How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ghana adoptee Gloria Huang Case-Child Death and LawsuitUPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Qatar, Ghanaian adoptee Gloria Huang, 8, died in January 2013 of cachexia (wasting syndrome) and dehydration according to the Qatar’s supreme council of health. She was adopted in 2009. Her American parents Grace and Matthew Huang, formerly of California, are currently in jail, being denied bail. They face a murder charge which is punishable by death, though there has been a 10 year moratorium on death penalty. They have two other children adopted from Ghana and Uganda.The two children are not allowed to leave Qatar.
A US organization called the California Innocence Project (CIP), which works on what it believes to be wrongful prosecutions, is helping the Huangs.
“The Qatari public prosecutor’s office was unavailable for comment on the case. The CIP cited Qatari investigative reports which suggested that the couple “bought” their children in order to harvest their organs or conduct medical experiments, and accused them of starving their daughter. The medical examiner told a court that Gloria appeared emaciated.
But a report prepared by an independent pathologist in the US, who specialises in child autopsies, found no solid evidence to support the conclusions of the Qatari medical examiner’s investigation.
“This is a case of faulty science and what appears to be racial and cultural misunderstandings by the Qatari officials about American norms regarding international adoptions,” said a statement from the CIP.
‘A combination of factors’
Gloria’s death certificate, issued by Qatar’s supreme council of health, listed the causes of death as “cachexia and dehydration”.
Cachexia, commonly known as “wasting syndrome”, can produce symptoms that look similar to starvation, including weight loss and muscle atrophy. It can be caused by a range of conditions, including congestive heart failure and autoimmune diseases. According to the independent report, however, the medical examiner in Doha did not test for any of these.
Gloria had previously been diagnosed with a low white blood cell count, which could suggest an underlying medical condition, according to a source familiar with her medical history. She also suffered from giardia when she was adopted, an infection which is difficult to completely eliminate.
Doctors also did not test her “vitreous humour”, the clear gel inside the eyes, which is a standard way to diagnose dehydration. Her bodily fluids were tested only for drugs, poison and semen, and all tests were negative.
The medical examiner said in court that starvation or malnutrition could have contributed to her death. But family acquaintances have said in affidavits that Gloria was walking around her house the night before she died, which would be virtually impossible for a child dying of starvation. The Huangs have acknowledged that their daughter suffered from an eating disorder, which they attribute to an early childhood spent in extreme poverty in Ghana. [Does this sound familiar…like Hana Williams Ethiopian adoptee case?]
“The report does not indicate that the many fluid, blood and tissue analyses that were necessary to rule out other potential causes were ever done,” said the independent report, prepared by Dr Janice Ophoven. A copy of the report was reviewed by Al Jazeera.
“The likely reality is that Gloria’s death was caused by a combination of factors and that there is not evidence that her parents were intentionally starving her.”
‘Hereditary traits’
People working with the Huangs have also suggested that the case was fuelled by “cultural misunderstandings”.
The Huangs are of Chinese descent, and their three children are from Ghana and Uganda. The CIP said investigative reports wonder why the couple adopted children who were not “good-looking” and did not share their “hereditary traits”.
The reports also suggest that the Huangs may have been involved in human trafficking, the CIP says.
Yet this sort of adoption is quite common in the US: American families have adopted nearly 17,000 children from African countries since 1999, according to State Department statistics. The Huangs’ three children were all adopted through an established agency.
The CIP said that the Huangs moved to Doha last year with their three children. Matthew was an engineer working on a water purification project related to the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted in Qatar.
The couple have denied the charges, and are scheduled for another hearing when Qatar’s courts return from their summer recess.
“The family remains concerned by the Qatari officials who fail to understand the pain of losing a child to a rare and deadly syndrome” said the David House Agency, a California-based organisation which is working with the family. [The “rare and deadly syndrome” is not named.]
“They are also disappointed that the Qatari courts have denied the bail of Matthew and Grace and have refused to allow their other children to leave Qatar to be cared for by extended family members.””
US couple facing murder charge in Qatar
[Al Jazeera 8/3/13 by Gregg Carlstrom]
“Matthew and Grace Huang are an American couple from Los Angeles who are being wrongfully imprisoned in Qatar. They have been charged with murdering their eight year-old daughter and accused of human trafficking. The Huangs’ daughter, Gloria, tragically and unexpectedly died while the Huangs were in Qatar. Contrary to the Qatari accusations, however, there is no evidence whatsoever that the Huangs harmed her. This is a case of faulty science and what appears to be racial and cultural misunderstandings by the Qatari officials about American norms regarding international adoptions and homeschooling. The Qatari officials have to date refused to acknowledge that mistakes were made and the Huangs have been imprisoned in Qatar for nearly six months. There has never been a case like this in the State of Qatar. Their trial, at which the death penalty is sought, has just recently begun.
The Huangs moved to Qatar with their three young children in 2012 so that Matthew, a Stanford-trained engineer, could work for two years on a major infrastructure project related to the 2022 World Cup improvements. Matthew and Grace had adopted all three of their children out of Africa. In all the adoptions, the Huangs utilized a respected adoption agency and obtained all the proper visas from the State Department. The Huangs’ middle child was Gloria, whom they adopted from an orphanage in Ghana in 2009.
On January 15, 2013, while the Huangs were in Qatar, Gloria suddenly died. Gloria had not been ill, at least not outwardly so. Everyone who saw her in the days before she died thought Gloria was a normal, healthy eight year old. What many did not know, however, was that Gloria had a series of eating issues tracing back to the time of her adoption and that likely were triggered by the extreme poverty she endured at an early age. The Huangs describe her eating issues as a sporadic behavioral problem that resulted in Gloria sometimes going days where she refused to eat. She would then follow such fasting with unhealthy binge eating and attempts to find food from bizarre sources, such as in the trash or from neighbors. The Huangs were aware of their daughter’s eating issues, had educated themselves about the best way to handle those issues [Obviously they did NOT educate themselves as she DIED!], and were attempting to manage the situation and help her grow out of it.
When Gloria died, the Qatari police suspected wrongdoing by her parents, but for wholly misguided reasons. The Huangs are an unconventional family. Matthew and Grace are Americans, of Asian descent, with three adopted black children from Africa. The police investigating Gloria’s death found the family situation inherently suspicious. For example, the investigative police reports repeatedly suggest that Matthew and Grace could not have had a legitimate reason to adopt children who were not “good-looking” and who did not share their “hereditary traits.” The investigative reports theorize that Matthew and Grace “bought” their children in order to harvest their organs, or perhaps to perform medical experiments on them. Investigators in Qatar understandably are very concerned about human trafficking. But it appears they did not know that adoptions of children from other countries and other racial backgrounds is common in the United States.
The investigative reports also contain allegations that the Huangs acted suspiciously. Citing solely unnamed sources who they refuse to identify, the Qatari police in their reports say that the Huangs kept to themselves, did not often let their children out into their neighborhood, were stingy with their children, and that Gloria vanished from sight about eight days before she died. All these allegations are relayed in an effort to make it appear that the Huangs are hiding something. All these allegations turn out to be provably false. The evidence is very clear that the Huang family is a loving family. They participate in activities together, they travel together and they worship together. The Huangs also socialized with many people in Qatar. These people know the Huangs and they praise Matthew and Gloria’s parenting skills and the way they care for and love their children. Some of them were at the Huangs’ Doha home the night before Gloria died. They saw Gloria sitting with the family and walking around. We have gathered signed statements from these individuals to demonstrate that numerous allegations and concerns in the investigative reports are untrue. To date, the Qatari officials have refused to acknowledge the statements and instead have testified at trial solely about what they have learned from their alleged unidentified sources.
The police also suspected wrongdoing because Matthew and Grace explained to them that Gloria had not eaten for about four days prior to her collapse. That Gloria did not eat over those four days is likely accurate. But that was not because her parents did not provide her food. Gloria was in the midst of one of her cycles where she would refuse to eat. The Huangs had experience with this situation and fully expected Gloria would resume eating soon, as she always had before.
Why did Gloria die? The forensic medical consultant in Qatar is not entirely clear why he believes Gloria died. He initially claimed that food was withheld from Gloria and so she essentially starved to death. But that initial conclusion was not accurate, as even the medical consultant now seems to recognize. As noted, Gloria was seen by independent third parties walking around her home the day before she died. Her brothers recounted to the police how they had played with her and that she had appeared normal in the days before she died. A child can go a few days without eating, or eating only a small amount, without any risk of starvation. A child will not have the strength to be walking around a day before starving to death. Gloria also lacked other physical hallmarks of a child who was starved to death or abused. We have obtained an extensive report from one of the foremost pediatric forensic pathologists in the world. This physician confirms that the medical evidence does not support a medical conclusion that Gloria starved to death. Other learned physicians concur in this conclusion. We do not currently know what the Qatari officials now believe was the cause of Gloria’s death, but it is clear that they have presented no medical evidence whatsoever that she was abused or murdered.
While Gloria’s death came entirely as a shock to all who knew her, it is important to keep in mind that she was adopted out of extreme poverty in Ghana when she was four. Information about her genetics and family medical history are unknown. She had a parasitic infection when she was adopted and was always small in stature and low in weight. She had a Vitamin D deficiency and her most recent blood work revealed an emerging pattern of potentially serious deficiencies. [So why did they allow her to not eat for FOUR DAYS? How can you seriously state this is not medical neglect?] She also had a cyclical eating disorder common for children who come from her background. But outwardly she appeared healthy and she indisputably was well cared for. She played with her siblings, went to church, rode horses, and loved her family. And her parents loved her.
