Adopt from Guatemala: no longer possible?

We are in the process of adopting from Guatemala and ours will be completed towards the end of the summer, so this development won't affect our current adoption. However, we always expected to adopt more children from Guatemala.

I have done a lot of reading on all of this and yes, it does look like there may be a shutdown of some kind. However, there have been several other countries that have been closed and then opened again. I really think that Guatemala might be the case. It says on guatadopt that there are 3 different ways that this problem could be avoided - I know one was that Guatemala could officially suceed (sp?) from the Hague completely and two of them had to do with how the U.S. looks at Guatemala.

I don't claim to be an expert, but it looks to me like things might get kind of shaky for a while in 2007, but I just can't imagine that adoption from Guatemala would be closed forever. Guatemala has too many children who need homes and I think that they will work with the U.S. to come up with a solution.

So, you are right to think that the start of next year probably isn't the best time to begin adopting from Guatemala, but I really think that in a year or two it will be an option again.

In Canada, adoptions from Guatemala are about to be disallowed. Adoptions from Burma are banned in Canada as well. I'm not sure about other countries.

I'm not sure about the link that you posted above, but from my understanding the reasons for banning adoptions from these countries are sound. We ban adoptions from countries where it is difficult to trace where children are coming from and therefore cannot assure ourselves that they are not a product of child trafficking. While I agree with an above poster that there are many children in Guatemala who need homes, there is also a real and scary history of children being stolen from their parents in order to be sold into adoption. I lived and worked in Guatemala for over 3 years and heard countless stories of this happening.

I'm not trying to offend anyone who has gone through a Guatemalan adoption, but I wanted to add that information from my experience.

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The situation with the Hague treaty is quite different than bans from, say, Cambodia, and not a result of concerns about stolen children in Guatemala. There's a lot of written material about it at the site noted in the first post, so I won't go into a lot of detail here, but basically it's an issue of how adoptions are administered in Guatemala and the rules of the treaty, and is not a response to a specific situation of fraud in the country.

While I'm sure inproprieties occur from time to time, Guatemala has a number of measures in place to prevent fraud, including DNA matching of the child to the mother. Children are not being stolen from their mothers and sold to Americans, despite the stories. Another common story in Guatemala about adoptions is that children are taken to the US and killed so that their organs can be transplanted. Obviously, that's not the case either! I think both these stories reflect people's fears about children leaving their birth families, country and culture, the history of exploitation between the US and Central America, and misunderstandings about adoption.

P.S. Some of these regulations (such as the DNA test) were not in place many years ago, so yes, there may have been some really bad adoption practices in the past.

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Hmmm, I'm not sure about what the reasons behind the US adoption policies are, but in Canada the reason Guatemala is not considered "secure" (for the adoptees) IS because of non-confidence around human trafficking. I just had a long conversation with a friend who works for the Canadian federal government in international adoption regulation last week who told me as much.

There are certainly lots of old wives tales spinning around Guatemala about white people coming down to steal babies, but some of this is based in truth. I have spoken to many women first hand who were coerced into giving up their children. But you are right, it was between 5 - 12 years ago that I met these people and they lost their children before I was there so the situation is likely different now. Still, Canada considers the regulations in Guatemala to be insufficient to ensure the protection of the kids and birth moms.

ETA: I just found a couple of sources which assert that stopping adoptions from Guatemala is due to concerns about human trafficking.

http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/adoption/al.../guatemala.htm

"The Canadian Embassy in Guatemala reports that the conditions which led to the suspension of adoptions in 2001 continue to exist, and issues of child trafficking continue to arise."

http://www.adoption.ca/news/031219guat.htm

Rather than get into a long discussion about the ins and outs of Guatemalan adoption, I guess I will just say that another newer wrinkle in all of this is that many of us are now in contact with our children's birth parents and families in Guate. I think this adds a whole other level of openness and understanding. I don't feel that I can share anymore personal information about our situation than this, except to say that I am quite sure my daughter was not "stolen" and that her birthmother made a very difficult, but, in her belief, a good decision.

Some US agencies are very discouraging of greater openness, and most Guate. adoption attorneys are still quite uncomfortable with it, but I think this is the best road for all of us involved in this complicated situation. Just like open adoption has become the norm now in the US, I think it's the best direction to go.

The difficulty, in my mind, is that just stopping adoptions from Guatemala does nothing in particular to benefit children or women there. It doesn't provide more education, income, family planning services or lessen the stigma of pregnancy out of wedlock. It doesn't provide for the development of a foster care/adoption system within the country, work to eliminate racism that makes many of these kids unwanted for adoption by the middle/upper classes, or even provide institutional care for abandoned children. If all of these things were part of the Hague treaty, I would be much more positive about it.

The Hague Treaty is not a new issue. Last year, they called for public comments. Prior to that the US had already ascended but had not implemented. There are several countries where US citizens were previously able to adopt from but adoptions stopped once those countries implemented the Hague.

