
America's underground market for adopted children - sir_kitty
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/adoption/#article/part1
======
rdtsc
There was a Reddit post about this not too long ago. A mom of an adopted child
posted. She described how many parents, including her, had no idea what they
were getting into adopting a child coming from a troubled background. Things
that child did, as she described it, were very disturbing, and would bring
many people to their brink.

So one can argue it starts with ignorance. People think raising a child is a
walk in the park, playing baseball outside on the front lawn, going to
football practice and all the nice stuff people see on TV.

From there it moves on to lies. Overseas adoption agencies can be very shady.
They want to close the deal. They will hide and paper over medical histories.

Then once a child with severe psychological issues (some which manifest
themselves 6 or more months later only), become apparent. The despair starts
to take hold. Then someone knows someone who heard about his online
"marketplace" and so on. It puts an idea in their head.

Then, a loophole in the law is used. The idea behind having laws to transfer
guardianship is to get kids to stay with family members and to keep them out
of trouble if say immediate parents create an unsafe environment.
Unfortunately that same provision the way it is written allow pretty quick
transfer of guardianship and it is exploited in this case.

I would want to believe some of these children end up in home that try to help
them, parents who know how to handle such issues better, but unfortunately
quite often that is a market for predators looking for victim. The article has
a few disturbing details on that, I won't reiterate here.

~~~
x0x0
It's not that they will paper over problems a child has; if you read other
sources they will outright lie. I also recall reading, unfortunately an
article that I can no longer find, that China and Russia would often give
severely challenged children to US adoptive parents.

The article also emphasizes that the US government, both federal and state,
offers virtually no help to the parents and highlights a case where the
parents where threatened with prosecution because they couldn't handle a child
that had physically hurt one of their other children.

There is plenty of blame to go around, unfortunately, but it really highlights
the almost complete lack of mental health care available in the US and the
lack of help for parents who have very damaged children, whether adopted or
not.

~~~
grahamburger
My parents adopted my sister from Russia about 20 years ago. At the time,
Russian law only allowed foreign adoptions if the child had a physical or
mental disability. My sister had a crossed eye, that was sufficient to allow
her out of the country. She is now 22 years old, going to college, and living
a happy, healthy life. Some friends of my parents adopted two children from
the same orphanage, a brother and sister. The brother had _serious_ issues -
trying to kill his parents and run away at 6 years old type thing. They
eventually placed him in the home of parents with no other children who were
looking for a child like that to care for, I lost track of the story after
that. The sister is also leading a normal, ostensibly happy life, though.

~~~
marquis
There is an incredible story of this nature on This American Life (this
episode is very hard for parents to listen to, but very beautiful)

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/317/u...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/317/unconditional-love)

------
greenburger
I'm floored by Facebook's response to being notified that potentially illegal
child exchanges were being conducted on the site.

FTA:

'A similar forum on Facebook, Way Stations of Love, remains active. A Facebook
spokeswoman says the page shows "that the Internet is a reflection of society,
and people are using it for all kinds of communications and to tackle all
sorts of problems, including very complicated issues such as this one."'

While I agree there are limits to the culpability of a company like Facebook,
and they will never fully police all the activities of their billion plus
users, this strikes me as very blasé. Surely they don't believe that anything
and everything that occurs on the Internet is also appropriate to occur on
Facebook. Or do they now believe that Facebook _is_ the internet?

edit: typo

~~~
amalag
I can't see how one can put much blame on Facebook if people are using it for
legal purposes. I think there is no enforcement because there is no money to
be made in it. Unlike drug crimes where the government can confiscate
property.

Should the government enforce mandatory checks in such cases? Involve child
services if guardianship is transferred in the area?

------
Shtirlic
Interesting read, btw in Russia from January 1, 2013 there is a law that bans
adoptions of Russian children by United States citizens.

~~~
usaphp
Most of the developed countries forbid adoptions of country nationals by
foreign citizens, how many US children got adopted by foreign countries?...not
sure why Russian media is making such a big buzz around this law, probably
just to find one more way to criticize Putin.

~~~
w1ntermute
> Most of the developed countries forbid adoptions of country nationals by
> foreign citizens

I wouldn't exactly consider Russia "developed".

~~~
gambiting
I wouldn't consider your opinion well thought through.

~~~
w1ntermute
Well, you're wrong:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country)

Protip: next time, try doing some basic research before making an uneducated
comment.

~~~
triangleman
"You're wrong" and then linking to wikipedia? This is what "pros" do?

~~~
w1ntermute
Feel free to look at the sources cited in the wiki article if you're not
convinced. Hint: they're quite reputable.

------
ricardobeat
Land of the free. Maybe legal custody should be limited to relatives or people
with a proven connection to the official family, or disallowed at all for
children adopted from foreign countries? It is disturbing to read all these
ads talking about "private adoption" like it's a puppy trade fair.

~~~
ams6110
Why not take it to its logical conclusion and require a government permit,
after proving responsibility, to get pregnant and bear a child? I'd be willing
to bet there are an order of magnitude or more kids suffering abuse and
neglect living with their biological parents than there are living in a
"private guardianship" arrangement.

~~~
ricardobeat
Whoa. I'm talking about giving out your children to strangers just by signing
a piece of paper; though I'd be willing to bet against your assumption, it is
said that adopted children are more prone to mental and behavioral issues.

In any case, that's what social services do, only after the fact instead of a
pre-screening.

------
samstave
If you have not seen it, please watch the Conspiracy Of Silence documentary.

Also - if you are unaware, you should look into Johnny Gosh/Jeff Gannon and
how he relates to the Bush/Republican party with respect to the information
revealed in the Conspiracy of Silence.

~~~
rglovejoy
I see that I'm too late to downvote you. You're talking about a hoax:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_rin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations)

~~~
samstave
Please cite ANYTHING other than that wikipedia. Seriously; I am not saying you
are wrong - but I am aware of no credible refutation of this matter - and
actually, through my own, personal experience as well as the information I
have seen for nearly 2 decades, I cannot dismiss this.

Please provide more info.

When I am in a place of "typing" I can expound on both my experience as well
as that which I have seen in this matter

I would appreciate whatever info you could -- I am personally aware of massive
child abuse situations that happened here in California.

I suspect you only ___believe_ __this to be a hoax only because you cant
fathom the people involved. An written article does not refute reality - so
you 're on (my) hook to defend your claims.

------
Aloha
What a well presented and interesting article.

