Posted on 12/19/2006 12:56:34 PM PST by Dr. Marten
The move comes amid a surge in foreign applications to adopt Chinese children. The United States is the No. 1 destination for children adopted abroad, but the number going to Europe and elsewhere is rising.
The restrictions are meant to limit adoptions to “only the most qualified families,” said the Web site of one agency, Harrah's Adoption International Mission in Spring, Texas.
An employee of the government-run China Center of Adoption Affairs, the agency that oversees foreign adoptions, said it has issued new guidelines but refused to confirm the details released by the American agencies. He wouldn't give his name.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing said it was looking into reports of the new regulations. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with embassy rules.
The Chinese agency also is trying to increase the number of children available by creating a new charity to improve conditions in orphanages and “keep infants and young children alive and well enough to be adopted,” Harrah's said.
Americans adopted 7,906 children from China in 2005, raising the total since 1989 to 48,504, according to the Joint Council on International Children's Services in Alexandria, Va., an association of adoption agencies and parents' groups. The group's Web site lists 110 U.S. groups that arrange adoptions from China.
Under the new rules, only people who have been married for at least two years will be eligible to adopt, according to Harrah's, the New Beginnings Family and Children's Services Inc. of Mineola, N.Y., and Families Thru International Adoption Inc. of Evansville, Ind.
Beijing previously allowed adoptions by unmarried foreigners.
The agencies said Chinese officials disclosed the rules at a Dec. 8 meeting in Beijing. They take effect May 1.
Among other restrictions, couples must have a Body Mass Index – a measure of obesity – of no more than 40 and be aged 30-50, with people up to age 55 considered for children with special needs, according to the agencies.
The rules bar parents who take medication for psychiatric conditions including depression and anxiety or have “severe facial deformity.”
Many Chinese children adopted abroad are girls who are given up by couples who, bound by rules that limit most urban families to one child, want to try for a son. Others are left at orphanages or by the roadside by unmarried mothers or poor families.
A sharp increase in foreign applications for adoption has led to a backlog in approvals, with waiting times rising from six months in early 2005 to as much as 15 months now, according to adoption agencies.
I thought it was clear from the headline: "barring single, obese parents." Who, by and large, fits that description? They didn't mention flannel shirts, but it should still be clear enough. They want to keep out Rosie O'Donnell.
China, please tighten those rules to bar Hollywood wannabees. And tighten them soon, before Angelina and Madonna make their plane reservations!
Beware any child(ren) diagnosed RAD. Run far, far away, especially if you already have children. Do NOT let well-meaning foster care workers talk you into adopting or placing RAD children with you...
Unless you don't mind them hiding knives around your house for later use...
This is obviously in response to fat rosie's antics last week-good for the Chinese.
I don't get it. The Chicoms were so worried about over-population they implemented the one child per family law but at the same time they make it difficult for foreigners to adopt orphans? But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Get government involved (anywhere - not just China) and whatever it is you want to get done becomes more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming.
Okay, what's a RAD child?
We've been told that the whole point of the classes is to scare you with all the worse possible cases of problem children. We currently don't have any children and my wife probably will not get pregnant until the day the first foster kid arrives (some corollary of Murphy's law I'm sure). We would need children that are good with pets as we have two very well behaved dogs and two nice cats.
They ran into an unexpected problem with the foreign adoptions. The number of children being abandoned soared once the foreign adoptions started because the families hoped their children would be adopted.
That graph is also the reason we have so many illegal (and legal) immigrants coming into the USA each year. We are drying up our own wombs and we are being replaced.
Also, China is tightening the thing around single women adoptions due to the fear of lesbian couples adopting more than likely. When Sweden legalized gay adoption I heard there were eastern European nations that banned Swedes from adopting children from their countries.
"What about all the orphans in their own country?"
In USA, for example, you face: (1) typically mandatory open adoptions (e.g., you babysit and the birth mother hangs around; (2) many/most kids up for adoption are special needs kids, drug addicted(and it takes a very special parent to manage that); and (3) the constant possibility that the mom gets out of prison (or whatever), shows up, sues and demands her kid.
Or the like.
My sister went through this, replete with drug-addled crack whore showing up years later demanding money or she'd take "her child" away. (My sister moved away, the family changed their name our family name, and basically lives off-the-grid now, far, far, away.)
Foreign adoptions are generally much more "final" and "closed."
That, and many, many people are especially moved by the disgusting fate that awaits Chinese girls in these orphanages if not promptly adopted.
No fat chicks.
Yes, there is. They point and giggle, and some walk around pretending to be fat. It's a strange place.
"I don't get it. The Chicoms were so worried about over-population they implemented the one child per family law but at the same time they make it difficult for foreigners to adopt orphans?"
I don't think they're trying to make it more difficult to adopt children in China, I think they're just trying to take steps to ensure that they're going to good homes and you can't fault them on that.
Just look at how many Russian orphans are adopted and end up dead, abuses or sold into slavery (just inside the United States).
"Is there some Chinese thing about obesity--?"
Well if you think about it, if people aren't willing to take care of themselves, who's to say they would do much better for their children?
LOL, they are fairly adept at our economics, just not in favor of applying it on a large scale for their own citizens. China also often limits adoptive parents to adopting one child from them, and, I've heard, having no more than one child already in the home, with few exceptions. I'm not sure why, except maybe to mirror it's own one child policy.
"and, I've heard, having no more than one child already in the home, with few exceptions. I'm not sure why, except maybe to mirror it's own one child policy."
Not quite true. You may have up to 4 children under the age of 18 in the household in order to adopt. Also you may only adopt one child at a time, which, IMHO, is a wise requirement for both the child and the parents.
"Better not to criticize anothers' adoption choices unless you are willing to do what you are demanding others do."
Well said. I really tire of the "take care of our own" mentality. The last time I checked, we're all humans and the most important thing is that you're giving a good home to a child in need; it shouldn't matter where they come from.
You have to look at it this way, just because the country has population problem, it doesnt mean they can just pull the same thing France during the colonial times "The Kings Daughers" and send their orphans who would have became whores anyway to marry in the New World.
The Commies want to ensure these kids don't become Druggies, whores, failures and so on. Especially since most of these orphans are women. These commies may be brutal, merciless thugs, but they aren't going to leave one of their own impose a bad image of them when the NYT next headline is "Crack Whore Killed, Has AIDS too"
Wow, good to know. Well, in China sibling groups may not need be an issue, but sometimes placing siblings is best for them.
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