International adoption in the age of assisted reproductive technologies. the spanish case 2

International Adoption in the age of Assisted Reproductive Technologies: the Spanish case
Diana Marre (UAB-AFIN)
diana.marre@uab.es

‘New’ assisted reproductive technologies
donor insemination (DI)
in vitro fertilization (IVF)
donor ova
donor embryo
gestational surrogacy
adoption, domestic and transnational

Glossary (Wade 2007)
Donor Gametes: Gametes (sperm, eggs) that have been donated by men and women for use in assisted reproduction technologies
Egg donation: The giving of eggs (ova) by one woman to another who has fertility problems
IVF: In vitro fertilization. The fertilization of ova by sperm ‘in a test-tube’, i.e. in the laboratory

Surrogacy: Shorthand for surrogate motherhood, in which a woman gestates an embryo on behalf another couple who have fertility problems. The embryo can be formed from the surrogate’s egg artificially fertilized with the sperm of the couple, or can be formed from the couple’s own gametes.
Transnational adoption: Adoption in which the adoptin parents come from a different nation-state (usually in Europe and North America) from the adopted child (who usually comes from a developing country, Eastern Europe, Russia or Asia)

Since 2004 Spain has been the second country in the world, after the USA, and the first European country, in front of France, in terms of number of adopted children received.
What is the difference between Spain and these two countries?
The United States scored the highest birth rate amongst the rich countries in 2007: 2,1 children per woman and the number of domestic adoptions doubled the sum of international adoptions.
In 2007, France registered the highest birth rate in the European Union: 2,0 children per woman.
In the same year 2007 the Spanish birth rate reached 1,46 children per woman as a direct consequence of the immigrant maternity (1,97 children per women as opposed to the 1,33 registered by no immigrant population).
Furthermore, very few domestic adoptions take place every year.

Reproductive changes in Spain after Franco’s dictatorship
1975: at the end of Franco’s dictatorship Spain had the EU highest birth rate (2,8 children/woman)
1976: the woman’s age at first maternity was 26.
1978: contraception was legalized. Until then according to the Penal Code “to sell, to prescribe, to disseminate or to offer anything to avoid procreation was considered a crime”.

1981: the Divorce Act was approved.
1983: The voluntary sterilization surgery was legalized by a modification of Penal Code
1984: the first Spanish’s IVF baby born in Barcelona, Catalonia
1985: Spain was a destinity to European families looking for a child to adopt

1985: the abortion was legalized for three causes: - to avoid a risk for the life or the physic or psychological health of the woman, - if pregnancy was a result of a rape and - to prevent physic or psychological problems in the foetus.
1987: a new Act on child protection was approved. It was “excessively” protective of the right of biological parents, so in the practice it not allowed domestic adoptions
1988: the first law on Assisted Reproduction was approved

1991: the sell of the RU-486 pill, “the pill of the day after” was authorised
1995: Spain had the lowest EU birth rate (1,17 children/woman)
1995: Spain subscribed The Hague Convention
1995: a British television’s programme, The Rooms of Death, on the life in China’s orphanages was aired in prime time TV several times.

1996: a new law of Minor Legal Protection was approved
1997: the regions of Madrid and Catalonia did not accept more applications to domestic adoption due to the lack of Spanish children given up for adoption.
1997: the first statistics regarding international adoption was published

recorded intercountry adoptions doubled between 1998 and 2000 and reached 5,541 by 2004
2004: Spain was the second country in the world, after USA, in number of international adoptees and immigrants received.
2004: Catalans were the 16% of Spanish’s inhabitants but they adopted the 31% of children adopted internationally in Spain

Spanish Authorities regarding Intercountry Adoptions

Children adopted by year in Spain1997-2008

Children under any kind of state protection=Officially: 22.862Unofficially: more than 33.000

Parents’ narratives regarding international adoption:
Many adoptive parents and their associations still link the beginning and continuity of international adoption to the repeated broadcasting at the end of 1995 of the British television’s programme, The Rooms of Death, on the life in China’s orphanages
many families mention solidarity and the need to help the poor and abandoned children as the main objective to adopt: “to give to a child a better future”

2005 April: Catalan Government approved an Act allowing to homosexual couples to adopt.
2005 July: Spanish Government approved and Act allowing homosexual marriage and, as a direct consequence allowing children adoption
2005. Spain had the second place in Europe right after France in assisted reproductive treatments in relationship to the total population followed by Germany and United Kingdom

2006: only the 35% of adoptive families had done some infertility treatment before in Catalonia.
2007: Spain had the EU highest woman’s first maternity age: 31
2007: The birth rate is the highest in the last 14 years in Spain: 1,37 children by woman (18% of children born have an immigrant mother)

To adopt a child:
another way to became parents
Adopting a child
is a way to become parents
that in recent times
has become popular

Adopt a kid
Redecorate your life

Children come
from too far

Sweetie, don’t you think it’s high time we start trying for a baby?
Sure, I’ll just log on www.adoption.org...

Half of children adopted
abroad come from Russia and China

International adoptions in Spain by continent and country of origin of children

Source: Ministery of Labour and Social Issues. Yearbook 2004

Imported
Generation

Imagine how much ‘ours’ we feel her, that we don’t even see her black anymore. I'm not kidding. You don't see the color, it's just love, says a professor, mother to an adopted child of Ethiopian origin who, already having two biologic sons, decided to adopt because they wanted to be parents again and give a child a home.

“I’m black because
I’m haitian”

2007: The Spanish Parliament aprpved an International Adoption Act
2010. The Parliamente aproved a new abortion law which legalized abortion on demand for women from 16 years old until 14 week of pregnancy and until 21 in certain circunstances

International adoption in the age of assisted reproductive technologies. the spanish case 2

by GrupoAFIN on May 09, 2010

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