https://www.msn.com/en-in/lifestyle/relationships/a-gay-couple-had-twins-via-surrogate-but-were-almost-forced-to-raise-them-separately-the-dads-sued-to-keep-their-family-together-and-won/ar-AA1eXtTU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=32b8c98ffda74ac68f1e059c572df615&ei=15

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• Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks had twins via surrogate. They were conceived using the sperm of each man.
• US immigration refused to recognize the biological son of Israeli-born Elad as an American citizen.

When Andrew and Elad Dvash-Banks showed up at the US consulate in Toronto, they thought getting American passports for their newborn fraternal twins would be relatively straightforward.

The men had decided to move the family to Los Angeles, Andrew's home city. They wanted the boys, who were born via surrogate, to live closer to their relatives, including Andrew's parents and siblings.

BAR HARBOR — Children available for adoption tend to live in countries that think in terms of mother and child but rarely father and child. Robert Klose’s book, “Adopting Anton: A Single Man Seeks a Son in Ukraine,” tells of his experiences as a single adoptive father attempting a second international adoption in the shadow of 9/11.

Jesup Memorial Library is hosting Klose for an author talk at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17.

Presuming that already being an adoptive parent (Klose had previously adopted a boy from a Russian orphanage) would make a second attempt easier, Klose was confronted by a Ukrainian bureaucracy. “Adopting Anton” is the story of a single man determined to bring a 5-year-old boy to a new home in America, but not knowing until the last moment whether his efforts would result in failure or success.

Klose teaches at the University of Maine and is a regular contributor of essays to the Christian Science Monitor. He is also a four-time winner of the Maine Press Association award for opinion writing.

This event is a hybrid program and registration is required at www.jesuplibrary.org/events/klose or email eventsignup@jesuplibrary.org.

(Key Findings at a Glance)

Report : India

Submitted to :
National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights,
th 5 Floor, Chanderlok Building,
36, Janpath,
New Delhi – 110001

The words of an adoptive dad in the video below, “These babies are our challenge…” is the heart of an upcoming adoption seminar NewLife is hosting in Shashemene, Ethiopia.  Our orphanage director has met with leaders of evangelical churches asking for their support to encourage and vet potential adoptive families and to heighten overall interest in adoption in their churches.  Several pastors have adopted from our orphanage and, we are pleased to report, adoption is gaining momentum in the Christian community.

The keynote speaker is a well-known in Christian circles and is passionate about the Church taking responsibility for the orphan crisis in his country.  He is energetic and highly motivational.  Couples that have adopted will share their stories and the adoption process will be explained.  We expect to interact with 50 couples in this one-day workshop that, with God’s anointing, will result in a family for every abandoned child.

With reference to the documentary on TV2 'The secret in the shadow archive' about adoptions from South Korea, we must herewith make a short comment.

As we have previously expressed, the board of Adoption & Society fully supports the adoptees' desire to have certainty. It is absolutely crucial for all parties that the information provided in an adoption case can be trusted. 

The South Korean authorities, like the Danish authorities, have already launched an investigation into a large number of cases from the 70s and 80s. We eagerly await the conclusions of this, as it is essential for many adoptees and their families to find out whether the grounds for release in the cases have been truthful. 

Unfortunately, we have previously seen in connection with this type of investigation that the parties concerned are left without sufficient help from the authorities. All concerned parties, i.e. biological family/foster family, adoptive family and not least, of course, the adopted themselves, must be offered the necessary assistance and advice to handle both the emotional issues and the concrete, practical questions they/we face. This applies both before, during and after the conclusions are presented.

After viewing part 2 of the documentary, we will make a more in-depth statement in relation to this necessary support as well as the possibility of an impartial investigation. 

Sarah Ineichen had not expected these consequences: Five years ago she went public with her story and told how she was brought to Switzerland from Sri Lanka and adopted here as a baby under questionable circumstances.

From then on nothing was the same again. Her phone kept ringing. Dozens of those affected came forward, and soon there were hundreds. And everyone reported a similar experience. Sarah Ineichen just wanted to clarify the question of where her own roots are.

