Anyone reading this blog even occasionally will most likely have come across a diatribe or two on Her Royal Baronessnessmess Emma Nicholson. I can't stand the woman, although I've not met her and hope to never have the occasion to do so, because of what she almost single-handedly has done to children of Romania out of some twisted concept of righteous I-know-what's-good-for-you-so-there POV ... and because she's tried very hard to smear her views across international adoption in general.

The woman still touts her efforts as successful and correct, against all common sense and hard evidence.

The latest on the hard evidence front comes from Mental Disability Rights International , (MDRI), and is enough to make a decent person sick.

Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), has found children with disabilities hidden and wasting away, near death, in Romania's adult psychiatric facilities. A report released by MDRI, Hidden Suffering: Romania's Segregation and Abuse of Infants and Children with Disabilities, describes teenagers weighing no more than 27 pounds. Some children are tied down with bedsheets, their arms and legs twisted and left to atrophy.

Despite Romanian government claims that it has ended the placement of babies in institutions, MDRI found infants languishing in a medical facility so poorly staffed that the children never leave their cribs. Many of these children have no identity papers. Officially, they do not exist.

These shocking revelations come at a time when Romania, in its effort to join the European Union (EU), is under pressure to reduce the number of children in institutions. Romanian officials admitted to MDRI that they had no idea how many children with disabilities are in adult facilities.

Gee. That rather explains some of the numbers the Baronmess spouts when she's talked about reduced numbers of orphans, doesn't it? There are bound to be fewer in orphanages if they started hiding them in adult psychiatric facilities.

And doesn't that sound so much better that international adoption for these kids?

See the photo? That's a real kid in one of these places. A teenager that weighs 27 pounds. Imagine that child adopted 5 years ago and now growing up in Redding, California or Urbana, Illinois or Bournemouth, England ...

And, no, adoption would not have been the answer for all of Romania's unwanted children, but FOR GOD'S SAKE! it would be for some, and stopping the international adoption process in its tracks in 2001 has condemned so many to the fate the MDRI is now exposing.

And if anyone thinks banning international adoption puts a dent in trafficking, you're fooling yourself. You can bet the sex trade in children thrives in Romania.

So now, these are the choices ... hidden from the world in institutions or sold for the sex trade or other forms of slavery.

Good job, Baronmess.