“Independent” Adoptions Caused Abuses and Deaths of Russian Adoptees?
Many articles have been published about the new Russian-US agreement on international adoptions. The adoption industry is sopping up the limelight while trying to pass the buck on the cause of all of the Russian concerns. They are trying to place the blame of past Russian adoptee abuses on “independent” adoptions. Of course that runs counter to the most quoted story — the Torry Hansen debacle — the woman who placed her child back on a plane to Russia last year. She used the Hague-accredited, Russia-permitted agency WACAP. Hardly an independent adoption.
This Ukrainian article about the Russian/US Adoption agreement quotes
“Chuck Johnson, chief executive of the National Council for Adoption, said many of the cases of abuse involved Russian children who were adopted independently, rather than through U.S. adoption agencies accredited by Russian authorities.”
NPR interviews David Crary in this article which states the following:
“NORRIS [interviewer]: Now we’ve been mentioning agencies. Sometimes they are independent operators that don’t necessarily work through an agency that help facilitate adoptions. How would the rules change for them?
Mr. CRARY: Well, you touched on a key point in this whole agreement. A lot of the troublesome adoptions that have been coming from Russia in the past were arranged by these independent brokers. Those are going to be completely prohibited under this new agreement. All of the adoptions will need to be done through authorized agencies.”
Meaning of “Independent”
So what do they mean when they say INDEPENDENT and what are they trying to imply? There are state-licensed agencies, Hague-accredited agencies and agencies given permits to operate in Russia by Russia. Prior to this agreement, there were also people who just had a homestudy and use facilitators or non-permitted “partner” agencies to adopt from Russia. A list of agencies can be found here . Many agencies that are either state-licensed or both state –licensed and Hague-approved “partner” with the Russian-permitted agencies. Many more agencies are Hague-accredited than Russian-permit-approved.
The NCFA spokesman, Chuck Johnson, is implying that “independent” means non-Russian-permitted agencies. Perhaps the argument is that the non-permitted agencies are somehow less than the permitted ones in quality. Yet many of the non-permitted agencies are Hague-approved and are members of his adoption agency group or JCICS. This is purely a diversionary tactic. They want the general public to believe that something has been done to clean up the process. Sorry, but if the non-permitted agencies are Hague-approved, they should be acting ethically even if they are merely “independent brokers” in Russia.
The NPR interview seems to imply that “independent” adoptions are those that do not use partner agencies and instead use facilitators.
The REAL Issues on the US Side
US agency approvals by states and Hague are clearly inadequate. Additionally, all international adoptions have to have approved homestudies. If an emphasis is trying to be placed on a large gap in safeguards, then the case of inadequate homestudies and rubberstamping needs to be made. The real catch should be the HOMESTUDY. And not just for the adults in the home, but to assess the other children in the home (see #11 of Abuse cases below).
With PoundPup Legacy and Daily Bastardette databases and searches, we decided to try to confirm or deny this CLAIM that it is those “independently brokered” adoptions that were involved in the abused Russian adoptees or had children die in their care.
So here are the cases of abuse or death of Russian adoptees that we have compiled.
Abuse Cases
- 2 Children adopted by Theresa and Reed Hansen/Utah
Unknown if agency or independent - Kristoff Beagley/Alaska
REFORM Talk coverage
Alaska International Agency
Currently In Business
Currently In Process of Hague Reaccreditation
Russia Permitted - Girl (now 5) adopted by Theresa McNulty/Pennsylvania
Unknown if agency or independent
Other information: Trial pending - Three girls adopted by Edelwina and Steven Leschinsky /Colorado
REFORM Talk Coverage
Littlest Angels Agency
Currently in business
Currently Hague-approved for homestudy only
Not Russia Permitted - Six adopted children from Russia/Lapeer County Michigan
Unknown if agency or independent
Other information: No media reports since 2008 - 9-year-old girl adopted by David Charles Gilmore/Oregon
Unknown if agency or independent
Other information: convicted of sex abuse, serving 19 years. - 4-year-old boy from Taganrog, Rostov, Russia, adopted by Jane and Timothy Cochran/New York
Media reports say used accredited agency/agency name withheld - 11 Children adopted by Tom and Debra Schmitz/Tennessee
Some from Russia From disruptions/unknown if agency or independent for original or disrupted adoption - Masha Allen/Pennsylvania FTIA
Currently in Business
Currently JCICS member
Currently Hague-approved
Currently Russia-Permitted - Marian and John DiMarias’ special needs/deaf girls/eventually Vermont, formerly of New York, Kentucky Only some of the 21 were from Russia
Unknown if agency or independent
Other information: John convicted of sexually abusing older girls; in jail since 2003 - David and Holly Meyers 4 year old girl adopted as an infant in Russia/Michigan Unknown if agency or independent
Other information: victim of adopted-sibling abuse; sibling adopted from Romania from agency not Hague accredited - Twenty six month old Kelsey Hyre/Ohio
Agency reported as either or both: A Child’s Waiting or BBAS
A Child’s waiting is out of business
BBAS is in business, not Hague-accredited or Russia-permitted
BBAS is current NCFA member - 2 Girls adopted by Karen and Richard Thorne/Arizona
Hand in Hand
Currently in Business
Currently Hague-Accredited
Currently Russia-permitted - Xenia was originally adopted by Marta-Annette Blanford, then disrupted and adopted by Michael Grismore/Georgia Independent Adoption
Summary: Six of fourteen cases used an agency; one definitely was an independent adoption; the rest of the cases are unknown if an agency was used. Of those that used agencies, three of six were Russia-permitted; two are Hague-accredited; one in process of re-accreditation; one is unknown; two are not Hague-accredited. So looking at abuse only cases, perhaps the qualification that- most were “independent-brokered” is not too far off if you assume all unknown cases are independent or non-permitted or if Mr. Johnson is privately aware of many other abuse cases that were not reported in the media. Since half of the agency-led adoptions were Russia-permitted and half were not, it does not appear that the Russia-permitted agencies have any additional safeguards, though.
