When will it end, after all poor countries are strip-mined of their children?

Question

From today's New York Times:

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 5, 2008

Costa Rica: 14 Held in Adoption Scheme

The police detained 14 people, including a family court judge and two social workers, on suspicion of participating in a scheme in which poor mothers were paid to give up their babies. The police said the adoptive parents may have paid the group an average of $10,000 a child. There was no immediate evidence that any were sent abroad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/americas/05briefs-adoption.html?ref=world

And how likely is it that these PAPs will return these children?

Answer 1

I think this is crazy! Yes we all know that this happens/happened in the past you would think that as the times change so would the people. Yes I do understand how people feel that it is sad that those other country's have so many families expecually children that are so bad off but the thing that gets under my skin is that we have so many children in the US that are in foster care with no one to raise but yet here we have Americans going to other country's to adopt. Yes alot will say it is about the children, but why do we feel that we have to rescue others before taking care of ourselves? It is crazy.

  Feed out hungry people, house our homeless, adopt our children. Take care of the US before you go and save the world!

Answer 2

thanks for spreading the hate by putting the responsibility for this on PAPS..

Thanks..

Yes, I know... everything is our fault..

Forget the fact that No matter HOW well someone checks out something, they can still be tricked into not realizing it was stolen

Forget the fact that women could be paid to pretend to be the bmom when they weren't and act all happy about the adoption

Forget the millions of possibilities that could be involved..

Forget how desperate people can get to have a family before they're 40, and therefore chose to go international if it has less red tape (which many PAPs never make it through in the US)

Forget the fact that this agency is being STOPPED and some amends are trying to be made.. that there IS progress in stopping these kind of unethical and horrid practices

Yeah, just forget it all and focus on teh "message" (Paps are Satan incarnate)

All Guilty... hmmmm.. guiltly of ignorance, or guilty of INTENTIONALLY doing something illegal???

Dark Eyes,

I was going to add exactly what you said about the Paps being victims in this situation too..

The adoptive parents WERE victims too!! They were desperate, they were duped.. at LEAST as much as the birthmothers were! Think about it....they are (probably) going to experience a loss now.. the loss of a dream, the dream that they could now be parents..  I am NOT saying they SHOULD be able to keep the children.. Not saying that at ALL.. but the loss will still be very real for them.. The adoptees love to talk about loss..

They are victimized also by the guilt that they were involved (unwittingly, I'd like to assume) in such unethical practices, something they (I assume) never intended to do..

Unfortunately people have such solidified opinions about PAPs being the sole force behind the adoption agency, that they are quick to blame everything on them.. make them the bad guys..

Gershom: then I assume you believe the birth mothers are just as responsible too? If no, then why not? How can they be "Duped and desperate" and therefore excused, and the AP's not?  You can't have it both ways. (Obviously you have not said the bparents are innocent in this, that's what I'm asking you)

What if the PAPs worked with a very ligitimate agency in the US that worked with the corrupt agency in this foriegn country? How do you know the agency didn't make itself so legit appearing that NO amount of investigation would have turned up red flags.. It HAPPENS..

Sorry, but darkeyes points are aLOT more solid than your very obviously biased ones are..

to touch on your driveby analogy.. what if you're enjoying a nice drive with your friends (you're driving) and one of them pulls out a gun you had NO idea they had, and starts shooting someone through the window.. just how responsible are you??   The way I see it, at worst you made a mistake in trusting others. And at worst you didn't stop something you didn't realize was going to  happen (in the driveby case) or needed to be stopped (in this case). Are we all psychics now?

Thanks, Kristy, for that.. It just really saddens me (to the point of almost anger) that there are people who hate us so much that they try to make everything our fault.. that they are so desperate to place blame that they put the blame on whoever they see most convenient..

Kim.. acknowledged.... I must have missed that fact

but my points are still  mostly valid (accept maybe the two-agency one and the "less red tape with international adoptions" comment)  Well.. two agencies still can be involved in a local adoption, though..

