• IDENTIFICATION
• LEGAL CLUSTERS
• GEOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS
• TRADE CLUSTERS
• ENVIRONMENT CLUSTERS
• OTHER FACTORS

I. Identification

1. The Issue

Adopted little girl.

This case study deals with International adoption, specifically Chinese children.The question that of how these adoptions are affected by trade, politics, culture, and human rights and vice versa are the base to what I have researched. I wanted to look at and compare how this has become a trade of human commodities for the Chinese government and its agents versus the love aspect that the new parent(s) have with the child. This project examines the negatives and positives that have occurred in taking something not normally considered trade and seeing what happens when money can be made. Businesses have sprouted up to the response to the need for the education of these children from China or any other country about their roots. They make profits by selling aids to help the adoptive parents. These adoptions have required an understanding of sociopolitical and person aspect. These transracial and/or transcultural adoptions also question cultural norms and needs. Presently the adoptions of Chinese babies is the growing in demand globally.

2. Description

Many people who live comfortably in developed countries such as in the United States who can not have a child turn to adoption. International adoptions are becoming very visible. In the last Super Bowl pre-game show Dan Marino's wife was shown going to China to adopt a little girl.

However, the reasons for going through with the adoptions vary from infertility, health reason determine it would be best for the women not to carry a child, or rather adopting a child than having one of their own. There are less children available in these countries due to contraception and abortion thus, they turn to other countries to adopt their children. In the United States there was more than 15,000 international adoption in 1998.(ABA Journal"'Save the Children' more urgent")There are different reasons for people choosing to adopt outside the United States. Some are the red tape that they face, the availability of babies in certain areas of the United States, to an urge maybe humanitarian adopt a child who you may be able to give a life they could never dream of, to rescue them from some terrible situation.

China has the largest number of children available for adoption at this time due to many of the policies of its government and its society. This includes the one child policy. Dueto the large population the Chinese government started this policy to slow down the population growth. There were incentives to having just one child, and if a couple has more than one child they can be fined. Though in some rural areas this is not enforced because children are needed to work the farms. Unfortunately, there has been a negative side effect to thispolicy with the sex of choice being a boy. If the family does not have a boy the girl chid is very often abandoned.

In 1994 the Chinese Government began officially permitting foreigner and Chinese people themselves to adopt Chinese children. There are no available figures of the number of Chinese adopting Chinese children. Though with the one child policy and the fact boys are preferred to girls and most orphans are girls I would take a guess that the number is not high. However, the Chinese who want to adopt do compete with foreignors who want to adopt. The one child policy has been said to be responsible for the increase of numbers of babies available for adoption. The majority of these children are girls due to the fact that many chinese still believe that the male child is suppose to support his parents in their old age. His wife is responsible for his parents not her own.Thus, this one child policy creates a dilemma for parents whose child is a female. Although prohibited by law many Chinese couples abandon female newborns. When found the children are placed under the care of the province based Chinese orphanage system. The children who are not put in orphanages are placed in one of the 42,000 state-run 'child welfare institutes' for poor and needy children.(Inside China) China has less stringent laws regarding adoption compared to other countries.

The Chinese have made these children into commodities with the price of a child starting from $15,000 and up. Some Chinese businesses have even become a part of the business of child adoptions. In 1998 the Guangzhou based airline, which flies out of Los Angeles, offered a packagewhich had a roundtrip from L.A. International Airport to Guangzhou, the location of the only U.S.consulate in China able to process adoptions visas. The package, including three nights at a fivestar hotel next to the consulate, goes for $595. The regular price for an economy class fare without accomodations is $1,300.

Other businesses that have also excelled are thoses that are catering to the families the adopted child. Such companies are like ChinaSprout.com which was started by WangXiaoning who is originally from China who now lives in New York. Other companies include camps for parents to send children during vacations so that they can learn about their roots.

