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Adoptive Parents Win Battle for Russian Girls

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

An Arizona couple found guilty of slapping and verbally abusing their newly adopted Russian children on a plane trip home from Moscow last May were granted full custody of the children yesterday.

The two girls, now 5 years old, have bounced around for the last nine months in five different foster homes in the United States while charges were pending against the parents, Richard and Karen Thorne.

Today's ruling means that the girls will have the permanent home they were promised when the Thornes removed them from their orphanage in the rural village of Voronezh, about 290 miles southeast of Moscow.

USA TODAY

Author: Daniela Deane

Six years after the fall of the Soviet empire opened the East Bloc to Americans seeking children to adopt, a small but growing number of parents are giving their new children up.

They say their adopted kids have psychological problems too difficult to handle. The children are unable to bond with their new parents and are destructive, even dangerous.

Others say the fault lies with the adoptive mothers and fathers, many of whom are older, first-time parents. They say these new parents have unreal expectations of what their adopted children will be like and haven't given the kids enough time to get used to their new lives in America.

News / GTA

Romanian reunion with a birth mother thought dead

“The Romanian government stole and sold me,” says Canadian-reared woman who finds the parent she was told was dead.

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Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies, Radboud University, 6500 HC Nijmegen, The Netherlands

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Independent Researcher, 2023 SK Haarlem, The Netherlands

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SALT LAKE CITY — As she looks back on her experience traveling to Utah to place her child for an adoption, an Arkansas woman says she feels like “giving birth to my baby was a transaction.”

“I was told, ‘You’ve got to have the baby or you’re going to have all these doctor bills and you’re going to have pay this and you’re going to have to pay that,’” Lakaiya, who introduced herself only by her first name, said before the state Legislature’s Judiciary Interim Committee last month.

During her time in Utah earlier this year, documents the group Utah Adoption Rights shared with FOX 13 News show she received more than $18,000 for housing, telephone and utilities; nearly $9,000 for food, household supplies, clothing and entertainment; and $6,000 in postpartum expenses.

“Money, money, money was the stronghold,” she told lawmakers shortly before bursting into tears and rushing out of the room. “Care, support and stability was the illusion.”

Lakaiya's story highlights concerns raised recently by adoption reform advocates, who are seeking changes to laws they say have led the state to become a destination for so-called adoption tourism. Utah’s loose regulations around payments to birth mothers and agencies’ prolific online recruitment practices have led some to deem the state the “wild west for adoption.”

25.4415The Council of States' Committee on Legal Affairs (RK-S) unanimously adopted a committee motion (25.4415) instructing the Federal Council to develop appropriate adjustments to the legal basis for the enforcement of sanctions.

The Commission also conducted a preliminary review of two parliamentary initiatives from its sister commission, which address various aspects of the enforcement of sanctions. These include a ban on unaccompanied leave for detainees24,464ffenders undergoing closed inpatient therapeutic measures (24,464), as well as adjustments to ensure that the benefits and costs of in25,435t measures under Article 59 of the Swiss Criminal Code are proportionate (25,435). The Commission acknowledges the fundamental need for action in both initiatives. However, it considers a revision of the enforcement of sanctions to be a project requiring a comprehensive overview and close involvement of the cantons. Against this background, it believes that a motion and a legislative25,435ect led by the Federal Council are the more effective approach. The Commission has acted on initiative 25.435, "Inpatient measures (Art. 59 of the Swiss Criminal Code) only with good prospects of success," assuming that its sister commission will24,464end its work until the Federal Council's message is available. However, by a vote of 5 to 6, it rejected initiative 24,464, “Measures in the enforcement of sanctions”.

Various transactions concerning the right to a parent-child relationship

The Motion Nantermod 19,3597The motion, "Criminal Code. Offenses against the family. Penalty for denying the right to personal contact," was adopted by the National Council and then suspended by both chambers pending the submission of the Federal Council's report, "Family Courts and Family Proceedings: Inventory and Reform Proposals," in response to various parliamentary motions. After the Federal Council submitted its report on June 6, 2025, the committee revisited the motion. It concluded that already fragile family situations would become even more complicated with the introduction of criminal sanctions and that mediation or other civil measures would be appropriate in such cases. Therefore, the committee recommends that the Council reject the motion by a vote of 8 to 2, with 2 abstentions. The minority recommends its adoption. The Council of States will decide during the winter session. Furthermore, the committee has begun the preliminary review of the parliamentary initiative Nantermod.25,425The initiative, entitled "Consequences of an unlawful change of the child's place of residence," has been included in the list. The commission will continue its preliminary review of the initiative at one of its next meetings.

Ban on international adoptions

Claudia was 17 years old when the Armero avalanche swept away her family. Since then, she has been searching for her son, whom she claims to have seen on television days after the disaster.

The 40th anniversary of the Armero tragedy, following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, serves as a reminder of one of the most devastating natural disasters Colombia has ever suffered . At 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13, 1985, the volcano engulfed the town of Armero in the department of Tolima. A massive avalanche, composed of 350 million cubic meters of mud and rock, buried approximately 25,000 people, plunging the country into profound grief.

Among the devastated families was that of Claudia Ramírez. She lived in Armero with her parents and her son, Andrés Felipe Cubides, who was not yet six years old. The tragedy took her loved ones. Her parents, her friends, her neighbors—all were buried under the mud.

Claudia, who is now a dentist, wife, teacher, but above all a mother who never gives up , was not in Armero that fateful night. She had said goodbye to her parents and Andrés Felipe two days earlier. At that time, she was very young and studying dentistry at San Martín University in Bogotá. Her son was living with his parents while she pursued her professional dreams.
 

The premonition of the Armero tragedy

The Danish sperm bank ESB has also supplied donor sperm to private individuals in Belgium, even though this is not permitted under Belgian law. In Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health (FAMHP) stated that it is aware of "a limited number" of private individuals receiving donor sperm directly from the Danish sperm bank. The bank came under fire after it emerged that a single donor had fathered more than 50 children with 39 women in Belgium.

The donor scandal broke in May. It then emerged that 53 children in Belgium, born to 39 women involved, were born with sperm from a Danish woman carrying a cancer-causing gene. Furthermore, the rule that only six women can be treated with sperm from a single donor was violated. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the House Health Committee heard from representatives of the FAMHP and the Federal Internal Audit Service (FIA). The agenda included the inspection reports prepared by the FAMHP on fertility centers, as well as the FIA's report on the FAMHP itself. 

For two and a half hours, officials at the FAMHP answered a long series of questions from members of parliament in detail. Open VLD wanted to know whether the Danish sperm bank in question had also delivered sperm directly to Belgian prospective parents at home. "The FAMHP is indeed aware of a limited number of private individuals receiving donor sperm directly from the Danish sperm bank in the past," said Ethel Mertens, Director General of the FAMHP's DG Inspection, who emphasized that this practice is illegal in Belgium. 

Mertens also said that the identities of the individuals could not be determined, despite requests to the Danish sperm bank and the Danish authorities. "Therefore, it cannot be determined whether the individuals were informed of the problems with the donor."