NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

By MICHAEL WINES

SHIMIDER, Ethiopia - In this corrugated land of mahogany mountains and tan, parched valleys, it is hard to tell which is the greater scandal: the thousands of children malnutrition kills, or the thousands more it allows to survive.

Malnutrition still kills here, though Ethiopia’s infamous famines are in abeyance. In Wag Hamra alone, the northern area that includes Shimider, at least 10,000 children under age 5 died last year, thousands of them from malnutrition-related causes.

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People Who Are Single, Obese, Over 50 or Taking
Psychiatric Medications Could Be Denied
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN
December 20, 2006; Page D1

China, the most popular foreign country for U.S. adoptions, is considering new rules that could disqualify thousands of would-be parents.

Those new rules would bar people who are single, obese, over 50 years old, or currently taking psychiatric medications from adopting Chinese children, according to several U.S. adoption agencies that have seen the regulations. They would ban disabled people and families with net assets of less than $80,000. And they would set new minimums on length of marriage for couples seeking to adopt. The China Center of Adoption Affairs confirmed that it is considering new adoption criteria while declining to discuss them in detail.

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By JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING, Dec. 20 - China is planning to issue new, tighter restrictions on foreign adoptions of Chinese children, which would prohibit adoptions by parents who are unmarried, who are obese or who are older than 50, according to adoption agencies in the United States.

The new regulations, which have not yet been formally announced by the state-run China Center of Adoption Affairs, are to take effect on May 1, 2007, and seem certain to slow the rapid rise in applications by foreign parents to adopt Chinese babies.

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Guatemala: Intercountry Adoptions and the Hague Adoption Convention

December 15, 2006

The Hague Adoption Convention:

The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Convention) is a multilateral agreement that strengthens protections for all parties involved in adoption, including birthparents, prospective adoptive parent(s), and especially children. The Convention encourages and regulates intercountry adoption by setting out internationally agreed-upon rules and procedures for adoptions between countries that have a treaty relationship. The Convention is unique in that it offers a framework for member-countries to work together to ensure that adoptions are based on what is best for the child and to prevent the abduction, sale of, or trafficking in children. Each member country establishes a Central Authority to provide an authoritative point of contact for prospective adoptive parents to receive reliable and accurate information on the adoption process. The Central Authority is also responsible for addressing complaints involving violations of Convention standards. For these reasons, the U.S. government strongly supports the principles of the Convention. To learn more about the Convention, consult the Hague Permanent Bureau at
http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.status&cid=69 Guatemala, the Convention and the United States:

More than 70 countries have already joined the Convention, including major countries of origin for adoptive children like China and India, because they firmly believe that the principles of the Hague Convention offer the best hope for the ethical and transparent adoption process and that every child deserves a permanent family. Many other countries have indicated their intention to join the Convention, as well.

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