Guatemala does not have a social welfare system in place nor does it have plans for one. There is no WIC, welfare, or Section 8 housing. There are very few state run orphanages. I would hate to see the situation in Russia and Romania with orphanages full of children and little resources repeated in Guatemala.

When I was picking up my DD, I was with a friend whose family lived there. The kidnapping stores were true they told me but the point of the kidnapping was for ransom from the child's family not for adoption.

It always think its interesting that in a US domestic adoption when a woman who is planning on placing her child for adoption receives money during the process she is getting "birthmother expenses" but when a woman who is planning on placing her child for adoption in a foregin country receives money during the process she is "being bribed".

Maggie

Thank you to Diane B, m9m9m9 and Starr for your stories! I know that international adoption is much more complex than simply "that place is good" "that place is bad." I certainly didn't want to imply that every Guatemalan adoption is suspect. I'm glad that you got to meet your babies' birthmamas and that the process was secure for everyone! This is not always the case.

I replied to this thread because I have personal experience working with women and children in Guatemala. I have started thinking about adopting a child internationally and Guatemala was a place that resonated with me, because I speak the language, have lots of experience with several Guatemalan cultures and because I have lots of close friends who are from there. The research that I have done on Guatemala shows that in general there are still alot of questions with human trafficking in the adoption process. Obviously that was not the case with the pps adoptions ( I AM happy for you guys!). But when there is a general trend that threatens women and children, I absolutely support banning adoption from that country.

I think the big thing is that I disagree with viewing international adoption as a method to "save" children from the third world. While the number of kids who don't have parents in Guatemala and elsewhere is heart-breaking, I don't see adoption as a long term solution. Rather, we should be working towards equalizing wealth, addressing HIV/AIDS, giving more opportunities to women etc. When the international adoption process threatens already vulnerable women and children I think it is appropriate to stop it until it is ensured that the people on the other end are equal players in the process.

Again, this is not directed at the particular people on this thread who have had good experiences with adoptions from Guatemala, but at the overall system.

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I would agree with you in principle. Obviously, a few thousand adoptions is not going to "save" millions of children, nor is it the appropriate solution to an entire countries' problems. Where it gets sticky for me is this: all of these long-term solutions do nothing to help the living, breathing child that I hold in my arms every day, nor do they provide more options or help to her birth mother. In countries such as Romania where international adoptions have been suddenly terminated, the outcomes for children have been TERRIBLE. There was no infrastructure in place other than poorly-run state orphanages to handle children needing homes. I would hate to see the same thing happen in Guate.

Also, I have to say that based on my numerous conversations with friends and acquaintances who have been in contact with birth families in Guatemala, I don't feel that our positive, above-board experience has been unusual or atypical.

At any rate, I think it is very important that all of us living out the reality of international adoption acknowledge all of the contradictions, loss and challenge involved (and many of us do.) I appreciate these conversations because they help keep me thinking and learning.

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I am unclear as to where you think this view of international adoption is coming from. Sending countries are certainly not viewing international adoption as a method to help out their countries poorest citizens likewise the US is not pushing adoption from other countries to help out poor citizens in those countries.

Potential adoptive parents are far more pragmatic in their decision to choose international adoption - things like definite timelines, less chance the birthmother changes her mind (or no chance), and definite fees - are things that lead most PAPs to international adoption. The need to build a family is a much bigger driver than saving a child. In fact, PAPs are urged against adopting if the driver for the adoption is the desire to "save a child".

One would be hard pressed to find an adoption agencies or an NGO that believed that international adoption is part of a larger scheme to help poor children.

I agree that long term programs in these countries need to be implemented and improved on but the unfortunate fact is these countries are riddled with corruption in the government at all levels and this slows or stall programs as well as the fact that the goverment maybe struggling with trying to provide potable water or other basic necessities to all its citizens and issues like adoption and child welfare reform take a back seat to those.

In terms of Guatemala, the process of matching the baby's DNA with the birthmother's DNA has been in effect for several years now. It would be quite difficult to present a kidnapped baby for adoption as the process would end when the DNA did not match.

I have to agree with Dianne - I have read many stories of families locating the birthmother and not finding out that the adoption was anything but above board.

I think its a difficult thing for us in the US to conceive of the fact that so many woman may choose to place their babies for adoption because we have never had to experience the true effects of poverty. Even the poorest among us here at MDC would not have a comparative situation to some in a country like Guatemala. I do believe that woman receive money during the adoption process but I do not and can not judge a woman for this. I remeber a news show doing an expose on Vietnam adoptions several years ago. The aunt wanted to get back her niece who had taken to orphanage. The show was able to located the birthparents and they acknowleged that they received money in exchange for placing their child in the orphanage and ulitmatley for adoption and that they in fact did not want the baby to return home but wanted the baby to be adopted. The couple understood why they received the money and the result of their actions. Poor does not equal stupid. While I may not agree with the choice the couple made, I feel pressed to pass judgement as I have never been poor and living in rural Vietnam and all the hardships that go with it.

Maggie