- What if someone had asked my biological mother: "Did you think it was for the best that your child was stolen from you?"

Imagine your child being stolen from you. Kidnapped. You do not know where your child is or how he is doing. The pain you live with as a result is inhumane. What you don't know is that the kidnapping is the reason why your child has been adopted to the other side of the world. Decades after the criminal acts took place, you are reunited. Maybe the kidnapping of the child was worth it, as long as the child was okay.

Distasteful wording

What a strange thing to say, you might think. Kidnapping and "worth it". Two things that don't belong together. When I read the NRK article To persons i ein this summer , my stomach twisted. 

The article deals with the case of John Erik Aasheim, who was kidnapped as a child in Colombia and adopted to Norway. Journalist Oddgeir Øystese writes the following towards the end of the article: " John Erik, Jhonatan, has managed to bring together two different lives, two different lives. Was it then for the best that once upon a time he was the chair of his family?" The wording of the question is unmusical, distasteful and objectionable.

 

In a larger context

For the record: It is the wording of the question itself that I criticize. I am not criticizing Aasheim's experience of his own history or his feelings and thoughts about the circumstances surrounding his adoption. He owns that experience. 

However, it is the journalist who owns the question and its formulation. Nor do I claim that the intention of Øystese is actually to legitimize kidnapping, but as the question is formulated, it can be perceived as such. An independent review of adoptions to Norway has been agreed . Recently, there have been several cases in the media about illegal and irregular adoptions. Including but not limited to cases of kidnapping, human trafficking and false, incomplete or missing documents. VG has covered the case of Simon from Ecuador , Camilla who was abducted from her home and Frank Auset, Luis Bråtveit and Mikael Jacome who were mediated via the controversial



the lawyer Roberto Moncayo in Ecuador. Lawyer Moncayo was charged with buying and selling children through a network he organized.

ON ONE SIDE OF THE GLOBE I HAVE BEEN DEAD FOR 34 YEARS

VG has also covered adoption fraud from South Korea. Stavanger Aftenblad has had extensive coverage of the illegal adoption of Inger Tone U. Shin . TV2 covered the case of Adriana Esmeralda Lid from Costa Rica. She was stolen from her mother, and her mother has been looking for her for 32 years. In Norway behind the facade , season 3, in the episode called "The shadow side of adoption", several cases are also covered. Among other things, we hear about the case of Magnus Roberto Villanueva , who had forged papers and was kidnapped from his family in Colombia and adopted to Norway. Point 2.3 of the Be careful poster reads

: "Show openness about underlying conditions that may be relevant to the public's perception of the journalistic content." It appears as if Øystese has forgotten to take this point into account, seen in light of everything that is happening in the adoption field now. 

Although his question is asked directly to Aasheim, Øystese neither can nor should close his eyes to how the wording of the question can be perceived in a larger context. I have spoken to several adoptees who have reacted strongly to the wording of the question. 

Child theft will never be okay - my mother knows that

I myself am adopted from Colombia. Three months ago I found my biological mother. April 8, 2023 is the first time she has seen me. How is it, you might wonder. Yes, I was kidnapped and stolen from my mother. She says that I was taken out of the room immediately. The staff where she gave birth had told her that I was stillborn. She had begged to see me even though I was dead. There's nothing unusual about that, but she didn't get it. I wasn't dead. She says that her life stopped and that she was devastated after this. On one side of the globe I have been dead for 34 years. Here on the other side of the globe, in Norway, I have been alive for the same number of years. It would have worked out if someone asked my biological mother: "Did you think it was for the best that your child was stolen from you?"





Anyone in their right mind, I think, understands that kidnapping and stealing children can never, under any circumstances, be said to be worthwhile or for the best. Kidnapping is a crime. 

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