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One needn’t tread far into the world of the anti-adoption brigade … often not-too-cleverly disguised as Planet Reform … to come across attempts to smear the words adoption and trafficking together into a hoped-for interlocked combo that will forever regurgitate simultaneously. Not only the words, of course, but I gather some figure they’re a good place to start the business of trying to make adoption leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Offered as two sides of the same coin … Intercountry adoption/child laundering (or even better, systematic child laundering, although that does sound a bit like a car wash for kids), or international adoption/profiteering and corruption, or human trafficking/children stolen for adoptive families … the story goes that like soup and sandwich, there’s just no way to separate the bad from the bad.
Which brings me to today’s thought: What happens in these minds when this is so clearly not the case.
Not to suggest that the brigade would accept international adoption without trafficking … that’s way too big a stretch for those so wholeheartedly invested in denial of real-world circumstances and their own personal agenda … but what about trafficking without adoption?
Can we get our head around that one?
As this story from Macao shows, there’s a heck of a problem with human trafficking in that part of the world. So much so, that the US is threatening sanctions and is about to drop it down to the “tier 3 watch list” for trafficking which would put it in the same category as Sudan, Iran and Burma.
(Cambodia was relegated to this bottom tier in 2005, but has since met the goals imposed and has been moved up.)
So, it’s very clear that there’s a huge issue with human trafficking in Macao. There are slaves and brothels chock full of victims, and a government not doing much of anything about it.
What there isn’t in Macao is international adoption … for all intents and purposes, zip, zero, zilch.
According to the US State Department, there has been one international adoption from Macao in the past five years, and that was to a Portuguese family.
What can this mean? How should we process this information? Can we possibly accept that if there’s trafficking without adoption, there is also adoption without trafficking?
How about this?
Trafficking = bad
Adoption = not bad
therefore … wait for it …
trafficking does not equal adoption
AND
adoption does not equal trafficking
I had this all nicely math formula-like, but the blog software won’t let me use the nifty ‘does not equal’ sign like the one that I have for the graphic. It looked so cool, too.
I don’t know how folks equate the two.
Those who do not understand – or doubt – the very real connection between adoption and child trafficking, need to read the Hague Convention On International Adoption which was created specifically for the purpose of stemming child trafficking for the purpose of adoption.
All adoption is not trafficking and all trafficking is not adoption.
But, indeed some trafficking of children is for the purpose of adoption and some adoptions are a result of children being trafficked.
The Hague and UNICEF are hardly part of any so-called “anti-adoption brigade.”
“The Convention strengthens protections for adopted children. Its key principles include:
* Ensuring that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of children
* Preventing the abduction, exploitation, sale, or trafficking of children”
http://www.whfc.org/adoption/hague.htm
And likewise on adoption.com (so it must be true, lest adoption.com is also part of the “anti-adoption” plot: http://adoption.about.com/od/international/f/whathague.htm
It’s a shame and a disservice to all who use these pages for intelligent informative information about adoption that you could be allowed to write such absurdities.
Masha aka Meas Allen was adopted from Russia and sexually abused by her pedophile adopter.
When ABC broadcast a Prime Time episode about Masha, they were flooded with emails from agencies that handle international adoptions and their advocates. The network was urged to reconsider airing it because of concerns that the story would equate international adoption from Russia with the sexual trafficking of children.
This was at the time Russia was already beginning to consider shutting down international adoptions because of the 12 children killed by their US adopters.
Adoptive parents who want adoption to be the wonderful thing it is for most, are working with those of us concerned about the corruption, not ignoring or dismissing it.
One such adoptive parents if Dr. David Boas who started a fund to help Korean single mothers through Give2Asia.
We need to be brave and identify and root out abuses to protect the rest of us, allowing these institutions work for the best fo those they are intended to serve.
Thank you, again, Mirah.
“But, indeed some trafficking of children is for the purpose of adoption and some adoptions are a result of children being trafficked.”
Yes, some trafficking may indeed be for the purpose of adoption and that is why we at AdoptionBlogs.com are trying to inform our readers on the good AND the bad – and teach them to stay away from anything that smells even remotely unethical.
We are working to inform young pregnant women that adoption is NOT the only option.
We are working to teach prospective adoptive parents what to look for in order to find an ethical agency.
We are doing these and many other productive things in our blogs and, if you’re reading more than just Sandra’s blogs because of your rivalry, you’ll know that.