The Qatari police may have been justified in investigating Gloria’s death. But facts refute the charge that the Huangs starved their daughter or that they had adopted her for illegitimate reasons. The continued detention of American citizens Matthew and Grace Huang should end immediately.”
http://californiainnocenceproject.org/read-their-stories/grace-matthew-huang
[California Innocence Project/Grace and Matthew Huang]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Update: Their agency is Adoption Advocates International of Washington, the same one as the Hana Williams case. Henceforth, I will use AAI as the abbreviation. The agency info was posted on 7/15/13 at http://freemattandgrace.com/faq/2013/7/15/who-are-matt-and-graces-childrenwhich says ”
Matt and Grace have strong family values and hoped to raise children of their own. Grace always wanted to adopt children who might not otherwise have a loving and safe home. As a result, after being married for approximately five years and being unable to conceive a child naturally, Matt and Grace began actively looking into international adoption. Grace did extensive research into adoption practices of various countries to make sure they were not adopting from any countries that had a history of questionable or corrupt practices.
Working through Adoption Advocates International http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/, a well-established agency that specializes in international adoption, Grace and Matt learned about two young children, a sister and a brother, living in an orphanage in Ghana. Gloria Ekua Afful was then four years old and her brother was five. The children had been given up for adoption because their family was unable to meet their basic needs. Matt and Grace traveled to Ghana in March 2009 to meet the children and spent two months in Ghana working through its adoption laws and procedures. In May 2009, the process was complete and Grace brought the children to the United States to begin their new life as a part of their family.
Matt and Grace followed the same process two years later when they again wanted to add to their family. Working through the same agency, Grace and Matt were referred to a four year-old boy from Uganda. Matt, Grace, and their children all travelled to Uganda to meet him. They complied with all applicable laws and his adoption was finalized in October 2011″
More Details on Arrest/Trial
“Last month, Matt and Grace Huang appeared in a lower Doha court and were formally charged with murdering their eight-year-old daughter Gloria, who died in January.”
“Friends and family of the Huangs had initially launched a Facebook group in support of the couple in January, but quickly took it down to avoid negative publicity.Since then, several people close to the Huangs have expressed knowledge of the case but declined to be interviewed by Doha News, as did the US Embassy, citing the couple’s privacy concerns.”
“What happenedAccording to the website, the Huangs, an American couple of Asian descent, moved to Qatar last year with their three children, who were adopted from Ghana and Uganda.Matt Huang worked as a supervising engineer on a water purification and recycling project related to 2022 World Cup infrastructure building. His wife, who has a master’s degree in education, home-schooled the children, aged 6, 8 and 9 years old.
On Jan. 15, 2013, their daughter Gloria suddenly died, of causes that still remain unknown, although the couple admits she had not eaten in four days.
The Huangs was taken into custody by police the next day, and have been held on separate floors of the same detention facility since then. Their sons were briefly put into Qatar’s orphanage, but are now in the care of their grandmother, and are not allowed to leave the country.
According to the CIP’s website, an autopsy of Gloria’s body ruled out death by poisoning or bodily trauma. A medical examiner testified in court that Gloria appeared emaciated and died of “wasting,” which could be interpreted as starvation, or also mean she suffered from cachexia, in which disease caused her body to waste away.
The Huangs deny starving their daughter, saying that she had an eating disorder related to living the first four years of her life in extreme poverty, and she would sometimes go days without food and then binge eat. CIP suggests that the disorder may have weakened her heart, making her more vulnerable to stroke, seizure, or cardiac arrest.”
Update 2: “Matthew and Grace Huang were arrested in Doha, Qatar, shortly after their daughter, Gloria, died January 15, said Alex Simpson, associate director of the nonprofit California Innocence Project. The Huangs adopted the child from Ghana at age 4.The couple’s two other children, also adopted from Africa, have been banned from leaving the country and are being cared for by their grandmother, who is living with them there.
The Qatar Embassy did not return a call or email seeking comment Monday.The Huangs moved to Qatar in 2012 so Matthew Huang could work as an engineer on two major infrastructure projects associated with improvements for the 2022 World Cup, according to a narrative of the case posted on the family’s website, http://www.freemattandgrace.com.
Their daughter, who was severely malnourished in early childhood, would periodically refuse food for several days and then binge eat or get food from bizarre sources, such as garbage cans or from strangers – a behavior her parents traced to her impoverished upbringing and were trying to address.
She would also try to leave the house at night in search of food and pick through the medicine cabinet on late-night binges, according to a report prepared in the U.S. by Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic psychologist who reviewed the case for the family.”
“A Qatari doctor who conducted Gloria’s autopsy found that the child’s hips, ribs and spine protruded and concluded the cause of death was dehydration and wasting disease.'”
Update 3: It is important to note that four days without food in the US is considered a crime of neglect of a dependent and endangering the welfare of a child. Supporters of the Huangs like to diminish the consequences of what four days without food does to a child. I want to highlight a recent case describedhttp://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/us-couple-feels-kidnapped/982442.html at Couple Sentenced for Starving their Children[KRZK 8/16/13 by Harold Smith] which says “a couple from Muncie, Indiana is sentenced to seven years in prison for starving their children last year while they lived in Branson.A Delaware County, Indiana judge sentenced 41 year old Jason and 35 year old Amy Doty Wednesday. They had each pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent.The Doty’s reportedly moved from Indiana to Branson in March of 2012 to follow a church ministry. During their time here, their savings ran out, and they allegedly went up to four days at a time without feeding their children, two girls ages four and nineteen months.The couple moved back to Indiana in June, and only then sought medical attention for the girls. They were arrested shortly thereafter.Because of the severe malnourishment, the younger girl suffered irreversible brain damage, and both girls have a number of health issues. The two are being raised by an aunt, who intends to adopt the girls.And, because the child neglect happened in Branson, the Doty’s still face charges of endangering the welfare of a child in Taney County. Officials with Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Merrell’s office report there are active local warrants for the two. They say the Taney County charges have been on hold pending the conclusion of the court proceedings in Indiana.”
Update 4: “A US couple in Qatar accused of killing their adopted child to harvest her organs said Wednesday they feel “kidnapped” by the Gulf emirate, with no verdict expected until late March.
Matthew and Grace Huang, Americans of Asian origin, were arrested in January 2013 after the death of their adopted daughter Gloria, an eight-year-old girl from Ghana, and accused of causing her death in order to sell her organs.
The couple’s supporters describe them as a loving family and insist the girl died of an eating disorder caused by the “extreme poverty” she suffered at a young age in the West African country.
The couple were released in November pending trial, but on Wednesday the court denied their request to leave the country to join their other two adopted children in the United States, and said a verdict would be announced March 27, according to a judicial source.
The defence said the public prosecutor is pushing for the death penalty, although Qatar has not had any executions for several years.
“We have lost our daughter and our sons have lost their sister. And this court has taken more than a year of our lives,” Matthew Huang said outside the courtroom.
“In the midst of our innocence, we feel we have been kidnapped and we just want to go home.”
Both adoption and multiracial families are rare in Qatar, a conservative Gulf Arab emirate, and the family’s supporters maintain that authorities misunderstood the Huangs’ situation and found it inherently suspicious.
The “Free Grace and Matt” website said police accuse the couple of having adopted the children “in order to harvest their organs, or perhaps to perform medical experiments on them.”
The Huangs moved to Qatar in 2012 so Matthew, an engineer, could work on infrastructure projects related to the 2022 World Cup.
The family’s supporters describe them as a loving family, and say they have collected supporting testimony from people who knew them in Qatar, which authorities have declined to accept.”
US couple feels “kidnapped” in Qatar over child death case[Channel News Asia 2/5/14 By AFP]
Update 5: “Matthew and Grace Huang spend five hours a day on Skype home-schooling their two adopted sons, now living with Mrs. Huang’s mother back home in the United States. The Huangs are also using the Internet to connect with an American counselor, who is helping them attempt to repair their psyches after nearly a year of separate incarcerations in Qatar’s penal system.
Mostly they just wait in a rented apartment here, the capital of Qatar, a tiny, affluent Persian Gulf emirate with a mix of multiculturalism and Muslim orthodoxy, for the verdict, scheduled for Thursday, in a murder trial in which they are accused in the death of their adopted daughter by depriving her of food and water for four days.
The Huangs have asserted that they are innocent, victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. The daughter, Gloria, who was 8, had an eating disorder, a legacy of her impoverished childhood in Ghana, in which she would sometimes fast, binge-eat or steal food. Friends said she and the boys, who were also adopted from Africa, had seemed healthy and happy.
The precise cause of the child’s death has never been established. But the case has revealed what the Huangs and their lawyers and supporters have called deeply ingrained prejudices here about adoption and multiracial families, based on the presumption that the girl must have been abused.
“This whole country is very confusing to me,” said Mr. Huang, 37, an engineer from Los Angeles who had been helping build Doha’s water and sewer systems, as he sat with his wife for an interview on Sunday, the first since their daughter’s death. “I feel that a lot of our situation has been caused by ethnic misunderstanding, by religious misunderstanding.”
