A CRISIS INDEED

It has come to my attention recently through several opponents of inter-country adoption, that the "Global Orphan Crisis" doesn't actually exist. In fact, there are some who would have us believe that it is nothing more than the manifestation of an imperialist, evangelical adoption machine, to rob the third world of it's children in order to indoctrinate them with it's religious ideology and promote it's political agenda here at home. Similarly, many opponents of international adoption would also argue that UNICEF has mislead the world with it's accounting of the actual number of orphaned children worldwide, by including those children in their statistics who have lost only one parent. By this accounting the actual number of orphans would decrease dramatically from about 163 million to around 18 million. Wow, only 18 million orphans. What a relief. Hardly the stuff a global "crisis" is made of, right?

Numbers aside, this hair splitting game of semantics begs the question, exactly how many orphans does the world need before we allow our collective conscience to define a problem? A "crisis" if you will. 200 million? 500 million, perhaps? In my book, one child without parents is one child too many. And it is certainly a crisis for that one child.

And then there are the widely exaggerated reports that the entire international adoption process is run a muck with rampant abuse and deleterious practices. Unfortunately, lack of regulation and oversight of the adoption process as well as the potential for financial gain in certain countries of origin, have led to some incidences of corruption and abuse. Sadly, the growth of an adoption industry in some countries where profit takes precedence over the welfare of at risk children has resulted in bribery, parental coercion as well as the abduction and sale of vulnerable children. Fortunately, most countries are aware of these potential risks to children and have ratified the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption which was designed first and foremost to protect the rights of children through the promotion of ethical and transparent processes. It also provides assurance to prospective adoptive parents that their adoptive child has not been the subject of unscrupulous and illegal practices.

Rather than judge the motives of people who are actually trying to make a difference for the better, perhaps the critics of international adoption should instead focus their energy on finding long term solutions to breaking the tragic cycle of poverty, inequity and disease that so often lead to the abandonment and/or displacement of children in the first place. For those who are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the children being "indoctrinated" by the so called, "Evangelical Adoption Movement" perhaps they should consider adopting the world's orphans themselves.

It never ceases to amaze me how the loudest critics are often the ones doing the least to help. I wonder how many critics have actually been inside the walls of a third world orphanage and had the life changing experience of looking into the eyes of an institutionalized child. What's the age old saying? "If you aren't a part of the solution then you are just a part of the problem".