Russia Suspends All Adoptions to U.S. Families

[azurnoir]

Russia suspended all adoptions to U.S. families on Thursday until the two countries can agree on procedures, the Foreign Ministry said, a week after an American woman sent her 7-year-old adopted son back to Russia on a plane by himself.

The boy's return -- without supervision or explanation aside from a note he carried from his adoptive mother saying he had psychological problems -- has incensed Russia and prompted aggressive media coverage of foreign adoptions.

A U.S. delegation will visit Moscow ''in the next few days'' to discuss international adoptions and a possible bilateral agreement, ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

''Russia believes that only such an agreement which will contain effective tools for Russian and U.S. officials to monitor the living conditions of adopted Russian children will ensure that recent tragedies in the United States will not be repeated,'' Nesterenko said in a televised briefing.

The Tennessee woman who sent back the 7-year-old boy last Thursday claimed she had been misled by his Russian orphanage about his condition.

Russians have been outraged that no charges have been filed against her.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/15/world/AP-EU-Russia-US-Adoptions.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[elfin]

1. Doing U.S. families a service IMO

I know a family who adopted two Russian kids -- horrendous problems, probably stemming from unacknowledged fetal alcohol syndrome or emotional/physical abuse while at the orphanage.

While I know there are many successful experiences, the wish for a "white" child has led far too many to suspect places in Russia and Eastern Europe.

They see barren Caucasian Americans as a useful and profitable dumping ground for their unwanted packages of trouble.

This is less of a problem for infants, but most of the really bad cases involve toddlers and a bit older. Even infants with fetal alcohol can cause major grief to the unsuspecting family.

The adoptive mother in the news handled it terribly wrong, but her anger and fear of the future is understandable. I think she was bamboozled.

[eilen]

2. Hopefully this event will spur some much needed support for these

families stateside. nt

[azurnoir]

4. First off if this women was "bamboozled" she was plain stupid

amongst other things, there are support groups and advisory councils for parents adopting foreign children and the fact that many Russian children suffer from FAS is very well known
I have not one whit of sympathy for her and think she should be prosecuted for at the very least child endangerment, she found both the lawyer that advised her to simply return the "merchandise" and the man who picked this poor kid up from the airport in Russia online, the kid is lucky the man was not a part of some child sex ring or something, not to mention she herself seems rather immature if you read the stories what becomes very apparent is that it was her mother not her captaining the ship so to speak
I also have it anecdotaly from one of my sibs that she wanted to adopt another Russian child as some sort of trade in. My sib has herself adopted 2 children from foreign countries and belongs to a couple of different support groups from what I gather from her the people in these groups are outraged by this womens behavior and a couple of them have had their adoptions canceled or put on hold due to this including one case where they are trying to adopt the sibling of a child they had already adopted and yes the kids do have FAS

[FreakinDJ]

3. I'm surprised the woman wasn't arrested too

[azurnoir]

5. Child endangerment would fit IMO n/t