The stricter guidelines, intended to limit the overwhelming number of applicants to China's well-regarded adoption program, have been effective -- adoptions of Chinese children by U.S. citizens have dropped 50 percent, according to the U.S. State Department.

The new regulations require, among other things, that adoptive parents be married, under 50, not classified as clinically obese, not have taken antidepressant medications in the past two years, not have facial deformities and meet certain educational and economic requirements.

Labels: adoption rights, international

Labels: accreditation, adoption_agencies, international

Joseph Chigona, Registrar of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, said the case will come before three judges from the Supreme Court of Appeal on May 4 ...Malawi requires prospective parents to live in the country for 18 to 24 months while child welfare authorities assess their suitability.(Source: The Associated Press)

Labels: adoption rights, international, malawi

Fraud concerns put a halt to adoptions from Guatemala and Vietnam in the last several months. The Kazakh Embassy has ceased processing adoption dossiers -- the inches-think binder of required home study and family background documents. ... China poses challenges as well. ... Ethiopia, by contrast, allows both married and single parents to adopt, and the process typically takes less than two years. (Source: The Contra Costa (California) Times)

Labels: adoption rights, ethiopia, international

The conflict, according to the four-page opinion signed ... by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Roger Gates, is that the Butler County rule adds a line that would put married couples before single parents, unmarried couples, and same-sex couples in adoption cases. Even though these groups would not be excluded from adopting ... the rule does place a priority on placing children with married couples. (Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Labels: adoption rights, controversy, same-sex couples, single_parenting, unmarried couples

Indiana child-welfare officials originally said the two girls, who were born in April 2005, were not eligible for out-of-state adoption because state law restricts such moves to cases where the children are considered 'hard to place' due to factors such as race, ethnic background, or disability.

Labels: adoption rights, court, fathers, indiana

Emma is one preschooler who's definitely benefiting from the love and guidance of adoptive parents. ... She was born drug positive and suffered neglect as an infant. "She couldn't hold herself up. She couldn't hold anything in her hand. She had no cognitive skills ... just kind of laid there in her own little world," [Emma's adoptive mother] explained.

Labels: benefits, influences, inspiration, parenting

"Washington (Wisconsin) County Assistant District Attorney Peter Cannon says [the woman] has not officially adopted the child or filed a birth certificate. [She] is also charged with unauthorized adoption."

Labels: abduction, crime, unauthorized