With the on going media coverage of ill-treated of children in Chinese and Romanian

orphanages and the increasing numbers of infertile couples in the developed world
international adoption appears to solve two problems at once. However recently
Romania has stopped all international adoptions amid claims of corruption and human
trafficking. Similar stories have clouded adoptions from Guatemala. Despite these
difficulties international adoptions by US citizens have tripled in the past 5
years and legislation has been passed to make it easier for these adopted children
to obtain citizenship. While some children complain of a feeling of cultural
dislocation, others are sent to Chinese-American summer camps and seem delighted
with their new homes and dual identity. The long-term effects of such migrations
are hard to predict but many opponents call for more efforts to be made to house
children in their country of birth, with proper support for domestic orphanages and
adoption schemes.
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Arguments

1 Pros

International adoption removes children from the culture into which they were born.
Often this causes a sense of dislocation as the child grows older because the do
not feel fully a part of their adopted culture nor the culture of the country into
which they were born. These feelings can be exacerbated by racial or ethnic
distinctions.

1 cons

Whatever maybe lost culturally is more than made up for by the benefits of growing
up in a secure and loving environment rather than an �institutional� setting. Many
parents go to great lengths to learn about the culture of their child�s birth
country giving the child the advantage of learning about two cultures as it grows
up. With the growth of multicultural societies in most countries many children
having natural parents from different cultures. This means that mixed identities
are increasingly common and do not have to be a source of alienation.

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2 pros

The high fees that western families are willing to pay for international adoptions
leads to a commodification of children. In the eyes of both their birth parents and
their adoptive parents children become a financial investment rather than a
blessing in their own right. This can also be place undue pressure upon a mother
unsure about giving up her child. In Guatemala this has reached such great
proportions that adoption of babies is thought to generate $40 million for the
country each year.

2 cons

It is wrong to say that spending money on something immediately leads to its

commodification. Often the process is so expensive because of the amount of
bureaucracy that must be overcome, but many agencies are run on a not-for-profit
basis. Many adults could not put a price on the value of having a family and this
is why they are willing to pay so much, not just for adoption but other avenues for
starting a family like IVF. In many countries they are saving children with a bleak
future, such as the abandoned female babies of rural China. In these cases the
parents have already abandoned their daughter and do not profit from any subsequent
adoption.

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3 pros

International adoptions are exceptionally hard to regulate leading to accusations

of human trafficking in many parts of the world. In some areas babies are stolen
from mothers who had no intention of giving them up. In other areas children are
promised an adoptive family but instead forced into the sex trade. By banning
international adoption you reduce these risks.

3 cons

While there is always a danger that systems will be abused, pushing adoption
underground will not improve the conditions under which it is carried out. If you
restrict all the legal channels desperate would-be-parents are more likely to turn
to the criminal gangs that currently disrupt the process.

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4 pros

A thriving international adoption market fails to encourage states to make adequate

provisions for children taken into care. In many cases the worse the condition of a
children�s home, the more sympathy and therefore adoptions will be attracted from
first world countries. This is particularly problematic for children in foster or
temporary care of the state or those, like disabled or HIV-positive children who
have a lower chance of being offered an adoptive family.

4 cons

However many adoptees and their families are very concerned about the �left-behind
children�. Often they fund raise in their own country to improve the orphanages
they left behind. This serves to highlight the conditions in orphanages around the
globe as well as raising funds for their improvement. There is no guarantee that
governments would spend money on orphans without this pressure.

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5 pros

The ability to shop around the globe for the �perfect� baby boy or girl reduces the
number of families available for children needing adoption domestically. Often
these children are older and may suffer from emotional, behaviour or physical
difficulties. Wealthy families from the first world also have the ability to price
local families out of the adoption market, reducing the chance of children
receiving a home in their country of birth.

5 cons

It is wrong to assume that everyone who adopts abroad would adopt domestically if
the international avenue was denied to them. The decision to take on a very
troubled child is a difficult one and many people would simply not feel they had
the appropriate skills. Others would be precluded by national rules on the age of
adopting parents, being a gay couple or other similar restriction. In some cultures
the lack of domestic adoptions is due to a cultural preference for natural families
rather than an inability to compete in an �adoption market�.

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6 pros

Many families who adopt from abroad do so because it is quicker and because they do
not have to pass all the tests set by domestic adoption agencies (or, indeed
because they have taken the tests but been found unsuitable). This often leaves
them unprepared for many of the difficulties associated with adoption. Often they
have little or no knowledge of the culture of the country their child has come from
and they have no support to help them adjust to the medical and behavioural
problems that can arise from children with an unsettled early life.

6 cons

Fortunately, many agencies do offer support to parents after adoption, and if they
don�t there are many self-help groups run by people who have successfully made it
through the process before. Any difficulty in adjusting has to be weighed against
the dangers of continued institutional care for the child.