This article was published on March 25, 2011: Hope for Kirill: One Family Fights for their Son.
[Holly Springs-Hickory Flat 3/25/11 by Jessie Gable]
PoundPup Legacy analyzed this situation, and we recommend reading it here .
There is much more to say about the current state of internationally adopting children with Down Syndrome (DS). Before we get into the case and players, let’s set down some background Q & A:
Issues
Are there children with DS in orphanages? Yes
Are these children treated horribly? Yes, they rarely have access to appropriate therapy, education and stimulation. Their needs are not being met.
Is the treatment of people with DS a worldwide issue? Yes
Is it ok to want to help this situation? Yes
Is this a very complicated issue to solve? Yes
Do the vast majority of children in countries like Russia get abandoned? Yes
Do 100% of children in countries like Russia get abandoned? No
Root problem
Do organizations like UNICEF have plans to address the underlying problems? No
Do US organizations like adoption agencies and ministries have plans to address the underlying problems? No
Are people with DS treated fairly? No, they are discriminated against.
Does adoption solve the underlying problems? No
Organizational Assistance
Are there any local organizations in countries like Russia trying to help with family preservation? Yes. The European Down Syndrome Association has many organizations that are beginning to address this issue. One in Russia called Downside Up is a UK charity . According to their website they help 1500 families across Russia to keep their DS children. They host charity sporting events to raise awareness. Their website says that 85 percent of Russian families abandon their children that have DS. While these figures are grim, they still mean that some families do keep their DS children. (Just so you know, in the US, it is estimated that 90 percent of fetuses found to have DS are aborted.)
Is there a US organization for DS domestic adoption awareness? Yes, the Cincinnati Down Syndrome Adoption Awareness program has 200+ homestudy ready prospective adoptive parents.
Are there US agencies and ministries involved with trying to place children with DS internationally? Yes
Here is the key question: Do US organizations involved in international placement of children with DS complete due diligence in both their selection and preparation of prospective adoptive parents and in the practical and legal aspects in the foreign countries? NO and NO.
We like to talk about adoption from the point of view of a child’s best interests. Completion of the adoptive process is NOT success. Getting your child through kindergarten without a RAD diagnosis is NOT success. Those may be successful steps but the ONLY TRUE MEASURE OF SUCCESS can only be accomplished when the child becomes old enough to VOICE THAT SUCCESS (and yes that means their voice of failure is a possibility). As PoundPupLegacy has pointed out, one international adoptee with DS HAS BEEN KILLED. His name was Nicolai Emelyantsev. He was adopted from Russia in 2008 and died at the hands of his adoptive parents one month later. Yes, one month. See his adorable picture here.
Shame on those who do not do extra screening for prospective adoptive parents who think DS is a minor special need.
Shame on those who do not offer extra training for prospective adoptive parents who have no idea about the caregiving needed for DS children.
Shame on those who do not FIRST figure out if the area that the child with Down Syndrome resides in is open to the international adoption of severely disabled children. (Many are not.)
Shame on those in the adoption business who pressure prospective adoptive parents to take on MORE THAN ONE child with DS at the SAME TIME!
You’d think that those in the adoption business who are spotlighting special needs children are thinking about the best interests of these children. Yet they do no one any favors—least of all the children—if they fail to address and tackle these complicated, emotional issues. Instead, many of these players are content to bask in the praise of their saintly selflessness, which in fact hides how much money they’re making in the process. Really you ask, how can anyone think to criticize someone who’s only in it for the children? (Hint: We can!)
The $64,000 question is WHY DO THE ADOPTION INDUSTRY PLAYERS NEVER GET BLAMED when things go so very wrong?
Now let’s get to the case:
Yes, it is sad that a couple who was willing to adopt a child with DS was not approved. But no story has of yet specified why, so blaming the allegedly cruel and myopic judge is really jumping the gun. This family has a
blog. They discuss that their first try to adopt a child with DS failed because that child was able to be adopted by extended family. Since this family did not state so, we will: We are overjoyed that a child that was rotting in an institution was able to be placed with family members, in his own country and culture, who speak his language. We hope that this family has access to an organization like Downside Up to assist with the therapy and support rearing this child will require. This should be viewed as a GAIN for the child, not a LOSS for prospective adoptive parents.
In the current case, we have no clue what went on during five hours of questioning, but as mentioned by PoundPupLegacy, we too have to give serious weight to the real possibility that this judge knew of Nicolai’s death.
There are two more points that we want to focus:
(1) The blog mentions that this Russia region is the same one that closed after Tennessee adoptive parent Torry Hansen put her child back on a plane to Russia in 2010. The prospective adoptive parents seemed to know that the adoption could not be finalized until the bilateral treaty was signed, but they signed the official petition anyway. This reminds us of the behavior of Nepal prospective adoptive parents who traveled to Nepal after DOS posted a notice urging them not to, in the hopes of pushing through their adoptions anyway. As we stated back in January 2011, in one of our
first posts , both the legal process and immigration need to be scrutinized in any international adoption. With Nepal, prospective adoptive parents overlooked the immigration part, and in this Russian case, the legal process part was overlooked.
The current blog states, “During that time, we found out that Kirill is the first child from his region EVER to be adopted with Down Syndrome.” That should be a serious red flag. They go on further: “I was somewhat nervous about Kirill being the first child adopted with Down Syndrome from his region, but our agency was very confident that if we got a court date, our adoption would be approved. In seventeen years, they had never had a case rejected IF the family was issued a court date. We were told not to worry, so I didn’t.” Oh, so it was the AGENCY who heavily influenced this attitude.
(2) More families are in jeopardy. The blog states, “There are also three other families who are in various stages of adopting children with Down Syndrome from Kirill’s region; one of the families has a court hearing set for next week.” Oh, so the agency just lined them all up, with no knowledge of whether these adoptions can be completed. Typical!
Being aware that there are suffering children with DS in foreign orphanages is important. Equally important is to understand that how to go about helping them requires due diligence that is currently NOT happening. Anytime that there is a large “supply” of kids that do not have a match in the “demand” of parents (especially severe special needs children and teenaged children), the needs of the children need to be evaluated in much more depth.
Lastly, be aware that there are a number of these internationally adopted children with DS that are going through the re-homing process due to disruption initiated by the original adoptive parents. (Biological parents with children with DS also do re-home their children.)
Sometimes, disruptions do need to occur in the best interest of the child, but we need to start examining if there are things in the process that can be done to prevent disruptions. REFORM Talk believes that the process CAN be improved, starting with taking these 3 steps:
- Prospective parents need more screening and training.
- Anyone involved in identifying these children needs to perform extensive due diligence for the legal process in the local areas where the children reside PRIOR to photolisting them, as well as for the quality of the adoption agency personnel involved in placing the children. Saying that you found a child in need is NOT ENOUGH.
- To protect the children’s identities, the photolistings should be password-protected and not open to the public.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
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