Answer 3

Why would you even assume that PAP's had anything whatsover to do with this scheme???  All they were doing was paying an adoption agency their cost and fees for providing a service.  Do you not realize that 1) the birth mother is probably young, poor and without any source of income.  2) The birth mother has an incredible amount of expenses from hospital and doctor's costs clear down to the shoes she had to buy because of the extra weight from pregnancy and swelling. 3) She has to eat. 4) The agencies need to cover their costs and expenses, as well.

How can you not see that PAP's were victims right along with the children that were BOUGHT not stolen.  There were two case workers and a judge involved [for cyring out loud]!  Who wouldn't have believed that their operation was ligit?  

You don't think for one minute that these birthing mothers didn't realize what was going on?  Whether they knew it was a scheme, or not...they still sold their babies.

I'd be willing to bet that [at least] some of those PAP's would contact authorities once they realized that their baby may have come to them from that particular scheme.  But let me ask you this...what happens to those children if they are returned?  Will they go back to their birth mother in Costa Rica--the ones that sold them???  Where do you think those children would be better off?

Answer 4

is paying for a child illegally NOT the responsibility of the PAPS? As a pap isn't it THEIR responsibility to make sure they're not involved in an illegal adoption? I agree that the judge and social workers rightfully should be held accountable, but its ALL of their faults. THEY'RE ALL GUILTY.

Igonorance isn't excusable when it involves human lives. Paps are not guilty for the corruption in the industry, but they are guilty for taking part in it.  You cant walk blindly into an agency and not "research it, speak with others who've gone through it with the agency, track it, explore it and other options. Research what an ethical adoption is etc." Not doing this, doesn't take you off the line should you get involved in a scandal. The paps, if they were CARING about the children, would have done this.

They can't "go out and get a baby by any means and then point the finger to the other people and say its there fault if someone gets caught . "

Foul play is foul play.

Why would the driver of a drive by get introuble for the shootings if he didn't pull the trigger? Because he was involved. he helped make the process possible.

Answer 5

So sad...adoption shouldn't have a price. I don't want to pay for a child.

As for the PAPs...I'm wondering if they knew about this little "scheme". I'm sure they won't WANT to return the children, but may be forced to.

Answer 6

this is awful.  as an AP you must take the responsibility that if something was not legally or ethically done in the adoption and the bio parents wish to parent the child that you should relinquish them.  

AP's of course aren't innocent.  you must take the time to educate yourself and do the research.  yes you can be taken advantage of too, but it's the child that is going to suffer and you must put the child's needs first.

there needs to be better ways for PAP's to educate themselves.  agencies and lawyers should be required to full disclosure when it comes to placing a child.  everyone involved needs to be made aware of how the child came to be placed and where they came from.  personally if you are missing a piece of this information, then you should look elsewhere.  if something doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't.

PAP's don't always do their research.  corrupt agencies prey on desperate PAP's as much as they do the mothers.  but since it is the PAP's who are taking the child home they are the one's that need to take the responsibility along with the judge's and agency employees when something is done illegally or unethically.  PAP's need the education as well, it's not easy to properly educate yourself on legal and ethical adoptions.  it is not information that is readily available.  in general people don't want to take the time and put forth the effort of seeking out this information on their own.

although this article in particular states that the children probably weren't sent abroad.  so this isn't a good example of poor countries being "strip mined" of their children.  this example is showing a corrupt adoption industry within it's own country.

Answer 7

I'm sorry but you can find articles supporting both facts (that there is corruption on both sides of the adoption process).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11996353/

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PAPs do research their agencies.  Why would they want to be involved with an illegal adoption when they can do it legally?  

The scary part is that bad agencies do a good job of hiding their bad side.  Otherwise, they'd be behind bars already.

Answer 8

It seems that there's plenty of legitimate places to lay the blame in this sort of situation -- everyone (except the innocent child) probably deserves some.

However, I'm not sure how this has become an "international adoption" issue -- with the title of "strip-mining" poor countries of their children, people talking about helping children at home first, and even people saying that PAPs aren't responsible because their US agency could be working with a corrupt foreign agency.

This story *specifically* mentions that they don't believe these children were sent abroad. A tragedy to be sure, but not involving international adoption (between Costa Rica and the US) as some seem to imply/assume.