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2009/12: Should celebrities adopt children from under-developed nations?





Introduction to the media issue

Video clip at right: A Fora TV segment in which USA author Melissa Fay Greene comments on African countries' AIDS and poverty crises, discussing the effects on children and families. She includes her opinion on adoption of African childen by Westerners. Note that the original segment was just over one hour in length. You can see the full program at http://fora.tv/2006/11/11/Rescuing_Africa_s_Children

If you cannot see this clip, it will be because YouTube is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows YouTube clips.

What they said...
'Consider Madonna's adoptions. In both instances the so-called orphans have immediate and extended families who would have raised the children at home if they had just a few hundred dollars more per year'
David Smolin, a professor of law at Cumberland Law School, Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama

'Madonna is, by all accounts, an excellent mother who is devoted to her children, including, David, her Malawi-born adopted son. Her foundation, Raising Malawi, has brought much-needed international to Malawi and provided significant assistance to its people'
Diane B. Kunz, executive director of the Center for Adoption Policy, a nonprofit group that provides research, analysis, advice and education on domestic and international adoption

The issue at a glance
On June 11, 2009, Malawi's highest court ruled that the pop star madonna can adopt a second child from the African nation.
In granting Madonna custody of 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James, the court extended the definition of residency and discounted concerns by human rights groups that the nation is bending laws meant to protect children in a country where half a million have lost a parent to AIDS.
The ruling overturns a previous Malawi High Court decision which had rejected Madonna's adoption bid on the grounds that she had not met the residency requirements.
The decision has met with a mixed reaction.  There are those who consider that it opens the door to unscrupulous child traffickers to exploit Malawi's poverty in a bid to secure children for the international adoption market.  There are others who focus on the dire situation of orphans in many under-developed countries and who stress the better lives they can be offered in other more developed nations.