A 23-year-old Arizona woman is refusing to tell police what she did with her soon-to-be-adopted son. The woman had been in conversations with a couple who wanted to adopt the 8-month-old child, but fled the state after she changed her mind.

"Jack Smith [the adoptive father] admitted he thought the entire adoption process with Johnson [the biological mother] felt strange, but that they all lived nearby and they had bonded with the baby after keeping him for a couple of weeks in December." [Source: ABC News]

Johnson has since told police that she gave her baby to a married couple in San Antonio, Texas, after the childs biological father refused to go along with her original adoption plans, ABC has reported. Police are uncertain how much of Johnsons story is true, and she is not forthcoming with additional details.

Labels: legal issues, controversy

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

Butler County, Ohio's adoption policy is a source of controversy because it does something that the state adoption laws don't: It gives preference to married couples.

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)

The policy, which was quietly enacted by outgoing agency Director Michael Fox, was suspended in late March pending a legal review.

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

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A Michigan mother is being sought by police - and has lost custody of three of her children - after she abandoned her 13-year-old son at an Omaha Hospital. The woman, an aunt, and a grandmother made the 12-hour drive because Nebraska's Safe Haven law allows parents to leave children younger than 19 at a hospital or fire department if they feel they can't care for the child.

"The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office filed the neglect petition Wednesday against the parents, who adopted the 13-year-old and a 10-year-old sibling out of foster care."

Nebraska's Safe Haven law continues to stir up controversy. It is the only state in which the law applies not only to very young children, but to any child under the age of 19. Opponents of the law criticize its broad age range, and many had expressed concern that the law would be misused in exactly this sort of way. Source: The Detroit Free Press

Labels: laws, controversy, safe-haven

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

In 1998, about 30 children in Sierra Leone, whose parents had sent them to an education center, disappeared. They were taken to the country’s capital for medical examinations, and their parents never saw them again.

Parents … say they only later learned that the children had been adopted by Americans and sent abroad without permission. … In 2004, the center’s director and two of his employees were arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate adoption laws. [Source: The Associated Press]

Those charges were eventually dropped and the case didn’t receive any more attention for over five years. Then, just last month, parents of the missing children began demanding answers. The case has been re-opened and the government is launching a full investigation.

No estimate has been given for when parents can expect to receive answers about what happened to their children.

 

Labels: international, controversy

Posted By: Adoption Issues 0 Comments