Mrs. Huang, 36, described it as a Kafkaesque journey in which neither of them could fully understand what was happening. “The hardest part was being suddenly separated from my family, not seeing the kids, just at the time when I needed them the most,” she said.
The Huang case began in January of last year with their arrest after the couple rushed Gloria, unconscious, to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Their two boys, now 8 and 12, were temporarily placed in an orphanage.
The news quickly spread among their circle of friends, mostly Christians like the Huangs, members of a small expatriate congregation, the Grace Fellowship Church. Angela Verrips, a neighbor who testified on their behalf, said nobody could believe it. “This was a huge shock,” she said. “Our friends in prison — bizarre.”
The case has attracted widespread attention among Qatar’s broader expatriate population and is regarded by some as a test of the country’s commitment to open-mindedness and the judiciary’s ability to consider all the facts. It has also been a constant issue for the embassy of the United States government, which considers Qatar an important ally.
Qatar is home to America’s largest military air base in the Middle East. Dozens of American corporations and organizations have established themselves in Doha, where one of the American-style shopping malls features a skating rink, and wealthy Qatari women covered in black burqas sip Starbucks lattes while surfing the web on their smartphones.
Prosecutors initially based part of their case on the suggestion that the Huangs were child traffickers, questioning in court how people of Asian descent could possibly want African children as their own
The judge in the case, Abdullah al-Emady, who has a reputation for independence and fairness, appeared to sense the possibility that a grievous oversight was committed, eventually giving custody of the two other children to Mrs. Huang’s mother, who lives in Washington State. The judge also released the defendants on their own recognizance in November.
Still, there is no assurance that they will be acquitted, and under Qatari law they could receive the death penalty if convicted, although long prison sentences would be more likely.
They were not permitted to leave the country pending the verdict in the trial, which has proceeded extremely slowly.
In his final argument, on Feb. 5, the lead prosecutor, Ashoor Farah, cited unidentified witnesses who asserted that the Huangs had locked Gloria in her room, something the defense has disputed. He also invoked an Islamic prohibition on adoption, according to an English translation of his remarks: “Allah has banned it as it leads to assembling of foreigners with each other, which leads to extremely bad outcomes.”
A serious allegation was made last month by the defense team, which includes the California Innocence Project, a San Diego-based group that helps defendants it considers wrongly accused, and the David House Agency, a group in Los Angeles that assists Americans ensnared in legal crises abroad. They said prosecutors had presented a fabricated pathology report, and asked Qatar’s attorney general to investigate. Telephone and email requests for comment from the attorney general’s office were not returned.
In their interview, the Huangs said they had initially been seduced by what they called Qatar’s veneer of multiculturalism when they agreed to come here a few years ago.
“People were curious, but in a friendly way,” Mrs. Huang said. “I could see them trying to figure us out.”
They spoke nervously about their time in prison, where Mrs. Huang found herself in the midst of about 50 other women, suspected in a range of nonviolent crimes, almost all poorly educated Asian expatriates with limited English skills. They had found work here as maids or in other service jobs. One, she said, had been raped and was then accused of extramarital sex.
They were all curious about Mrs. Huang’s family, she said. “Mostly I think we were very confusing to people because we looked Chinese and yet we are American,” she said. “It took a lot of explaining.”
The only time she saw her husband while they were incarcerated, she said, was in the court hearings that constituted most of their trial. They could not sit together, and she was required to wear a head cover and robe. But she was permitted to keep a Bible in prison.
Mr. Huang said he was confined with up to 150 prisoners, charged with crimes ranging from adultery and drunkenness to assault and murder. His asthma was aggravated by all the cigarette smoke, he said, and fights would often break out over who could use the remote control for the single television set.
He said he was often afraid but was also struck by the number of nationalities, mostly Asians and Africans among the prison population.
“I actually met people from 57 countries inside,” he said. “I kept a list, just because it was so global.”
The Huangs appeared fraught during the interview, not holding hands or exhibiting other signs of affection. They said they rarely go outside and had to sell their Los Angeles home to pay their legal bills and other expenses.
Mrs. Huang called Skype “a wonderful invention” that had enabled them to maintain a semblance of relations with their sons. “We Skype pretty much any time that they are awake and we’re awake,” she said.
Daniel Chin, a brother of Mrs. Huang who was flying from Los Angeles to Doha as the verdict approached, said in a telephone interview that the family was hopeful for an acquittal.
“What’s the alternative?” he said. “The only alternative is to be in despair. All of us have crept up to the cliff and looked over.””
After the Death of Their Daughter, a Verdict Looms[New York Times 3/24/14 by Rick Gladstone]
“Matthew and Grace Huang, an American couple accused in the death of their daughter by depriving her of sustenance for four days, were each sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison followed by deportation, in a case that has drawn close attention here and in the United States.
They were allowed to leave the courtroom after the verdict and their lawyer said they would appeal the judgment, a process that would most likely begin in May.
In a statement he read to reporters outside the courtroom, Mr. Huang, 37, said: “We have just been wrongfully convicted and we feel as if we are being kidnapped by the Qatar judicial system. This verdict is wrong and appears to be nothing more than an effort to save face.”
“This verdict should be overturned immediately and we should be allowed to go home,” he said.
The Huangs have denied the charges and said that they were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. They said their daughter, Gloria, whom they had adopted from Ghana, had an eating disorder formed during an impoverished childhood in Africa, which sometimes led her to fast, binge or steal food. Friends of the family said that Gloria, who was 8, and two sons the couple had also adopted from Africa had seemed healthy and happy.
The couple had already spent 11 months in detention before being released on their own recognizance in November. The sentence on Thursday was read out to a packed courtroom, where many verdicts were issued in a series of unrelated trials. The exact charge on which the two were convicted was not clear.
The precise cause of the child’s death remains uncertain. But the Huangs, their lawyers and supporters have said the case has revealed what they called deeply ingrained prejudices here about adoption and multiracial families, leading to the presumption that the girl must have been abused.
The family was living in Doha because Mr. Huang, 37, an engineer, had been working on the city’s water and sewage systems.
The case began in January 2013, when the Huangs were arrested after rushing their unconscious daughter to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The couple’s two boys, now 8 and 12, were temporarily placed in an orphanage but a judge later gave Mrs. Huang’s mother, who lives in Washington State, custody.
The couple’s trial was regarded by some as a test of the country’s commitment to judicial process. It has also been followed closely by the American Embassy because the United States considers Qatar an important ally. America’s biggest military base in the Middle East is in Qatar, and dozens of American corporations and organizations operate here.
Prosecutors initially based part of their case on the suggestion that the Huangs may have been child traffickers, questioning in court how people of Asian descent could possibly want African children.
In his statement, Mr. Huang said: “The prosecutor accused us of trafficking our legally adopted children with the intent of selling their organs. That is how ridiculous this is.”
He continued: “We are calling on the United States President Obama to call the head of state in Qatar and explain to him why American families adopt high-needs children.”
In the courtroom, the Huangs sat with family members, friends from a Bible study group and two representatives from the American Embassy.
Eric Volz, the managing director of the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based group that advises Americans entangled in legal problems abroad and has been helping the Huangs, told reporters that there was “zero evidence” in the case. The couple had already bought airline tickets in the expectation of being acquitted, he said, and had planned to fly to the United States to see their sons.
Mr. Volz said the judge on Thursday had declared defendants in other cases guilty or not guilty. But in the Huangs’ case, he merely read out the sentence.
“We see that as a grave violation of due process. How can he punish them without convicting them? The judge didn’t even say what he was declaring them guilty of at all,” Mr. Volz said.
But the Huangs’ lawyer, Sami Abu Shaikha, said the charges would not routinely be read out in court.
“In essence, I am satisfied with the verdict because what it really means is that we have managed to convince the court that the death of Gloria was not an intentional, premeditated murder, which is the narrative presented by the prosecutor,” Mr. Abu Shaikha said.
“Of course, I would have been more satisfied had the Huangs been found entirely innocent,” he said. “This is why we will file an appeal. But I praise the Qatari court for their understanding and ruling.”
The couple will remain free during the appeal, the lawyer said, and if their conviction is upheld, the 11 months they spent in detention last year will be taken off the sentence. Under Qatari judicial rules, a one-year sentence translates to nine months of actual jail time, meaning that the Huangs would serve a further 16 months in prison if they lost their appeal.”
American Couple in Qatar Sentenced in Daughter’s Death[New York Times 3/27/14 by SHABINA S. KHATRI and ALAN COWELL]
Update 6:”Advocates for an American couple held in Qatar since their adopted African daughter died there in January 2013 after not eating for days have posted a YouTube video about their story, which contains previously unpublicized footage and photographs depicting a happy multiracial family and offers new insights into the circumstances behind her death.
Advocates for the couple said Sunday that the video was meant to raise awareness and help with fund-raising for the defense and exoneration of the couple, Matthew and Grace Huang of Los Angeles, who were convicted of child endangerment in Qatar on March 27 and sentenced to three years in prison.
The Huangs have denied any wrongdoing in connection with the death of their daughter, Gloria, 8, and are pressing to have the sentence annulled. Qatari prosecutors, who originally brought murder charges against the Huangs on suspicion that they had denied Gloria food, are appealing for a stronger sentence and have threatened to bring new charges of child trafficking against the couple, who have two other adopted African children, both older boys.
