Human Rights.

Anette Faye Jacobsen

Ph.d. and senior researcher, Department of Human Rights

This post is merely an expression of the writer's own position. All submissions to the Althing must comply with the rules of press ethics.

A new Vive report fits like a glove for politicians who want to lean on science when the Child's Law is to be presented.