Beat Jans wants to ban adoptions abroad – Parliament puts a stop to his move

Until 1999, thousands of children came to Switzerland to be adopted by parents, sometimes under dubious circumstances. Nevertheless, the Federal Council's adoption ban is likely to fail – including because of two people directly affected.

Shortly :

• Thousands of children came to Switzerland through illegal practices between 1970 and 1999.
• The Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council rejects the adoption ban proposed by the Federal Council by a majority.
• Two directly affected National Council members are actively campaigning against the ban.

It could have been a rewarding deal for the asylum-plagued Justice Minister Beat Jans. Everyone agrees: The suffering of children adopted from abroad under questionable circumstances must not be repeated. According to the latest findings, between 1970 and 1999, several thousand children from abroad were brought to Switzerland for adoption through child trafficking, with forged documents, missing information about their origins, or through other illegal practices.

The Federal Council is therefore proposing a future ban on adoptions from abroad. "In adoptions, the child's well-being must be given greater weight than the adoptive parents' desire to have a child," Jans said at the end of January when presenting the proposal. Jans and the Federal Council based their decision on the findings of a group of experts. The group concluded that abuse in international adoptions can never be completely ruled out. 

But now Parliament is interfering with the Justice Minister's efforts. On Thursday, the National Council will most likely adopt a motion from its Legal Affairs Committee, which seeks to prohibit the Federal Council from imposing such a ban. All party representatives in the Legal Affairs Committee, except for Jans's SP party colleagues, supported this approach. The vast majority found that a ban would stigmatize the affected families. 

«Overshot the target»

"The Federal Council has clearly overshot the mark here," says SVP National Councilor Nina Fehr Düsel. There are still around 30 cases of international adoptions in Switzerland each year. Given this number, a ban makes no sense. Furthermore, there are also many cases in which adoptions are beneficial for everyone involved, Fehr Düsel adds.

Green National Councilor Sibel Arslan also opposes the adoption ban proposed by the Federal Council. "Banning is useless in combating abuse," she says. In response to the sometimes blatant abuses of the past, stricter frameworks, further investigation, harsh punishments for perpetrators, and support for those affected, for example in the search for their biological parents, are needed. 

What Jans and his team apparently failed to consider sufficiently: There are two people in the National Council directly affected who are also campaigning against such an adoption ban. EPP National Councilor Nik Gugger was born in India and adopted by a Swiss couple. He considers his adoption a success and describes his life as a stroke of luck. "I had a loving environment and a career," he told this editorial team a few weeks ago. Gugger launched a petition and collected several thousand signatures against the impending adoption ban. 

Directly affected parties in Parliament

The second person directly affected is Stefan Müller-Altermatt, a centrist National Councilor who recently adopted a boy with Down syndrome from Armenia. He says: "The adoption was the best thing I've ever done in my life." Müller-Altermatt is convinced that it would have been better "to improve adoption law from the beginning instead of talking about a ban." The centrist National Councilor acknowledges the Federal Council's good intentions: Beat Jans wanted to initiate a broad discussion. "But he forgot who would be affected by such a ban: parents and children." It's simply very emotional. 

Even within Jans's own party, the SP, there are no unconditional supporters of the adoption ban. She rejects the committee's motion, says SP National Councilor Tamara Funiciello. However, this is not because she necessarily wants to ban adoptions, but rather because she finds the actions of the majority of the committee strange. "It's strange to ban a ban that isn't even in effect yet." Before politicians take a position on such an emotional and important issue, everyone must seriously engage with the topic. Only then can she decide whether she is for or against a ban on adoptions from abroad.

Such a debate is likely to take place anyway. The Federal Council is currently not only drafting a bill to ban adoptions. Parallel to this, it also intends to develop measures to more strictly regulate the adoption process. It intends to submit both proposed solutions for consultation. "This is intended to achieve the desired broad public debate," the Federal Council wrote in a statement on the motion seeking to prevent its adoption ban.