HISTORY OF ADOPTION

Before the beginning of seventeenth century the insitution of adoption hardly existed in the way that we see it now, there was no legal documentation. This establishing by law the social relationship of parent and child who are not biological first appears in the Code of Hammurabi, drafted by the Babylonians around 2285 B.C. which provided that "if a man has taken a young child 'from his waters' to sonship and has reared him up no one has any claim againt the nursling." However, adoption was also practiced in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle East, Asia and societies in Africa and Oceania. (Carp, p1-3) The majority of these were done for the needs of the adults for purposes of kinship, religion, or community.

Adoption norms and practices are different from society to society. For example in Western society modern adoption is generally private, infrequent, formal and involves a complete transfer of parental rights. There still can be a stigmatism about adoption. Plus, there is red tape in this country to adopt a child making it very complicated and keeping the process moving slowly. However, this is not so in such cultures as with the Hawaiians. In fact there are different types of adoption and they took place quite frequently. The transfer of the children were not complete the child could still have ties with the biological parents. As seen also in Africa and Asia, adoption is a means to strengthen family bonds. (Carp, p4)

Transracial adoption and intercountry adoption began following the end of World War II which had left thousands of children homeless all over the world. (Simon, Alstein, Melli, The Case for Transracial Adoption, p1.)The incidences of such adoptions grew in the 1950's rising and falling as conflicts produced more children such around the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Thus unless a child is of the same ethnicity as the adoptive parents the explaination of who they are and why there are differences is very important.

Conditions in China

China has had an increase in the number of children available for adoption. Generally, the children have good care within the facilities that they live in. There has been some accusations as to the conditions of the homes that the children live in.

CHINA'S ADOPTION LAWS

Adoption laws are very lenient compared to other countries with the adoptive parents having to be 35 or older and they do not have to be married. If a single male he has to be 40 years older than the child, but, no homosexuals families can apply.

There are a growing number of abandoned Children in China thus foreign adoption is being encouraged though under tight state control. In 1996 the Chinese Government handed the running of all adoption matters to the state run China Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA). This was suppose to protect national pride from foreignors. (Inside China Feb 9, 2000)This is a way in which China can find homes for the children while making money but, not losing control of the system in which the children are adopted.

DIFFERENCES IN CULTURES ON INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION

Korea is phasing out the foreign adoptions Most children will grow up in orphanages.Almost all adoptions in Korea takes place secretly. It seems that the Korean culture does not let the community know about adoptions because of the negative social sigma attached with adoptees.(http://mpak.com/MPAKDocu.html) This is similar in Japan and China. In India there are many children for adoption but, rules are more stringent regarding the age of the parents, along with a preference to parents of Indian origin. (Children's Home Society of Minnesota http://www.chsm.com/adoption/india.html In some countries such as Nigeria international adoption is nonexistant due to cultural beliefs and laws within the country. Latin American countries vary on the age of the parents to whether or not they have to married or not. The age limits run from 35 to 50. Guatamala for example has more problems with those involved in the process. There are many problems with criminal methods to acquire children for adoption, and governments coming between the adoptive parents and the child. Many countries such as Guatamala do not want outsiders to adopt their children. This is a trend that is being seen in Russia.Russian politicians are trying to pass legislation that will stop the intercountry adoptions that has been on an increase since the break up of the USSR.

PROBLEMS WITH INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION

In other countries, especially in Latin America there has been kidnappings of children from their biological parents and put up for adoption by women who act like their mother. It has gotten to the point where that DNA test are done to make sure that the mother is really the mother.

Some children also have side effects of illnesses or how they were raised prior to the adoptionthat the adoptive parent has no idea about.

ADOPTIVE PARENT'S VIEWS

In general from the web, personal interviews, and other written sources adoptive parent's do not have any negative comments on the process of adopting the children or the children themselves. From talking with adoptive parents they are very proud of their children each being the brightest, smartest, funniest kids they have ever met. All of the children been well adjusted and have very strong survivor skills and few physical problems.