The State Department has expressed concern about the fairness of the judicial process in the case, which has attracted international attention and exposed what critics have called inherent cultural and racial biases in Qatar, the affluent Persian Gulf emirate. Prosecutors have argued that the Huangs, who are of Asian descent, could not have possibly wanted African children as their own and therefore must have harbored sinister motives in adopting them.
The Huangs brought Gloria, unconscious, to a Doha hospital on Jan. 15, 2013, where she was declared dead after having not eaten for four days. The police arrested the Huangs the next day.
The Huangs, who lived in Qatar because Matthew Huang was working on a construction project there, asserted that the child had an eating disorder, a legacy of her impoverished childhood in Ghana, in which she would alternately fast and binge on food. An autopsy did not determine the cause of death.
They spent nearly a year in a Qatar prison but were released last November. They have not been reimprisoned pending the outcome of the appeal, but have been forbidden to leave the country. Their other children, who had been temporarily placed in a Qatar orphanage, are now living in the United States with Ms. Huang’s mother.
The six-minute video was released a day before the Huangs’s second appearance at a Qatar appellate court, on Sunday, where a judge decided that the defense and prosecutor arguments would be heard together on June 16.
The video features footage and photographs of Gloria and her adopted brothers playing, along with interviews with the Huangs and Ms. Huang’s sister and brother, all expressing concern about the fairness of the prosecution and apprehension over the prolonged separation of the family.
Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, one of the advocacy groups assisting with the Huangs’ defense, is also interviewed. He calls the prosecution’s reasoning “outrageous” and says “the case completely lacks any type of due process.”
The Huangs and their friends have said that Gloria was a happy child, and pathologists hired by the defense have said that there was no merit to the prosecution’s arguments that she had died from food deprivation. They also said Gloria’s eating disorder was not uncommon among adopted children from poor backgrounds.
Matthew Huang also offered an explanation in the video for why the Huangs did not act sooner when Gloria had stopped eating.
“We did not take Gloria to the hospital when she was refusing to eat because we believed she would come out of these hunger strikes as she had before,” he said. “She was lively and active and there was no reason to suspect any concern for her health.”
The video ends with an appeal to help the couple by donating to their legal fund and signing an online petition to Secretary of State John Kerry, Mohammed Jaham Al Kuwari, the Qatar ambassador to the United States, and Susan L. Ziadeh, the American ambassador to Qatar. As of Sunday, more than 166,300 people had signed it.”
A Push to Aid American Couple Held in Child’s Death in Qatar[New York Times 5/11/14 by Rick Gladstone]
Update 7:”The United States on Thursday called on Qatar, the tiny gulf emirate and important Arab ally, to lift a travel ban on an American couple held there for more than 19 months on a criminal prosecution over the death of their adopted African daughter, a case that critics contend is riddled with irregularities, racial prejudice and cultural misunderstandings.
In a statement, the State Department said it was concerned about the well-being of the couple, Matthew and Grace Huang of Los Angeles, and their two sons, who were both returned to the United States in the custody of other relatives after the parents were arrested and imprisoned in January 2013.
The State Department said it had requested the Qatari government’s “assistance in providing a fair and expeditious conclusion to the proceedings,” which have moved slowly even though the original charge of murder was thrown out, replaced by the lesser charge of child endangerment and a conviction in March that carries a three-year prison term.
The Huangs, who assert they are innocent of any wrongdoing and have appealed, are not incarcerated while the appeal is pending but are prohibited from leaving Qatar. The next court hearing is in October. Prosecutors are seeking a longer sentence.”
“We also urge the Qatari government to lift the current travel ban and allow Mr. and Mrs. Huang to return home to the United States to be reunited with their two sons and the rest of their family,” the State Department statement said.
American officials have raised the Huang case with Qatar’s government on multiple occasions, including questions about the fairness of the prosecution. But the statement on Thursday was the first time that the United States had publicly asked for the Qatar government’s help in both resolving the issue and permitting the Huangs to leave.
The statement was an outcome of meetings on Wednesday in Washington between the couple’s relatives, legal advocates and two powerful State Department officials, Wendy R. Sherman, the under secretary for political affairs, and Anne W. Patterson, the assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs. The statement said Ms. Sherman had “conveyed concern for the Huang family’s well-being, adding that assisting U.S. citizens in need overseas was among the department’s highest priorities.”
Advocates who attended the meetings said they were encouraged, although it remained unclear when, whether or how the Qatari government would respond. Telephone and email requests for comment from the Qatari Embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.
The Huangs, who lived in Qatar because Mr. Huang was working as an engineer there, rushed their comatose daughter, Gloria, to a hospital after she had not eaten for days, and she died on Jan. 15, 2013. Qatari prosecutors and police investigators, not believing that the Huangs were Gloria’s parents, accused them of child trafficking and of deliberately withholding food from her with the intent of killing her and selling the organs.
Court papers show the prosecution based the case partly on the suspicion that the Huangs, who are of Asian descent, could not possibly have wanted black African children as their own.
The Huangs have said they are victims of a miscarriage of justice caused by basic misunderstandings about multiracial American families and adoptions, which are alien concepts in Qatar. They said Gloria, adopted from Ghana, had an eating disorder formed during an impoverished early childhood in which she would binge on food and then not eat for days.
The cause of death was never established. But the Huangs’ defense team challenged the prosecution’s assertion that the child had been denied food, and said a pathology report that had helped form the crux of the case appeared to have been fabricated.
The prosecution was considered so egregious that the Huangs’ defense was taken up by the California Innocence Project, a San Diego-based legal advocacy organization, and the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based group that specializes in helping clients entangled in complicated legal crises abroad.
The case also has injected some tension into Qatar’s good relationship with the United States, which regards Qatar as an increasingly important strategic partner. The largest American military air base in the Middle East is in Qatar, which has played a brokering role in the current efforts to establish a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Eric Volz, the managing director of the David House Agency, who attended the meetings in Washington on Wednesday, said by telephone that the State Department officials had agreed that “there needs to be more pressure and more action taken.”
At the same time, Mr. Volz said, there was still “no indication that this nightmare is going to end.””
U.S. Seeks Release of Couple in Qatar, Creating Tensions With a Crucial Arab Ally[New York Times 7/31/14 by Rick Gladstone]
Update 8:“An American couple hopes to return to the United States next week to be reunited with their family after a two-year legal nightmare has trapped them in Qatar, charged with wrongdoing in the death of their adopted daughter.
On Monday Matthew and Grace Huang will appeal their conviction, which has garnered international attention and raised questions in the media about the prosecution and overall fairness of the Qatari justice system.
“It has been a very confusing and almost incomprehensible process to us,” Grace Huang said in a phone interview from Qatar. “We are tired. We just want to go home.”
When their 8-year-old daughter Gloria died in January 2013, the couple was immediately arrested on charges they starved her to death.
“It was a shock,” Grace said. “She is our daughter.”
The Huangs, who maintained their daughter suffered from an eating disorder, have denied wrongdoing in connection with her death and are fighting the conviction.
Matthew Huang was employed in Doha by an international company working on construction projects for the 2022 World Cup.
After a lengthy trial, the Huangs were convicted of endangering the life of their child. They were sentenced in April to three years in prison.
The State Department has expressed concern about the fairness of the legal proceedings in the case and disappointment in the verdict.
A YouTube video made about the case by advocates for the Huangs portrays a happy multiracial family, provides insights into Gloria’s death and raises questions about the prosecution.
In the video, Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, one of the advocacy groups assisting with the Huangs’ defense, says “the case completely lacks any type of due process.” He calls the Qatari prosecution’s case “outrageous.”
The United States has suggested that cultural misunderstandings were at the heart of the charges, that evidence provided by the defense was not carefully considered and due process for the Huangs has not been provided.
A report by pathologists hired by the defense, obtained by CNN, states they found no evidence tissue samples were taken from Gloria’s body after her death, despite the fact Qatari investigators submitted an autopsy report. Advocates for the Huangs suggested the lab report was fabricated and said their request with the Qatari judiciary for a formal investigation has gone unanswered.
“There is no credible evidence,” said Eric Volz, who heads the firm David House Agency that is also assisting with the Huangs’ case. “In an objective court the judge should have thrown out the case.”
Several U.S. officials have privately expressed confidence in the Huangs’ innocence, calling the case a “sham.” But the Obama administration has sought to exhaust all legal proceedings before seeking the Qatari government’s direct intervention in the case.
A United Nations special rapporteur investigating the justice system in Qatar has also called attention to the Huangs’ case and urged the government to release them and send them home.
After spending nearly a year in prison, the couple was released last November. They are prohibited from leaving Qatar during their appeal.
The case suggested racial overtones when questions were raised by the prosecutor and police about why the Huangs, who are Asian, adopted children from Africa.
The Qatari prosecutor has sought to paint Grace and Matthew Huang as inhumane, alleging they bought their adopted daughter cheaply from her poverty-stricken parents in Africa and has since threatened to seek human trafficking charges.
The couple’s two sons, also adopted from Africa, were temporarily placed in a Qatari orphanage after the couple’s arrest, but have since been sent back to the United States to live with Grace Huang’s mother.