Now let’s look at the irreversible result of abuse and neglect cases..the death cases…
Death Cases
- Nathaniel Craver /Pennsylvania
REFORM Talk coverage
Lutheran Services of the South
Currently in Business
Currently JCICS member
Currently NCFA member
Currently Hague-Accredited
Not Russia-Permitted - Chase Harrison/Virginia EAC
Currently in Business
Currently JCICS member
Currenty NCFA member
Currently Hague-Accredited
Currently Russia-permitted - Nicolai Emelyantsev/Utah
About A Child through Reece’s Rainbow
Currently in Business
Currently Hague-Accredited
Not Russia-permitted
Reece’s Rainbow current JCICS member - Isaac Jonathan Dykstra/Iowa
Unknown if agency or independent - Nina Hilt/North Carolina
Adoptions International
Currently in Business
Not Hague-accredited
Not Russia-permitted - Dennis Gene Merryman/Maryland
Adoptions Forever
Currently in Business
Not Hague-accredited
Not Russia-permitted - Alex Pavlis/Illinois
Yunona
Facilitators = independent
Out of Business - Liam Thompson/Ohio
AMREX and Tree of Life
AMREX out of business-facilitated 54 agencies (see here for the list)
Tree of Life currently in Business
Tree of Life Currently Hague-accredited
Tree of Life not Russia-permitted - Jessica Albina Hagmann/Virginia
Agency used; not specified - Maria Anastasia Bennett/Utah
Focus on Children
Not in Business
Hague-Denied
Not Russia-permitted - Yana and Anatoli Kolenda/Massachusetts
Unknown if independent or agency
Adoptive father stabbed them and his wife to death before fatally shooting himself - Zachary Higier/Massachusetts
Frank Adoption Center
Currently in Business
Currently Hague-accredited
Currently Russia-permitted - Jacob Lindorff/New Jersey
An Open Door Adoption Agency
Currently in Business
Currently JCICS member
Currently Hague-Accredited
Not Russian-Permitted - Luke Evans/Indiana
Small World Charity, Inc of NYC
Not in business
Not Hague-accredited
Not Russia-permitted - Viktor Matthey/New Jersey
Homestudy and postplacement Bethany
Placement AMREX and Adoption Alliance
Bethany currently in business
Bethany current JCICS member
Bethany current NCFA member
Bethany currently Hague-accredited
Bethany Not Russia-permitted
AMREX facilitators out of business
Adoption Alliance currently in business
Adoption Alliance Hague-accredited
Adoption Alliance Russia-permitted - Logan Higginbotham/Vermont
EAC
Currently in business
Currently JCICS member
Currently NCFA member
Currently Hague-Accredited
Currently Russia-permitted - David Polreis/Colorado
Rainbow House International
Currently in Business
Not Hague-accredited
Not Russia-permitted
Of the seventeen cases (eighteen deaths due to the sibling group), fourteen adoptions were agency-arranged; two were unknown; one through Yunona (facilitators). The two AMREX cases used currently-Hague accredited agencies and one of those is currently Russian-permitted, so any way you cut it almost all of death cases were handled by agencies. Eight of the cases are by Hague-accredited agencies. Four of the known ones are currently Russian-accredited.
Will narrowing the allowed agencies to Russian-permitted ones reduce the risk of adoptee abuse and death? Maybe, but the best way is to weed out prospective parents in the homestudy process. There are no standards for training social workers for homestudies and the bureaucratic checks of the process clearly are not adequate.
Overall, though most of the abuse and death cases occurred in cases where agencies did not have Russian Permits, many of these agencies are Hague-accredited and only three are out of business. So I guess if these statistics help Chuck Johnson sleep at night, congratulations. This only re-emphasizes the poor Hague accreditation process for agencies in the US. Looking at international adoptions overall, the majority of international adoptions are not done under Hague regulations, anyway. It is still the Wild West.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
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