Right: opponents of the relaxation of overseas adoption procedures include some organisations fighting child trafficking, including fradulent "adoptions" for the purpose of sex slavery, forced prostitution.
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Arguments against Australia relaxing its regulations for foreign and local adoption
1. Removing a child from its parents can have undesirable emotional and psychological consequences
It has also been claimed that whether the adoption is within Australia or intercountry, adopted children often suffer psychological damage possibly due to the loss of their birth family or unsuccessful integration into their adoptive family. It has been claimed that adoptees are over-represented in psychiatric institutions, divorce courts and jails and that these markers of emotional or psychological disadvantage or maladjustment are even higher among intercountry adoptees.
Recent research into the psychological consequences of adoption has suggested that the relinquishment or separation of a child from his/her birth mother is often a traumatic event that deeply impacts the adoptee, potentially throughout life.
Children separated from their birth mothers or their birth family may develop attachment disorder. Helpguide.org, a mental health help site, has described attachment disorders. 'Children with attachment disorders or other attachment problems have difficulty connecting to others and managing their own emotions. This results in a lack of trust and self-worth, a fear of getting close to anyone, anger, and a need to be in control. A child with an attachment disorder feels unsafe and alone.'
Karl Stenske, author of The Hidden Life of an Adopted Child: Understanding the Impact of Adoption, has written, 'Adoption is a trauma that happens to a child. The child is torn away from her biological mother, placed in the arms of strangers and is left with questions, doubts, fears and anxiety with no way to verbalize, express, mourn or contextualize those feelings. Though the common misconception is that a child won't remember any of it, many psychologists believe... that children remember their birth and the following events, including relinquishment and adoption, up to the age of three.'
Ian Robinson, a Melbourne freelance writer who is married to an adoptee, has stated, 'People who care about the best interests of mothers and children have long believed adoption should be discarded as a compassionate choice, except in a handful of extreme cases.'
2. Removing a child from its birth culture can have undesirable effects
It has been argued that taking a child from its birth culture can create a sense of cultural disconnection for that child and an enduring sense of cultural alienation.
Opponents of intercountry adoption, with reservations about adoption generally, argue that a potential loss of birth culture is a significant disadvantage of adoption.
UNICEF's A World Fit for Children Report states that countries should "promote the physical, psychological, spiritual, social, emotional, cognitive and cultural development of children as a matter of national and global priority." This requires that cultural factors be considered. The Bringing them Home report on the Stolen Generation in Australia identified the difficulty children experience when their cultural links are severed, coupled with the difficulty children experience acquiring cultural knowledge and connections in later years. The importance of cultural factors is claimed to apply equally to intercountry and within birth country adoption, as evidenced by the cultural dislocation suffered by Australian indigenous children taken from their birth culture. Cultural factors must, it is argued, be taken into account in determining the best interests of a child.
This point has been made by Ian Robinson, a Melbourne freelance writer married to an adoptee, who has stated, 'Inter-country adoption creates a class of people who do not feel entirely comfortable in their adoptive country but have, at the same time, been alienated from the culture of their country of birth.'
3. Making foreign adoption easier can foster kidnapping and child trading
It has been claimed that making intercountry adoption easier will result in unscrupulous people exploiting the desire of childless Australians and acquiring children via improper and often illegal means.
Ian Robinson, a Melbourne freelance writer who is married to an adoptee, has stated, 'The appearance of rich foreigners in Third World countries looking for "orphans" to adopt is an open invitation to unscrupulous criminals to supply their needs.'
Mr Robinson has further stated, 'Child trafficking is endemic in many of the countries adopted children come from and the governments of these countries are often too poor, too disorganised and too corrupt to establish adequate mechanisms to guard against it.'
Critics claim that even under restrictive regulations it is difficult to guarantee that all overseas adoptions are legitimate. David Smolin, a law professor from Birmingham, Alabama, who adopted two children from an orphanage in India, has stated that despite taking every precaution to ensure the legality of the adoption, he later found out that his two children had been literally stolen from their mother.
Australia currently has protocols intended to help safeguard against trafficking. The document states, 'There are inherent risks in intercountry adoption. Whilst the Australian Government uses its best endeavours to ensure Australia's programs only operate in compliance with Hague Convention principles, prospective adoptive families would be aware of the risks that are nevertheless involved.
Where concerns about child trafficking in an adoption do arise, it is recognised that this may leave parties feeling vulnerable and uncertain, particularly given that the adoptive family has undertaken the adoption in good faith and in compliance with all Australian requirements.'
Given that trafficking may still occur under current provisions, opponents of liberalisation argue that any relaxation of these provisions would be unwise.
4. Making foreign adoption easier can allow unsuitable or ill-prepared people to adopt
It has been claimed that it requires a particularly appropriate parent or parents to successfully adopt a child as the relationship often involves additional difficulties to those faced by birth parents. It has further been argued that in the best interests of the child, authorities overseeing adoptions must ensure that only the most suitable candidates are accepted as adoptive parents.
American adoptive mother, Tina Traster, has written and lectured extensively about the extra-ordinary emotional demands made by her adopted daughter and the difficulties that she had in successfully meeting them.
Traster is a highly educated, highly motivated adoptive mother, yet, she acknowledges, 'Sometimes the road to loving your adopted daughter is long and twisted and scary. You know something is wrong-but is it her? Is it you? You drown in shame and confusion, hiding your feelings from the world. It can't possibly be that you've gone to the other end of the world to get this baby and you're not bonded after a month, six months, two years.'
Critics of relaxing inter-country adoption laws argue that the qualities required to successfully adopt a children from another country are not possessed by all prospective adoptive parents and that making it easier for such adoptions to occur would put needy children in the hands of unsuitable carers. Similar claims have been made about the qualities needed to successfully adopt any child.
5. There are ways other than adoption to assist children living in dire circumstances
It has been claimed that if Australia were to increase its foreign aid or if individual Australian citizens were to donate more generously to aid organisations seeking to assist those living in under-developed countries that this would be a better way of ensuring the wellbeing of children living in those countries.
Ian Robinson, a Melbourne freelance writer who is married to an adoptee, has stated, 'If people are serious about helping poor children in Third World countries, they can join one of the many support plans that are a fraction of the cost of adoption.'
International aid agency focusing on sponsoring children overseas stress that such sponsorship can help the entire community from which the child comes.
In 2007, John Stover examined the burgeoning number of children who had lost one or more parents to AIDS. He estimated the amount of support needed by year to keep an orphaned child. The typical costs per child are US$480 for children aged 0-4, US$690 for children 5-9 and US$830 for children 10-17. These cost average about two dollars a day. Aid organisations note that such a donation amounts to less than the cost of a cup of coffee.
There are even organisations encouraging those in developed countries to purchase goods from which the profit is then given to assist orphans in under-developed nations.
One such organisation is the Muju Project. The organisation's home page states, 'The concept for the Moju Project is simple: Everything we sell goes towards saving lives. We believe that by activating the purchasing power of individuals to benefit those less fortunate we can make a tangible difference in the world.
Our merchandise does more than just look good...every item sold helps to wipe out different social injustices such as; hunger, malnutrition, and human trafficking.'