February 2018

February 28, 2018. Adult Children of Fertility Doctor Discover They Are All Half-Siblings. When Dr. Donald Cline, a fertility specialist from Indianapolis, faced federal charges for denying he has used his own sperm to inseminate patients, the news reports led now-adult children whose mothers had gone to Dr. Cline to contact each other. DNA testing has revealed the existence of at least 30 half-siblings, all in their thirties now, but reports indicate that there are many more. The decisions of the adult children to use 23 and Me testing was what led to Dr. Cline's prosecution. More Information.

February 27, 2018. DOS Meets with CCCWA. U.S. Department of State representatives from the Office of Children' s Issues met with a delegation from the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) to discuss a number of issues on January 25. Topics included the effect of the NGO Law, ASP activities under the New Law, Foreign Supervised Provider Agreements, Orphanage Donations, waiver requests and post-placement reporting. We are seeking clarification on the brief descriptions of these topics and will report more after we speak with DOS officials on Monday, March 5.

February 26, 2018. Department of State Seeking Information on "Soft Referrals." The Department of State has informed the adoption community as follows: "We have received several questions about soft referrals, which were mentioned in the FAQ, Part 2 for IAAME's Schedule of Fees, posted to our website on February 22, 2018. If you have questions that you have not already submitted, please write to us at Adoption@state.gov no later than Thursday, March 1, 2018. We are in the process of preparing guidance on this issue and want to be sure we understand your concerns so that we may address them as thoroughly as possible."

February 22, 2018. Former Head of Save the Children Resigns from UNICEF After Revelations. Justin Forsyth, head of Save the Children from 2010 to 2016 resigned after admitting that he penned a "barrage" of "unsuitable texts" to female staff. Mr. Forsyth was Deputy Director of UNICEF since he left Save the Children. UNICEF denied knowledge of Mr. Forsyth's behavior. For decades Save the Children and UNICEF have vigorously opposed international adoption, claiming that they provide a better alternative by guiding the creation of in-country care instead of international adoption. The numerous depredations of Save the Children, UNICEF, and Oxfam employees gives lie to this boast. More Information.

February 21, 2018. Measles Cases Surge Four Fold in Europe. European cases of measles rose four times in 2017. The World Health Organization rightly labeled this increase a "tragedy." The worse hit nations were Romania, Italy, and Ukraine. Failure to vaccinate is the cause of a large number of the increased cases. The decline in vaccination rates began when a now-discredited British physician linked the MMR anti-measles vaccine to autism. More Information.

February 15, 2018. OXFAM Did Not Ban Staff From Using Prostitutes for Fear It would Infringe "Civil Liberties." We have now learned that OXFAM did not ban staff from using prostitutes because it feared trampling on its employees "civil liberties." What about the right of children not to be molested by aid professionals? This week's revelations have highlighted the unregulated power of NGOs/charity organizations working in the child welfare world, particularly those working in developing nations. The irony of organizations like UNICEF and Save the Children attacking international adoption when these entities have harbored and enabled child predators and sexual abusers is tragic. We hope that these tragic event will start a process of re-evaluating the activities of those who purport to serve children and the disadvantaged but use their privileged position to exploit the most vulnerable populations of all. More Information.

February 14, 2018. Save the Children Link to Haiti Sex Abuse Scandal. The Times of London reports today that Roland van Hauwermeirn, the disgraced head of OXFAM's Haiti mission had previously been investigated by the charity Merlin (part of Save the Children) after allegations of sexual abuse during van Hauwermeirn's work in Liberia in 2004. One of his colleagues told the Times that "van Hauwermeirn used the charity's drivers to ferry him to clubs to meet prostitutes and take them to the villa rented for him using donated funds." Save the Children is one of the most virulent anti-international adoption organizations. When will its leaders take responsibility for the fact that their lobbying to end international adoption has left children vulnerable in their birth countries to the worst kind of abuse and that aid agencies have become havens for child predators? More Information.

February 13, 2018. UNICEF Admits Child Victims of Sex Abuse Were Abandoned. UNICEF has admitted that children who were allegedly raped and sexually abused by UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic have not received the help that UNICEF had promised to provide. A Swedish television documentary revealed that some of these abuse survivors, having been abandoned by UNICEF, were homeless, not in school and were forced to make a living on the streets. This report comes as the NGO/charity sector is reeling from the Times of London reports that the head of OXFAM's Haiti program and his colleagues had used their money and privileged position in post-earthquake Haiti to sexually abuse women, some of who were apparently underage. Furthermore, these officials were allowed to quietly resign and find other aid positions, so that OXFAM's reputation not be harmed. With UNICEF and other aid agencies making it their cause to end international adoption on the grounds of fraud allegations, we ask who watches these agencies? More Information.

February 12, 2018. The Horrendous Scandal of OXFAM in Haiti. We have learned that OXFAM, one of Britain's leading British charities, conducted sex orgies in Haiti, reportedly with underage girls and that these horrendous acts were covered by OXFAM's senior officials in Britain because they did not want to hurt their charity's reputation and lose contributions and British government money. The guilty parties were allowed to resign and were given good recommendations which enabled them to get positions with other NGOs. Aid agencies provide a tempting target for pedophiles who are able to exploit their access to unlimited funds to lure impoverished victims. Save the Children, which is a vocal opponent of international adoption, has also been named as harboring sexual abusers. How could anyone disagree that a permanent, loving family, wherever it may be found, is better than this? More Information.

February 8, 2018. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Affects More Children Than Previously Thought. A new study in the Journal of American Medicine (JAMA) has concluded that fetal alcohol syndrome is far more common in American-born children than previously thought, and may be at least as common as autism which is estimated to affect 1.5 percent of American children. As Christina Chambers, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Diego states: "This is an equally common, or more common, disorder and one that's completely preventable and one that we are missing." FASD can cause serious developmental and cognitive delays. More Information.

February 7, 2018. National Council for Adoption Statement on New International Adoption Fees. The National Council for Adoption has weighed in on the new fees for accreditation of adoption service providers who do international adoption. According to NCFA, the shift of accreditation responsibility from COA to IAAME and the resulting fee increase will mean "skyrocketing fee costs would make intercountry adoption even more expensive for prospective adoptive parents. Rising costs would likely cause smaller non-profit adoption agencies to close, and intercountry adoptions would plummet." For More on NCFA's position, please go to https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/intercountry-advocacy.

February 6, 2018. We Are Still Waiting for 2017 Numbers. The Department of State and USCIS have had the statistics for fiscal year 2017 international adoption for five months since the federal fiscal year ended on September 30, 2017. What will be the decline in the number of children adopted internationally? As a reminder, in fiscal year 2016, the total number of international adoptions was 5,372 with the countries, in order of largest sending countries, being China (2,231), Democratic Republic of Congo (359), Ukraine (303), South Korea (260), and Bulgaria (201).

February 5, 2018. U.S. Citizenship for Children Residing Abroad with their Adoptive Parents The Department of State has changed the way its officials handle the question of U.S. Citizenship for children who reside abroad with their U.S. citizen adoptive parents. Attorney Karen Law has prepared an excellent summary of the current necessary procedure. We have posted her memorandum under our Facts and Figures button.