Help Us Get The Word Out About Failed International Adoption Policies!

Next Thursday, we'll be releasing a 25-minute documentary about the failure of international adoption policies and the role that UNICEF and unthinking nationalism play in trapping children in orphanages around the globe.

Reason.tv producers Paul Feine and Alex Manning traveled to Guatemala to report on conditions in a country which only recently completed more out-of-country adoptions than any place on the world.

However, in a misguided attempt to placate UNICEF and out of "national pride," Guatemala nationalized its orphanages and has effectively disallowed foreigners from adopting unwanted children. Sadly, Guatemala is hardly alone - countries such as China, Russia, Romania, Ethiopia, and elsewhere have similarly shut down or severely limited out-of-country adoptions.

We're hoping to reach as many people, policymakers, and organizations who care about the fate of dispossessed children. If you know of groups, websites, and people who should know about our documentary when we release it, please send your tips to [e-mail].

Thanks for your assistance.

Comments

[Almanian]

I look forward to this. I'm sure the kids in orphanages are concerned about the nationality of their new parents/caretakers.

Can't wait!

[SugarFree]

Just sounds like more nonsense from the Open Borders crowd to me.

[Hugh Akston]

Those foreign babies are taking the jobs of hard-working American babies.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Warty]

SEND CONVICTED DOPE DEELERS TO BE ADOPTED BAYBIES

[Abdul]

Unfortunately, no country wants to be a net baby exporter. It makes them look poor and negligent.

Making adoptions harder doesn't make them any wealthier or conscientious, but it makes them look that way.

[Fluffy]

If kids have to stay in orphanages in order to protect the pride of the Russian people, that's a small price to pay.(TM- MNG)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Australia let their people adopt cane toads from Hawai'i, and look what happened there.

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Straight from the horse's mouth: "Ha ha ha! Those fools! Soon I will have all the money in the world. For I am UNICEF, evil king of Halloween!"

[Almanian]

I forgot that - we used to do those collections when I was a kid (prompted through our church, natch)

Good times, good times...

[kilroy]

There's this 18 year old Russian girl I've got my eye on adopting.

[o2]

but after, whadda u talk about?...wodka?

[heller]

Sooooo... fOr TeH cHiLrUnZ?

[McBain]

McBain to base. Under attack by commie Nazis. They won't stop me for delivering these UNICEF pennies. Go pennies, help the puny children who need you

[R C Monocle]

Curses! UNICEF has foiled my plan to staff my sweatshops with adopted Guatemalan toddlers.

[heller]

"Oh honey, don't call me boss. It makes me feel like a monster."

"What? These children are Playing Happy Fun Vineyard, by Milton Bradley."

[You are aware that]

readers are libertarian?
What's next? Get the word out on health care denial?

[Warty]

Did you guess your shrink's password or something, rectal, you stupid whore?

[Crackers Boy]

Clearly in Guatemala, as in Russia and Ethiopia, the, er, "right people" weren't making enough money from the sale of adoptees.

CB

[R C Dean]

If the picture with the article is from a Guatemalan orphanage, then those are some damn nice orphanages they have.

[Anonymous Coward]

However, in a misguided attempt to placate UNICEF and out of "national pride,"

You know who else was big on "national pride"?

[Almanian]

Bob Marley?

[LauraB]

Seriously, what's UNICEF's problem with adoption? Aren't children better off in a family than an institution?

[oldtimer]

Mine apparently weren't.

[MP]

So now Reason is arguing to do something because It's For The Children?

That can't be a good sign.

[Amakudari]

Well, the children are being used as a policy weapon. And not in the sense that's not really about kids, like requiring ISPs to become child porn cops and collect identifying information on all users.

[NL_]

International aid organizations hate international adoptions, especially of crisis-zone orphans. To their mind, that money would be better distributed across all the needy children. I'm sure the fact that they'd get more money and greater importance is totally unrelated.

[R C Dean]

Adoption is individualized and intensely personalized aid to a single person.

Tranzi scum are opposed to that, favoring instead impersonal, collectivized programs.

[Here ya go]

Getting the truth out.

[califmom]

I am shocked and saddened at the flip responses to this incredibly important issue. As the mother of a son adopted from Ukraine, this is an issue close to my heart.

1) These countries have a history of allowing their children to leave their borders which has resulted in the loss of a valuable human resource. This cannot be discounted from their perspective.
2) Allowing families from other countries to adopt their children is a source of national shame.
3) UNICEF sees itself as an international watchdog for these countries' interests, not necessarily the interests of the children. But even so, they believe it is in the best interest of the children to remain in their country of origin.
4) If it were possible to give orphaned and displaced children homes in their countries of origin, that should be the priority, regardless of the desire of families from other countries to adopt them. I say this knowing that if that had been the policy in 2005, my son would not be in my home.

I do hope that this documentary does indeed "get the truth out" and does not leave out the option of improving conditions in the countries of the orphanages. All children deserve loving homes and families with as little disruption as possible.

[Bonnie Taylor]

"4) If it were possible to give orphaned and displaced children homes in their countries of origin, that should be the priority, regardless of the desire of families from other countries to adopt them."
In reply, that's a big "If." When we were in Guatemala, we learned something about the country's priorities, and unwanted kids aren't one of them. Our daughter was lucky; she was born of an unwed mother, in a hospital, and had parents (us) waiting for her. Another couple we know adopted two girls who were abandoned in dumpsters. The child mortality rate in Guatemala is greater than any other country in Latin America. UNICEF's pressure policy is a crime against children; the dogs in your local pound have a better chance at a good life than kids in impoverished countries. I for one will not donate to UNICEF again. To sacrifice babies on the altar of national pride is a disgrace. And to those morons who are responding to this site with frivolous and idiotic comments--why are you even bothering? Clearly you are neither an adoptee nor an adoptive parent.