One family was very lucky in that after they knew what girl they would be adopting they found out a family friend lived there in China. The wife would go with her little boy everyday to visit the soon to be adopted baby girl and make sure that she got fresh milk. It was nice to know that she was being looked after prior to them going to China to pick her up.

However, these are view of parents who adopted children from China. Parents of children from Russia and South America do not have as problem free adoptions. Their problems range from physical and mental problems that the children many have, not being able to bring their child home, or the child not really being an orphan.

THE INTERCOUNTRY/TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION CULTURAL PRODUCT TRADE

A large number of companies especially on the web have opened in response to the large amount of families that have decided to adopt abroad. The products for sale range from books and toys to special summer camps to let the children learn about the cultures of the country that they were adopted from.

3. Related Cases

It seems that from the research that I have found so far and the interview that I gave that the rights of the children and the parents are not of high priority. The parents have a brief description of the child including health along with a picture. From the one to two page of information, the parents must make their decision. They have no ability to see the child prior to saying yes or no. Also, from the research that I have seen the conditions that these children are in are not the best. Varying accounts go from death rooms to just mismanaged. Thus the numbers shown in the results seem to correlate to the information that I have found so far.

Asiaflu

Bear

Airport

Bride

Traffic

Rugmark

Nepal sex

4. Draft Author:Debbie Ng

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status:

6. Forum and Scope:

7. Decision Breadth:

8. Legal Standing:

Though China has no real restrictions and the legal status that governs the adoptions are laid out between the laws of China, the immigration laws of the United States, and the laws of the individual state. However, Jesse Helms has introduced a bill, the Helms-Landrieu Bill (s682) on March 22, 1999, that would restrict the adoptions of American babies from foreignors to this country. (URL:http://fwcc.org/bill_3_99.htm) This is unfortunate due to the fact that this is the being seen in other countries with similar bills being introduced. But, it does include the implementation plan of the Hague Treaty on international adoptions which I discuss in section 17 impact of trade restrictions. The Hague Adoption Convention is a positive for children though.

III. Geographic Clusters

9. Geographic Locations

a. Geographic Domain: Asia

b. Geographic Site: East Asia

c. Geographic Impact: China

10. Sub-National Factors:

11. Type of Habitat:

IV. Trade Clusters

12. Type of Measure:

13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts:

Affect on Child

The child will never be able to find information about the birth mother or family due to thelack of formal adoption procedures for a birth mother.

The child especially if adopted by non-Chinese parents face the fact of clashing cultures.

Affect on the Birth Family

The effects are not really know due to the fact that these children are generally orphaned abandoned. There is legal or formal procedure for a birth mother in China to put her child up for adoption.

The Adoptive Parents

The urgency can be judged by either the fact that many more people are looking for children to adopt unlike any other time in history. It can aslo be said that there is an urgency for these children to find homes in order to grow up in. If they do not they will live in institutions forprobably the rest of their lives.

Participating Countries

Recently China has been quietly encouraging foreign adoption due to the growing number of abandoned children.Children are coming from all different provinces there is no one place in China that has all of these children.The Chinese authorities are extremely sensitive about the intrusion of foreign entities an thus they keep tight control on the situation. The families involved are asked to keep quiet about the adoption process. The Chinese want to have the children adopted because adoption within China like other parts of Asia is very uncommon. Thus, high profileadoption coul curtail ro eliminate adoption of Chinese children from countries that cause adoption to become the subject of public attention. (Inside China Today February 9, 2000 China Quietly Encourgaging Foreign Adoption at a Price)

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

a. Directly Related to Product: Yes, Baby

b. Indirectly Related to Product: Yes, Related Industries

The many businesses that have evolved due to the needs for these culturally or racially different babies from their adoptive parents.

c. Not Related to Product: No

d. Related to Process: Yes, Moral Rights

15. Trade Product Identification:

The trade product for my case study is Chinese children in the adoption trade specifically children being adopted by United States citizens. Due to the fact that this not normally considered a trade item the figures that I use are those that are gathered within the adoption process. Right now by the state the department’s figures Russia has the largest number of children up for adoption. But China is a close second and growing due to the lenient laws and the fact the Chinese society has yet to object to the foreigners adopting their children as in other countries.