The entire family has chipped in during the prolonged separation. With Matthew Huang fired from his job, the couple is living on donations from family and friends.
Grace Huang’s brother, Daniel Chin, has given up his job in California to work on the case full time. He is the nerve center of the family, raising money for the family’s expenses and defense costs and dealing with the Huangs’ lawyers and advocates.
Chin has met with lawmakers and administration officials in Washington, urging them to make the Huangs’ case a greater priority.
He has weekly Skype chats with his sister and has traveled several times to Doha for their judicial proceedings, which the Qatari court continues to postpone.
“Often it’s hard to keep working on something when it feels we are just a small family trying to fight against” a country, he said in a phone interview, before leaving Friday for Qatar for the Huangs’ appellate hearing.
The case puts the United States in a difficult situation with a close ally with whom it is working on hot-button issues in the Middle East. Qatar is a key ally in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and host to many countries’ forces involved in airstrikes.
The Qatari government also helped the United States secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban captivity this year.
“Qatar is a key ally for the U.S. government,” Volz says. “The day the Huangs were wrongly convicted the U.S. announced an $11 billion arms deal with the Qataris. And when Bowe Bergdahl was released, President Obama publicly thanked the government. That all sends a message not only to Qatar but to other countries that there is no cost to Americans being wrongly imprisoned in their country.”
Volz noted the United States has upped the pressure on the Qatari government in recent months to resolve the case quickly and release the Huangs.
Last week the State Department issued a statement urging the Qatari government to “immediately” lift the Huangs’ travel ban, bring the case to an “expeditious and just conclusion” and allow the couple to return to the United States.
“We are really hopeful that as a result of the State Department making this public demand that the Qataris lift the travel ban, that there is a good chance that Matt and Grace can come home,” Volz says.
Her parents and other family members describe Gloria as a happy child, who loved butterflies, flowers and the color pink.
“She loved to talk, to dance and she loved music,” Grace Huang said. “She loved hearing stories.”
But consumed with their nightmare in isolation, the Huangs and their family have not had a chance to grieve for their daughter.
“Everything has revolved around her case and our situation,” Grace Huang said. “We haven’t had a chance to really say goodbye and mourn. We just really want to be able to honor her place in our lives with our friends and family and that hasn’t happened yet.”
“Nobody in the family has had time to grieve about Gloria and her death and the fact she passed away,” Chin said. “Especially Matt and Grace. To see my nephews without their parents, who have not been able to hold them for the past year. It’s heartbreaking.”
The couple is fearful to go out in public, spending most of their time in their Doha apartment. With a 10-hour time difference, they spend every hour they and their two sons, 8 and 12, are all awake on Skype, talking and going over homework. The technology has been a godsend, but virtual parenting isn’t easy. The kids have stored away last year’s Christmas gifts until the family can celebrate together.
“We are trying to be as involved as we can be, but we are really tired of trying to do it over the Internet,” Grace Huang said. “We have missed birthdays, anniversaries and so many special events. We are longing to be home with our family again.”
“We are encouraged that they are urging the Qatari government to lift our travel ban and are hopeful everyone here would respond to that request and allow us to travel home to be reunited with our family. But of course, we are not home.” she said.”
American couple held in Qatar in child’s death may soon resolve case[12 News Now 10/17/14 by Elise Labott]
Update 9:“An American-Asian couple faces a death penalty sentence after a Qatari court alleged they were engaged in human trafficking when their adopted daughter died.
Matt and Grace Huang are scheduled to go to appeals court on November 30 to face a possible death sentence in a case that charges them with murdering their own adopted daughter in order to traffic her organs. The US government has tried to intervene but the Huangs remain under house arrest. They are not allowed to leave Qatar.
With the death penalty on the table, the Huangs believe the US government must act before their sentencing date.
“We want them to get us home before the 30th. On the 30th, we do not know what this court will do,” Grace Huang told Katie Couric in an interview for Yahoo Global News.
The Huangs – originally from Los Angeles – moved to Qatar in 2012, when Matt, a Stanford trained engineer, was asked by his employer to oversee a major infrastructure project related to the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted in Qatar.
The Asian-American couple had adopted three African children before their move, and the case is centered on their eight-year-old daughter Gloria, who was found unresponsive on her bedroom floor in January 2013. Despite 40 minutes of CPR at the local hospital, she died. The Qatari police suspected foul play, arrested the couple, and put their other children – two boys – in an orphanage.
The Huangs were subsequently charged with murdering Gloria and were told the motive was to harvest her organs or to conduct medical experiments on her, according to the California Innocence Project, which is assisting them in their case.
Gloria did have an eating disorder as a result of her childhood in Ghana, the Huangs said. They added that she would on occasion go for days without food, sometimes binging on junk food, rummaging through garbage, or stealing food and hiding it in her room. The defense argued that Grace has struggled with a variety of medical and psychological problems since she was adopted from Ghana at the age of four. The judge was not swayed.
The Huangs spent a year in jail, going to court multiple times for hearings, and were eventually sentenced to three years in prison for undeclared reasons. The court did not find them guilty or not guilty of murder, or any other crimes for that matter.
“We have just been wrongfully convicted, and we feel as if we are being kidnapped by the Qatar judicial system,” Matt Huang told reporters after the judge’s decision.
The court never offered any evidence for the human organ-trafficking allegations, would not let the Huangs’ attorney cross-examine the witnesses, and the autopsy report was missing an analysis on organ tissues. The Huangs still do not know why their daughter died.
“I was outraged. I am outraged by the court system here, by the process, by the inability for the court process to identify and bring truth. We feel that there have been lies spoken to us by the Qatari government over and over. And the court process is just not rational,” Matt told Couric.
The couple appealed the sentence and are now under house arrest as the process unfolds. The prosecution has appealed the sentence as well. It is now asking for the death penalty.
“We have no idea what will happen. The court continues to use adoption as the reason that we are bad people. We love our two sons, and our sons miss us greatly, and they need us,” said Grace.
The California Innocence Project believes the Huangs are being treated with suspicion by the Qatari government because they are a mixed race family. It suspects racially motivated suspicions to be behind the Huangs’ arrest and prosecution.
“I am very fearful about speaking out,” said Matt. “I’m scared of this court. I’m scare of what the authorities might do to us. We remain hopeful the US government will be able to step in and come to our aid.””
Human trafficking? American couple in Qatar faces execution over adopted child’s death[Russia Today 10/30/14]
“Parents Matthew and Grace Huang of Los Angeles will receive a final verdict on their appeal on November 30, a Qatari judge announced October 20.”
“The prosecution alleged that the couple had denied food to Gloria and said the child was locked in her room at night. The girl was pronounced dead when the Huangs took her to the hospital in January 2013.
The case has raised concerns about possible cultural misunderstandings in Qatar, where Western-style adoptions and cross-cultural families are relatively rare. An investigative report by the Qatari police had focused partially on why the Huangs would adopt children who did not share their ‘hereditary traits’, according to the family’s website.
The Huangs will be able to take their case to a higher court after the appeals verdict, though Qatar’s highest judicial body traditionally rules in favor of the lower court’s rulings.”
[Daily Mail 10/30/14 by Zoe Szathmary]
Update 10:”An American husband and wife in Qatar were cleared of charges related to the death of their 8-year-old daughter but were barred from leaving the country Sunday, a family representative said.
Matthew and Grace Huang, from Los Angeles, were stopped by Qatari immigration officials at the airport Sunday after a judge threw out charges that the couple was responsible for the death in 2013 of their daughter, Gloria.
The ruling ended a nearly two-year legal fight that kept the couple from returning to their two other children in the U.S. The cause of Gloria’s death hasn’t been determined.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Sunday with Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiya, and called on the Qatari government to implement the court’s decision and allow the Huangs to return home.
“The thoroughly documented findings of the court clearly establish the Huangs’ innocence,” Mr. Kerry said. “We are deeply concerned about new delays that have prevented their departure.”
U.S. Ambassador Dana Shell Smith greeted the Huangs at the airport to congratulate them on the court decision, said Eric Volz, managing director of the David House Agency, an international crisis firm hired by the Huang family. Ms. Smith remained at the airport with the Huangs, other U.S. government officials and family representatives, surrounded by a large Qatari police presence, he said. They eventually left the airport to await word from the Qatari government.
Qatari officials declined to comment.
In a statement, the couple criticized the U.S. government, which they said had no answers as to why they couldn’t leave the country. “We have begged the U.S. ambassador, the secretary of state and even President Obama to call the emir of Qatar and fix this ongoing injustice.” The Huangs said they are waiting for the Qatari government to make the next move.
The Huangs were jailed in 2013 after their daughter, whom they adopted from Africa, died suddenly. They were released last November, but a travel ban has prevented them from leaving.
While the Huangs initially were charged with murder, the Qatari court replaced that with a lesser charge of child endangerment. The Huangs denied the charges.
The Huangs have two other children adopted from Africa who were initially placed in a Qatari orphanage but eventually allowed to return to the U.S. to live with grandparents.
Qatar has emerged as a critical U.S. ally, particularly following the events of the Arab Spring. The wealthy emirate is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, and its air force has provided surveillance and logistical support to the air campaign. U.S. Central Command has launched large numbers of strikes from Qatar’s Al-Udeid air base west of Doha.