For her, the birth of her own children was a decisive factor: "That's when I realized: It can't be that a mother voluntarily gives her child away without leaving a mark on her," says Sarah Ineichen. “The pain of being separated from my mother and the need to find her consumed me completely.”

Looking for her mother

She was only able to trace her origins once she had put down roots herself with her family. And so in 2017, full of hope, she traveled to Sri Lanka with the information on her birth certificate from 1981. 

But the longed-for meeting with her mother did not happen. She did find the woman who was listed as the mother on the birth certificate. But as it later turned out, she was an acting mother; a woman who had been bought to play mother to the authorities and give her consent to the adoption.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making a push to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) mandated by Article 44 of India’s constitution. The UCC would be a single code of marriage and family law that would apply to all citizens equally regardless of their religion and local customs. While much of the focus of the debate has been on marriage law, adoption law, too, deserves serious attention.

Current drawbacks of adoption laws in India

Without the UCC, there are currently different adoption laws for different religious communities. There are a number of drawbacks, including:

— Lack of uniformity in the rights of adopted children. The rights of
adopted children vary depending on the religious community.
Under Hindu law, an adopted child is considered to be the
natural child of the adoptive parents. Under Islamic law, an
adopted child is not considered to be equivalent to a natural
child of the adoptive parents.

— Discrimination. The different laws governing adoption can also
lead to discrimination against certain groups of people, such as
single people, same-sex couples and interfaith couples. This can
make it more difficult for these groups of people to adopt a
child.

The Karnataka High Court has said that a son, born in 'Batil' marriage (void-ab-initio) under Mohammadan Law, is illegitimate and does not possess any right of succession under the law. A single judge bench of Justice V Srishananda allowed the appeal filed by one Nabisab Agnnamani (original plaintiff) and set aside the order of the first appellate court which granted half share of...

MEA’s statement came as opposition MPs stepped up campaign for return of child to India, who has been taken from parents due to allegations of abuse 

Amidst calls by the opposition for the government to take up the case of Baby Ariha Shah, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that it had summoned the German Ambassador over the 2-year-old child’s situation in foster care in Germany.

The disclosure came a day after Ariha’s mother Dhara Shah met with Members of Parliament to appeal for help, and at the very least for India to press for Ariha to be transferred to a foster home in India, where she can be raised as an Indian and amidst her own Jain community.

‘Cultural rights infringed’

“At a minimum we believe this child’s cultural rights and rights as an Indian are being infringed upon by her being placed in German foster care,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters, adding that the 2021 case was being accorded “high priority”. 

No fewer than 61 meters of thousands of adoption files have been destroyed by the Ministry of Justice. That should not have been allowed, the Inspectorate for Government Information and Heritage recently ruled. For adopted children who are searching for their roots, it is yet another proof that they have little to expect from this government. That really needs to change.

The destroyed files contain information about couples who wanted to adopt a child and about how adopted children eventually ended up in the Netherlands. It is yet another mistake in the scandal-ridden adoption practice, about which the Joustra committee already cracked down on two years ago. The committee painted a shocking picture of a derailed sector in which the wishes of adoptive parents outweighed the interests of the child to be adopted. Financial incentives open the door to child trafficking, theft and corruption. In other words, abuses that the Dutch government knew about, but did not take action against.

So far, The Hague's response to that report has been twofold. The previous government generously acknowledged that there had been decades of failure in monitoring adoption practices. That is why foreign adoption is further limited and supervision is tightened.

After the judge, the matter is not over yet

You would think: anyone who sees their own failure so clearly would do everything they can to pick up the pieces. But that is not the reality in The Hague: it is mainly characterized by an often very painful jurisprudence and stinginess for the adopted children. One adoption lawsuit follows another, in which the government is regularly held liable for damage suffered. And even then, after the judge the matter is usually not over. For example, outgoing Minister Weerwind (adoption) has appealed against the court ruling that orders the state to pay compensation for an illegal adoption from Brazil. In another adoption case, which had already ended up in court, the government appealed - because there too the state was ordered to pay compensation.