Tirupati: The state govt has suspended district women and child welfare officer M Nagamani following the recent death of a two month-old baby Niroop in Anantapur. 

The infant allegedly died due to the negligence of the staff working at the govt-managed specialised adoption agency. Following public outrage, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had ordered a detailed probe into the incident. 

Taking a serious note of the negligence, the govt issued suspension orders with immediate effect to Nagamani on Tuesday. 

While memos were already issued to the staff at the agency, a detailed probe into the incident is also underway.

The Madras High Court has closed the plea filed by Transgender Sub Inspector Priyanka Yashini against an order of the Central Adoption Resource Authority, rejecting her prospective adoptive parent application. While disposing of the plea, Justice M Dhandapani noted that unless amendments were made to the Adoption Regulations, a direction could not be issued to CARA to...

Newly elected German mayor Iris Stalzer found at home with serious stab wounds

Copyright AP Photo

By Euronews

Newly elected German mayor Iris Stalzer found at home with serious stab wounds

Copyright AP Photo

By Euronews

Doris Grünwald and Jessica Baumgartner were accidentally given to the parents of the other family

Two Austrian women, who were accidentally swapped at birth in the hospital in Graz in October 1990 have finally met each other for the first time after 35 years.

Doris Grünwald and Jessica Baumgartner were both born premature and were accidentally swapped at the hospital and each baby was taken home by the other parents.

As per BBC, in 2012, Doris discovered she was not her parents’ biological child when she donated blood and noticed that her blood type did not match her mother’s.

"Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported on the case in 2016 but back then the other family could not be found," reported BBC.

Synopsis

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has constituted a medical grievance committee to address recurring complaints about the health status of children given for adoption. This three-member panel will review grievances from adoptive parents and stakeholders, study data, and propose policy interventions to streamline the system within its one-month tenure, submitting recommendations to the CARA CEO.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has constituted a medical grievance committee to examine recurring complaints related to the health status of children given for adoption and suggest policy interventions.

The committee, approved by the member secretary and CEO of CARA, will review medical grievances raised by adoptive and prospective adoptive parents as well as other stakeholders and recommend measures to streamline the system, according to an official memorandum.

The three-member panel will include the deputy director (policy division), deputy director (grievance), and deputy director (in-country division).The assistant director concerned, either from the in-country or inter-country division, will assist the committee during its meetings.

The tenure of the committee will be one month, during which it will examine categories of medical grievances and propose next steps, the memorandum said.

Mie Lee Hansen, now 38 years old and living in Denmark, thought she knew the story of her adoption and the family that gave her away. She had documents that offered convincing information about her Korean background, including the fact that she had two older sisters.

After taking a DNA test, she was reconnected with a Korean relative — but the story she learned from this long-lost relative differed radically from what was in those files.

“The real story is that when my mother went into labor, she was rushed to the hospital,” Lee said. “She gave birth, and after she recovered and requested to see her baby, she was told that the baby was stillborn. The day after my mother went home, my maternal grandmother returned to the hospital to claim my body. But the doctors told her to go home and became angry with her.”

Needless to say, her family was shocked to learn that she was very much alive.

“When my Korean family read my adoption file, they said, 'Everything here is fake.' The file had their names and the city we lived in, and it was true that I had two older sisters. But everything else was false. Birth parents never gave permission for me to be adopted. Somebody took their child. Somebody stole me,” Lee said.

Background

The G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training program (Landry CP Training) is a one week, on site intensive course for mid-career professionals who work to protect children from abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect, whether at an international organization, a local NGO, or a government agency. While the conditions facing children may vary—from displacement to labor, from abuse and neglect to early marriage – all children, whatever their circumstances or legal status, have a right to health, education, justice and protection. Realizing these complex rights requires an integrated and multi-sectoral approach in which different state and civil-society partners act together to deliver a holistic system of protection.

The Landry CP Training will help participants gain a deep understanding of child protection issues and of the leadership and negotiation skills relevant to building and sustaining effective child protection systems.

G. Barrie Landry Professional Training program overview:

Many birth mothers hope to maintain contact with their child. But their agreements with adoptive parents can be fragile.

By Nicole Chung

When I was born, my Korean parents, immigrants to the United States, relinquished me for adoption. At the age of two and a half months, I was placed with a white family who lived in a small town in Oregon. This was the early 1980s, and mine was a closed adoption, which meant that growing up, I had no contact with my birth parents. I didn’t know their names or their circumstances. I didn’t know why they had chosen not to keep me. I was curious and confused about my history, but my adoptive parents couldn’t fill in the gaps, because they knew so little themselves.

When I was in my 20s, I decided to search for more information about my birth family. This required that I pay hundreds of dollars to an intermediary, who petitioned a Washington State court to unseal my adoption records. She couldn’t share my birth parents’ names or contact information with me until she found them and gained their consent. Throughout the process, which dragged on for months, I thought about how things might have been different had I grown up in an open adoption, one in which I might have known more about my birth family and perhaps retained contact with them. I wouldn’t have had to wait decades, and I wouldn’t have had to shoulder the financial cost of a search, to understand where—and whom—I came from.

Following a nomination by INEA, the Executive Board of the University for Humanistic Studies has appointed Elvira Loibl as Endowed Professor of Recognition, Dialogue, and Recovery after Intercountry Adoption. The chair is established by the INEA Center of Expertise on Intercountry Adoption. Elvira Loibl will focus on research into both the recognition of past abuses surrounding intercountry adoption and how recovery can take place, both at the individual and societal levels.   

Elvira Loibl on the endowed chair: “With this chair, I want to contribute to legal clarity and consistency in addressing the complex questions surrounding state responsibility and reparation. I also want to strengthen the role of adoptees by placing their voices and needs at the center of the debate, and build a bridge between the government and adoptees to promote constructive dialogue. My goal is to use this knowledge to better inform policy debates, stimulate broader public discourse, and jointly explore meaningful forms of recognition and reparation.”  

New research and expanding knowledge 

When INEA was established,  it was tasked  with revitalizing the scientific infrastructure surrounding intercountry adoption. The chair was established to promote research, education, and knowledge transfer in the areas of recognition, dialogue, and recovery surrounding intercountry adoption. The chair's ambition is to bring together and deepen the relevant interdisciplinary scientific knowledge. James Timmermans, INEA manager: "Funding for this chair creates the opportunity to conduct new research and expand knowledge on relinquishment and intercountry adoption. This is not only beneficial for science but also for practice, as it contributes to improving the care and support for adoptees."  

Relational perspective