Still, Qatar has joined other critics in calling for the Obama administration to do more to target the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Attiya warned earlier this month that the Middle East’s Sunni population increasingly view the U.S. military campaign as biased against efforts to topple Mr. Assad. The rebel forces in Syria consist mostly of Sunnis.
When the Taliban released Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban officials in May, Qatar served as the interlocutor between the U.S. and the Taliban. But while the U.S. has taken advantage of Qatar’s ties in the region, it has also criticized them. The U.S. Treasury Department has accused Qatar of lax oversight of its financial system and has sanctioned a number of Qatari nationals or identification-card holders for their alleged role in funding al Qaeda and Nusra Front, its Syrian affiliate.
Gloria Huang died on Jan. 15, 2013. Adopted from Ghana, Gloria had an eating disorder, the Huangs and their legal team said.
The prosecution accused the Huangs of starving Gloria with the intention of harvesting her organs. The Qatari police also accused the Huangs of human trafficking, indicating in police reports and court testimony that they couldn’t understand why a couple of Asian descent would adopt African children.
The Huangs presented evidence in the case concerning the frequency of eating disorders among children adopted from underdeveloped countries.[Big Deal!]
The Huangs’ defense team, citing their experts, said Gloria’s autopsy was improperly conducted.
During the legal batte, the State Department made numerous appeals to the Qatari government to lift the travel ban preventing the couple from returning to America to reunite with their children. State Department officials also expressed concern that the Qatari court didn’t weigh all of the evidence in the case and that cultural misunderstandings might have led to an unfair trial.
In March, the Huangs were sentenced to three years in prison, but an appeals court on Sunday overturned the conviction.
In a statement to reporters Sunday, Mr. Huang said: “It has been a long and emotional trial for me and my family, and Grace and I want to go home and be reunited with our sons. We have been unable to grieve our daughter.”
The Huangs moved to Qatar in summer 2012, when Mr. Huang took a job in Doha to help oversee an infrastructure project related to preparations for the 2022 soccer World Cup.”
Qatari Court Absolves U.S. Couple in Child’s Death[Wall Street Journal 10/30/14 by FELICIA SCHWARTZ and JAY SOLOMON]
Update 11: “Qatar will soon lift a travel ban that has kept a U.S. couple from leaving the Gulf Arab state even after their convictions in the death of their African-born adopted daughter were overturned, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday.
Matthew and Grace Huang should be able to leave the country at the start of business on Wednesday when the travel ban is lifted, and the Qatari attorney general’s office plans no further prosecution appeals in the case, Kerry said in a statement.
The couple had initially been charged with murder in the death of their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, and were convicted of lesser child endangerment charges earlier this year in connection with her death, according to a support website for the family.
An appeals court threw out the convictions on Sunday. Yet when the couple subsequently sought to leave Qatar, they were stopped at the Doha airport and their passports were seized, family spokesman Eric Volz said.
That sparked a flurry of diplomacy as U.S. officials worked to get a travel ban lifted so the couple can return to the United States, where their two other children, also adopted, have been living with relatives while the case continued in Qatar.
The U.S. ambassador to Qatar said on Twitter earlier on Tuesday that all the requirements have been met for the Huangs to leave the country.
“The United States applauds this decision, and we look forward to seeing the Huangs reunited with their children at home,” Kerry said.
The Huangs were arrested in January 2013 after an autopsy found their daughter died of dehydration and cachexia, an irreversible loss of body mass. The couple said Gloria suffered from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at age 4.
A lawyer for the couple filed an application on Monday to the attorney general’s office in Doha, requesting the travel ban be lifted, Volz said.
“All the proper paperwork has been filed and any continued delays are a cause for concern,” Volz said in a statement, adding that he hoped U.S. officials would “keep up any necessary pressure” to ensure the couple can leave Qatar on Wednesday.
The couple, who are from Los Angeles, had moved to Qatar so Matthew Huang, a Stanford-trained engineer, could work on a project related to the 2022 World Cup, according to supporters.”
U.S. couple stuck in Qatar in child death case can leave[Reuters 12/2/14 by ALEX DOBUZINSKIS]
“Aa American Couple Comvicted and later cleared of wrongdoing in the death of their adopted African-born daughter in Qatar returned to Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, a family spokesman said on Twitter.
Matthew and Grace Huang left the tiny Gulf Arab state on Wednesday after a ban on their travel issued by that government was lifted, ending a nearly two-year ordeal.
“Mission accomplished. Matt and Grace are in Los Angeles. They have not stopped smiling,” spokesman Eric Volz said in a tweet posted about 3 p.m. PST.[For Getting away with their daughter’s Disgraceful death!]
He later tweeted that the Huangs were “on their way to be reunited with their sons.”
A website created to publicize the case said the Huangs had moved to Qatar so that Matthew Huang, a Stanford-trained engineer, could work on a project related to the 2022 World Cup.
The Huangs were arrested in January 2013 after an autopsy found their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, died of dehydration and cachexia, an irreversible loss of body mass. The couple said Gloria suffered from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at age 4.
Matthew and Grace Huang had initially been charged with murder in the death and were convicted of lesser child endangerment charges earlier this year in connection with Gloria’s death, according to a support website for the family.
US State Department officials had expressed concerns that cultural misunderstandings could have played a role in the couple’s prosecution in a country unaccustomed to multiracial families and adoption.
A Qatar appeals court threw out the convictions against the couple on Sunday. But when they subsequently sought to leave Qatar, they were stopped at the Doha airport and their passports seized, Volz said earlier this week.
“I am thrilled to announce that the Huangs are leaving Qatar after having the travel ban lifted,” said California Innocence Project director Justin Brooks, whose organization had been involved in the case.
US couple released by Qatar in child death return to Los Angeles[Jerusalem Post 12/5/14]
Update 12:”An American couple convicted and later cleared in Qatar of wrongdoing in the death of their adopted African-born daughter celebrated their return to Los Angeles with a jubilant church service on Sunday morning.
When the pastor announced the arrival of Matthew and Grace Huang along with their children Josiah and Emmanuel, the congregation of 3,000 people applauded and cheered.[How Nice of them to applaud and cheer for the death of Gloria!
]
Standing with his family at the lectern of Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, California, Matthew Huang addressed the churchgoers, most of whom the couple had not seen since moving to Qatar in 2012.
“We are really excited to be here and worship with you, it’s something that we’ve longed for, for so long,” he said. “The situation these past two years has been extremely difficult. Thank you all for your prayers, and your support and your care for us.”
The Huangs left the Gulf Arab state of Qatar on Wednesday after the government lifted a travel ban, ending a nearly two-year ordeal.
A website created to publicize the case said the Huangs had moved to Qatar so that Matthew Huang, a Stanford-trained engineer, could work on a project related to the 2022 World Cup.
The Huangs were arrested in January 2013 after an autopsy found their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, died of dehydration and cachexia, an irreversible loss of body mass. The couple said Gloria suffered from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at age 4.
Matthew and Grace Huang had initially been charged with murder in the death and were convicted of lesser child endangerment charges earlier this year in connection with Gloria’s death, according to a support website for the family.
U.S. State Department officials had expressed concerns that cultural misunderstandings could have played a role in the couple’s prosecution in a country unaccustomed to multiracial families and adoption.
Josiah, 8, and Emmanuel, 11, had been living with grandparents in Los Angeles while their parents were detained.
Senior Pastor Greg Waybright said the church would collect a “benevolence offering” to provide financial support to the family.
“Just two weeks ago, were praying … that by Christmas, we’d have some of our family members back home, and it looked absolutely impossible,” he said. “I either want to weep or to dance.””
U.S. couple released by Qatar in child death celebrate their return[Reuters 12/7/14 by Daina Beth Solomon]
“The American father who, along with his wife, was imprisoned in Qatar for more than a year after being accused of starving their daughter has revealed he was sexually assaulted behind bars.
Matthew and Grace Huang finally flew home to Los Angeles on Thursday after a Qatari judge last week cleared them in the death of their eight-year-old adopted daughter, Gloria.
A day after her unexplained death in Qatar in 2013, the couple were thrown behind bars.
‘I was physically and sexually assaulted,’ Matthew CBS News in their first interview. ‘Another inmate tried to rape me. I – as a victim – I fought back.'[Oh please!]
“The couple moved to Qatar in 2012 for Matthew’s job as an engineer for an American firm. They moved with their three children, Gloria, Emanuel and Josiah, who were all adopted from Africa.
In January 2013, Gloria – who was severely malnourished before she was adopted age four – started foaming at the mouth, her father said. He tried to save her but she passed away in hospital.
Without carrying out a full autopsy of the girl, Qatari police turned their attention to the parents, who are of Asian descent. They were suspicious of the mixed-race family, the couple said.”
American dad locked up in Qatar after being accused of starving his eight-year-old daughter reveals he was sexually assaulted in prison as he and his wife finally return home[Daily Mail 12/8/14 by Lydia Warren]
“A California couple who were held in Qatar for nearly two years before they were cleared in the death of their eight-year-old daughter have sued the engineering firm that sent them overseas.
Matt and Grace Huang, who finally returned home to Los Angeles last Thursday, filed a negligence and wrongful termination suit against Colorado-based company MWH Global on Monday.
Mr Huang, who had worked for the firm since 1999, was sent to Qatar to help improve the country’s drainage systems ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Los Angeles Times reported.