For the key exporter China, and the key importer the United States I feel that visas give some data in which to judge the number of children being adopted due to the fact the child needs a visa to come back to the United States. (See Table 1)There are no real trade measures relevant to the case so I will look at the law that are used in the adoption process for a child from China.The China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA), established in June 1996 is a service branch of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which is the central authority for adoptions in China. The CCAA is responsible for measures to standardize and make more transparent adoption procedures in China. Only children that have been processed by the CCAA are available for international adoption. The CCAA matched individual children with prospective adoptive parent(s) whose completed application have been submitted to the CCAA by a licensed US adoption agency whose credential are on file at the CCAA. The United States has no real laws dealing with the adoption process in China but, do have regulations as to getting the visa for the children to enter the United States. If the child has not been in the custody of the adoptive parents for at least two years they need to file an orphan petition for the U.S. immigrant visa processing.The top ten leading countries for adoptions basically are the same consistently with China in the top 10 since 1996. All of the countries within the top ten are considered developing countries.

16. Economic Data

17. Impact of Trade Restriction:

My case study does not really relate to the WTO in that the adoption trade is not really covered since it is not a service and the products, children/people are not really traditionally considered something for sale. Looking at the WTO the only way that this could relate to the WTO is that of the services that the people who provide the children may be regulated.

Convention on the Rights of the Child will be able to guide at least the rights of the children that are being adopted. The United Nations General Assembly adopted it on November 20,1989. But, the US has signed but has not ratified it. The only other country that has not ratified the convention is Somalia, which has a national government not capable of concluding an international agreement. The United States on the other hand has not ratified the convention due to the government feeling it would allow government interference in family life,and because it feels this would force the relinquishment of some of its sovereignty in matters relating to the convention.

Through it the children would have a wide range of civil, political, economic, social andcultural rights. Children are entitled to equal rights and opportunities. Overall the best interest of the child is the primary consideration, with the child’s inherent right to life, survival and development being put into consideration.

The other convention that would protect the children within this process is the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect to Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention). This multi lateral treaty was adopted and opened for signature at the conclusion of the Seventeenth Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law on May 29, 1993. Thirty-two countries including the United Sates have signed the Convention, 17 countries have ratified it, and one country has acceded to it.

The Convention sets out norm and procedures to safeguard children involved in intercountry adoptions and to protect the interest of the birth and adoptive parents involved. This is done for the best interest of the child. This encourages intercountry adoption, as a means of offering the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in the child’s country of origin. It establishes a minimum set of uniform standards governing international adoptions. Every party country is able to promulgate or maintain furtherconditions and restriction beyond those specified in the Convention.

However though the United States and China were parties to the convention’s negotiations the United States has signed but is not a party to the Convention, and China is also not a party to the convention. This convention would be an important step in safeguarding the rights of the children in the adoption process. I do not information on China’s status in regards to the Convention but, the United States should ratify this within the next two to three years.

18. Industry Sector:

19. Exporters and Importers:

V. Environment Clusters

20. Environmental Problem Type:

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species

22. Resource Impact and Effect:

23. Urgency and Lifetime:

24. Substitutes:

The alternative for many are to adopt children from other developing countries. However, the restrictions in the other countries and also the problems with fraud,etc have made China an ideal place to adopt from.

Some of the other popular countries are seen previously in Table 2.

Alternative Beliefs

VI. Other Factors

Children's Hope International

Families with Children from China (F.C.C)

State Department

Adoption Travel-China

Joint Council on International Children's Services

Congressman Bill Delahunt--International Adoption