Startling article here from 2007 - it's hard to read.....
Russia's Halt on Foreign Adoptions -
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9810880
"Sergei Koloskov, head of the Down Syndrome Society, says that contrary to government figures, the number of orphans in Russia is growing — and overloading the state's orphanage system.
"Healthy babies are lying in hospital beds all day as if they were sick, sometimes for months or longer," Koloskov says. "They're completely ignored. No one plays with them or provides any kind of stimulation. That happens because orphanages where they're supposed to go after birth are full."
Experts say that the lack of attention at an early age seriously harms a child's development. Elena Olshanskaya started a group of volunteers to help children in hospitals after noticing abandoned babies in rooms at the hospital where she gave birth.
"I was stunned," she says. "They were completely alone. They were fed several times a day and that was it. After a while, they just stop crying."
Last winter, another patient in a central Russian hospital noticed a room of abandoned babies with their mouths taped shut to stop them from crying. Her cell phone video shocked the country when it was played on national television. Reports of babies tied down in their cots are common. Many believe that's because hospital staff are seriously overworked.
Boris Altshuler of the Child's Right group says it's often immediately clear to visitors that abandoned babies are left to "rot alive."
Right, so it’s better to leave these kids in Russia to be abused rather than let Americans, who are desperate for kids and not able to deal with the red-tape and shortages of American kids, come and get them and give them a great life./sarc
We all hear the horror stories about crazy kids coming out of orphanages (and can you not understand exactly how they got nutty?) but I have known a number of them (as a teacher and an aunt) and haven’t know any who were more or less insane than any other kids.
I am just so sad for these poor kids who had the bad luck to be born in crapola circumstances and then are all branded as psycho trash because of the behavior and ethics problems some orphanages have. It’s a sin, and if this woman screws up the chance of other kids being rescued by loving American family’s because of her immature handling of this situation, pox on her!