But the suit claims that it failed to provide security or cultural training in Qatar, where mixed-race families are not accepted. The couple are Asian American and had adopted three black children from Africa.“[Oh please!]
“In the suit, the Huangs said that adoption is prohibited and East Asians are regarded as one of the lowest ‘racial classes of individuals’. They added that the firm had ‘abandoned them’.”
“MWH says it checked on the family’s welfare and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Matt Huang’s defense.”
California couple held in Qatar before they were cleared in the death of their daughter, eight, sues the U.S. company that sent them
[Daily Mail 12/10/14 by Lydia Warren]
Update 13:”An American couple of Asian descent who were tried for murder in Qatar after the accidental death of their Ghana-born adopted daughter have revealed the accusations against them were based almost entirely on racism.
Matthew and Grace Huang were initially convicted in the death of eight-year-old Gloria, who was found dead from malnutrition in their Doha home in early 2014 but it was later quashed.
Now living back in the U.S., the deeply religious Huangs say their races – and that of their African children – nearly got them executed in the tiny Arab oil state.
Matthew and Gloria Huang moved to Qatar after Matt’s company, MWH Global, asked them to relocate there in 2012 to work on an infrastructure project related to the 2022 World Cup.
The Huangs told New York Magazine in a recent interview that the racist questioning began just after he rushed his daughter to a Doha hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Huangs were arrested in January 2013 after an autopsy found their eight-year-old daughter, Gloria, died of dehydration and cachexia, an irreversible loss of body mass. The couple said Gloria suffered from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at age 4.
‘The first question was: ”Who is she?” ”She’s my daughter.”’ recalled Grace, who said the interrogators refused to believe she was American because she and her husband are of Asian descent.
‘They said, ‘How did she die?’ ‘ Matt recalled. ‘They asked me that ten, 15 times.’
A month later, an investigator testified that the Huangs had adopted Gloria, along with her two adopted brothers ‘most likely to either sell their organs or to conduct medical experiments on them.’
The investigator openly based his conclusion on the races of the Huangs and their kids, saying:
‘The adoption process consists of searching for children who are good-looking and well-behaved,’ he said, ‘and who have hereditary features that are similar to those of the parents. But the children connected to this incident are all from Africa, and most of the families there are indigent.’
Matthew and Grace Huang had initially been charged with murder and were convicted of lesser child-endangerment charges last year in connection with Gloria’s death, according to a support website for the family.
Those convictions were later thrown out by an appeals court.
The prolonged legal battle and months of separation from their boys following the death of their daughter took a serious toll on the Huangs, who are now living a very private life in rural Washington State.
Matthew no longer works for MWH and is still looking for work.
‘I had a lot of dreams and hopes once,’ he says, ‘and now I’m in a phase where frankly I don’t know the future.’
The Huangs are now suing MWH on claims the company relocated them to Qatar without warning them of hostility they could face as an interracial family living in the tiny Gulf Arab state.[Hmm. From Update 12,when”MWH says it checked on the family’s welfare and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Matt Huang’s defense.”]
However, no case will bring back their daughter, whose cause of death to this day isn’t totally clear.[Umm.. she starved to death!Starved.. because you didn’t feed her for 4 days!!!!!]
‘I had to get to the point where I trusted that God is in charge,’ Matt told NYMag. ”
I find it odd that the child’s lab test noted all these nutritional deficiencies and a doctor did not refer the family to a nutritionist, prescribe supplements, a diet or counseling on how to cope with the alleged eating disorder. As serious as this sounds, I can’t understand any parent taking a la-ti-da, let the kid decide on her nutrition approach.
What’s not revealed in the articles is this child’s entire medical history and what medical care she actually received.
Seems to be a pattern in these food deprivation cases that the parents simply don’t take the kid to a doctor and don’t follow up on medical care recommendations. If a child is not on the radar, it’s easy for that child to slip through the cracks.
Also, where in AAI’s training were PAPs given any info on how to cope with an adopted child who might have been food insecure or a history of malnutrition in a foreign third-world country?
I concur that with some expert help, it’s not that hard to indicate medical neglect.
Thanks for your comment. The decision to live in Qatar when your child has a difficult-to-treat condition concerns me as well. What level of nutritional and mental health options are even available there? I can’t believe that any medical professional would have told them that 4 days without food is A-OK. The lack of common sense is shocking.
The comment from the US org about them hoping she will “grow out” of an eating disorder is so naive and dangerous. Even Dave Peltzer (http://www.davepelzer.com/) who survived a childhood of abuse including food abuse still struggles with food as an adult.
There are excellent hospitals in Qatar – and any educated foreign family employed in the country’s contract would have provided excellent coverage. (This isn’t necessarily the case for foreign unskilled laborers).
There’s simply no evidence the Huangs sought treatment for their girl,
What would possess a parent not to take a clearly ill, emaciated child that hadn’t eaten in four (!) days to the doctor?
The girl was adopted at age 4 yet at age 8 “had a parasitic infection when she was adopted and was always small in stature and low in weight. She had a Vitamin D deficiency and her most recent blood work revealed an emerging pattern of potentially serious deficiencies”… attributable to the extreme poverty she hadn’t lived in for 4 more years? Why did the girl have a parasitic infection, the sort of thing that can be cured with a round or two of antibiotics? What kind of parent thinks it is normal for a kid to not eat for days at a time?!? Deficient in Vitamin D?? Was she locked up indoors or something??
There are, of course, adopted kids who aren’t being abused who fail to put on weight, but their APs tend to be very concerned about it and seek treatment for it — it’s disturbing that there’s no evidence this girls family did!
http://bringinghenryhome.blogspot.com/2011/12/scale-is-not-our-friend.html
She needed to see the doctor even more so because of her history. Unfortunately Giardia can turn into a chronic condition of malabsorption and it can occur in conjunction with autoimmune disorders. See http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/176718-clinical and this does occur in international adoptees. It is very serious and that is why I am stunned at the lack of care of this child.
I don’t know if she was locked up but some of the statements in the article imply that she wasn’t in public often.
The extent to whic you people villafy grieving parents trapped in a foreign country is unreal. They were doing what they can to raise a daughter who had long term psychological and medical issues. You have no idea this chid recieved lack of care. Befor you attack someone know the facts. And guilty until proven inncoent or have you all forgotten that. I feel for all of you and your lack of empathy and hope you never end up in this unfortuante situation.
4 days without food is lack of care for any child let alone a child with nutritional conditions. She starved to death/organs shut down due to dehydration. It is called medical negligence and many adoptees including AAI’s other placement Hana Williams have succumbed to the death that accompany it.
We are not a jury or judge.We will not be silent in our opinions in this matter and all dead adoptees.
Unreal,
“Innocent until proven guilty” pertains only to trying someone in a court of law, not commenting on an internet discussion site.
Even if you believe every word the Huangs say, their care of their adopted daughter leaves much to be desired.
BTW, while I’ve read a lot about early food insecurity leading to obesity and binge eating, how come I’ve NEVER heard it connected to refusing to eat, except by parents trying to explain their child’s death by starvation after the fact?
check the sidebar of the blog above. Henry went to heaven in November 21012 and the PAP refer to approval for a sibling group in Arpril 2013?
Proper knowledge of the grieving process much not matter much to the home study worker
I do not understand where you are coming from with your judgements. Are you truly more inclined to put yourself in this camp as a first resort?
“According to the investigative report, they could not have had a legitimate reason to adopt children who were not “good-looking” and who did not share their “hereditary traits.” The report follows this to say they could have adopted these children to harvest their organs
You are allowed the freedom of the blog you have because you live in a country that follows both judicial procedure and freedom of speech.
Do you really think the above statement and reason for suspicion of the Haungs should be upheld? Are you truly putting this investigative report at the top of your list?
I imagine they are devastated by the death of their daughter, the fact that they can’t see their other children and their situation. Like most parents who have had a child die they likely are questioning themselves over what actions they could have taken to change this outcome.
You don’t understand why we are concerned that a child was not given food for 4 days and died? That is a shame that you don’t care about this child.
The statement you quote is given by the Huangs as their justification to be supported. Sadly, this is the THIRD death of a child placed from Africa by Adoption Advocates International in 20 months. TWO have died due to starvation.Both sets of parents homeschooled too. These are facts. This is what we are concerned about.
I have no idea what you mean by putting this at the top of our list. We have hundreds of cases. Maybe you should read them and see the similarities of how homestudies are inadequate and postplacement support for the child is nonexistent.
The Huangs, the New York Times + California Innocence Project keep insisting that:
– Grace Huang (adopted at age 4 from Ghana) was emaciated + filled with giardia parasites as a result of the Ghanian orphanage she was adopted from FOUR YEARS EARLIER!!
– Grace Huang was emaciated + dehydrated at the time of her death as a result of an unspecified eating disorder that caused her to go without food / water for 3-4 days at a time … that curiously isn’t listed in the DSMV!
– the Huang’s did not take their kid to the hospital despite her not having eaten in 3-4 days. That’s neglect!!
http://nyti.ms/1qOCxlH
Thanks for the update. I will add
Here’s another update on the Huang case — with the State Dept actively lobbying on their behalf:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/world/middleeast/blunt-us-appeal-encourages-huangs-couple-held-in-qatar.html?referrer=
This is such a strange case — on the one hand, it’s pretty clear the Huang’s didn’t adopt the deceased girl (Glori) from Ghana to “harvest her organs”. On the other hand:
– why was the girl emaciated FOUR years after being adopted? Ie adopted at age 4, died at age 8. 4 years is plenty of time to get a child to a healthy weight!
– why didn’t the Huangs’ take Gloria to the hospital? A kid that didn’t eat / drink for FOUR days is a kid that needs medical care!
– what sort of eating disorder causes a kid to not eat for days at a time? And if she was anorexic, why didn’t the Huang’s get her help?!
– why did Gloria still have parasites? Giardia’s curable!
Yep. I got That one. Just Check the Posts Updated in the past month
I read the article: I note the author’s not questioning the claim that a child who’s known food insecurity would REFUSE to eat offered food. From what I’ve read, overeating/obesity is a known reaction to having survived deprivation, but not refusing to eat.
Unless she was refusing to eat because she had a gastrointestinal disease which sapped her appetite or made eating too painful to engage in. There’s a dread possibility that the Huang’s dismissed Gloria’s complaints of stomach pain or nausea as “manipulative” rather than signs of a real physical illness. A lot of Rescue Adopter/fundgelical types seem to view a lot of undesired behavior kids exhibit as defiance and/or personal rejection. The thought that maybe it’s NOT about them doesn’t seem to occur to them.
I found this by serendipity:
http://us.cnn.com/2014/10/21/politics/american-couple-qatar/?hpt=ob_articlefooter&iref=obnetwork
I don’t think standing up and yelling “You lie!” while the prosecutor was presenting the government’s case would play well in an American court, either.
I always find it suspicious that when the APs claim “Oh, the child had a medical condition” there’s never a medical paper trail to support that. There ought to be one a mile long if the medical issues are as serious as the APs always claim.
Where’s the doctor who told the Huangs that allowing a child to go without food for some many days was acceptable? Where are the records of her treatment plan? When did medical neglect become a defense to charges of abuse or murder?
There have been enough of these cases that you’d think APs know they need the records just for their own protection in case of the worse.
@Terri: “I always find it suspicious that when the APs claim “Oh, the child had a medical condition” there’s never a medical paper trail to support that.”
Yes! I’ve never really thought about it, but now that you mention it, it’s so true!
Re: “…you’d think APs know they need the records just for their own protection in case of the worse…”
OR in case they needed to bring the child to the doctor in another country, so the medical practitioner would know what was going on with her.
You know, I’ve read of adoption megafamilies who react to a child not eating a particular food they detest by refrigerating their plate and serving it back to them at every meal until the child consumes it. I know that some states have it written in their foster care guidelines that foster parents are NOT allowed to use this technique.
However, the Huangs as adoptive parents weren’t subjected to any oversight but their own demonstratably poor judgement. I wonder if when they claimed that Gloria had an “eating disorder”, they just meant that Gloria didn’t want to eat certain foods. It would explain their claim that they had offered Gloria “nutritious” food and she’d refused to eat. Four-day-old brussel sprouts are technically nutritious; just disgusting enough to put ANYONE off their food, let alone a sickly kid who disliked them even when presented in the most appetizing way.
A kid that hasn’t eaten in FOUR days is a kid in need of medical care. Period.
If the kid is anorexic and not eating, they may well need to be rehydrated or fed via IV. It is not “normal” to let a kid not eat for FOUR DAYS.
To have a kid, FOUR YEARS after you adopted her, still DESPERATELY underweight.
Agreed. Any parent who has a kid with a medical condition that MIGHT look like abuse will, upon entering the ER, tell the triage nurse something along the lines of:
“Bobby has osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), he’s a patient of Dr. X at Big Research Hospital” and maybe even “his office number is xxxxx”.
“Sam is anorexic and is treated by Dr Y at Some Hospital, plus does outpatient therapy at Random Clinic”.
This statement is SPECIFIC, so the MANDATED REPORTERS that are on staff in the ER (read: all ER staff) and easily verified.
Actually, there was a medical trail. It looks like the kid had giardia and that it turned into PICA. Also, there is nothing wrong with going without food for 4 days. That will not kill you. What will kill you is anemia that can cause an heart arrhythmia and things of the sort.
Unfortunately, the child died. But I seriously doubt that a Stanford trained engineer and his school teacher wife were trying to starve a child to death to harvest her organs.
JJ,
Re: “…Unfortunately, the child died. But I seriously doubt that a Stanford trained engineer and his school teacher wife were trying to starve a child to death to harvest her organs…”
No one on this site is suggesting they WERE. We’re talking about definite medical neglect and/or possible food abuse. If Gloria Huang had an eating disorder that caused her to eat garbage despite plenty of available food, then she SHOULD have been under psychological and medical care, with a treatment plan! And then Huangs would have had this doctor and/or clinic speaking out on their behalf.
BTW, I Googled chronic giardia symptoms in humans. Pica wasn’t listed, but Irritable Bowel Syndrome WAS. This can cause not only diarrhea and stomach pain but spells of nausea and sometimes vomiting. Lactose intolerance is another possible aftereffect, as is malabsorption syndrome.
Nausea could explain Gloria’s not wanting to eat, and chronic diarrhea + malabsorption could explain Gloria’s vulnerability to starvation. But again, if Gloria had been under medical care for digestive problems AS SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN her parents would have been alert to the need to bring her in for IV feeding to keep her electrolytes balanced. Diarrhea is one of the biggest killers of children in the world.
Oh there IS something WRONG with going without food for 4 days. Check out Update 3. [” four days without food in the US is considered a crime of neglect of a dependent and endangering the welfare of a child”]That Couple was sentenced to 7 years and they didn’t have their child die. It is considered Medical neglect.
She also had a Vitamin D deficiency which is why they said Malnutrition. Where are you getting anemia From?
No one here is suggesting that they were trying to harvest her organs. It is medical neglect.And they should go to jail. They would go to jail here.[Update 3]
This story is so disturbing and now these “parents” have been freed. Putting all else aside, these people let a four year old go without food for four days and did not seek medical help for her. They starved her to death through this action. It was their job to protect this child and they failed and should be in prison.
Rally,
I’ve Googled every way I know how, but I can’t find anything on children adopted from food insecurity refusing to eat anything for days at a stretch. Overeating, binge eating, and hoarding food– yes. Going on periodic fasts– no. Refusing freely-offered palatable food and going dumpster diving instead– also no.
I did discover that ANY child with an eating disorder should be under professional care, yet nothing I’ve found indicates that Gloria Huang was being treated for this supposed eating disorder.
Astrin,
Yes I have read about it. Basically from the Series “A Child Called it”. http://www.amazon.com/Child-Called-It-Courage-Survive/dp/1558743669. Even as an adult, Dave still repeats the same rituals. I can see her not wanting to drink anything too. But that it why she needed to be under the care of a doctor!
Rally,
I found one article that spoke of Dave refusing to eat on the days he gave speeches for fear of throwing up. The article mentions that he’s overly thin and that he regularly engages in strenuous workouts. So an eating disorder seems entirely possible.
https://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm/author_number/145/dave-pelzer
Still, that doesn’t seem to be the same thing that the Huangs claim about Gloria. Dave probably controls his intake pretty tightly, and may well need to follow his food rituals in order to eat. But I can’t find that he WILLINGLY went for days on end without eating after being rescued, or that he preferred trash to good food when he had a free choice.
I think we can agree 100% that if Gloria Huang had an eating disorder as alleged, it was grievously irresponsible of the Huangs NOT to have her receiving professional treatment for it!
I am so glad I found this webpage! In my opinion, Gloria was murdered by her parents for the following reasons:
1. See video put out by the Huangs..Gloria was not very healthy and plump and not severely malnourished in Ghana as they claim. The video at about 1 minute shows her on the first day of her adoption. the video was posted in the NY Times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5IC7H0vCtA#t=16
2. Poverty does not cause eating disorders.
3. The Huangs never identify an American pediatrician who had diagnosed her with an eating disorder.
4. Giardiasis is a common parasite in Africa easily treatable and curable with antibiotics. How can she still have it four years after her adoption?
5. Gloria has lived all her life in sunny places, Africa, California and Qatar. How does she develop a vitamin D deficiency-answer-they kept her indoors in the dark.
6. Why did they do nothing when she did not eat for 4 days?
7. Where is her body now? Why are we not seeing any kind of burial ceremony? Did they deliberately leave the body back in Qatar?
8.. What do her medical records before her adoption say? The adoption agency should provide because there is no evidence she was severely malnourished in Ghana.
Thank you.
You know, it torques me off when “professionals” like Dr. Janice Ophoven include unverifiable post-mortem claims by the parents of a deceased child in their cause-of-death determinations, and retroactively diagnose the child with a psychological disorder.
As a pediatric forensic pathologist, Dr. Ophoven is qualified to critique the autopsy done in Qatar as being inadequate to accurately determine the cause of death. She goes beyond her credentials when she mixes quack info from trauma mama websites with a few legitimate sources to conclude that Gloria Huang had an “eating disorder common in children adopted out of poverty”.
She’s not a child psychologist, let alone a specialist in childhood eating disorders and/or PTSD in children. She should confine her comments to her field of expertise.
Those are all very valid points!Thanks for posting them!