Peter Dodds describes the many human rights violations embedded in the international adoption system. This PowerPoint was delivered as part of his keynote address at the Adoption Experience 2012! conference in Toronto, Canada.

1. Adoption Experience 2012!
Toronto, Canada
“International Adoption: In Whose Best Interest?”
Presenter: Peter Dodds
October 20, 2012

2. What are international adoptees saying?
“In my experience, transracial international adoption is one of the
most thorough and brutal forms of forced assimilation.”1
-- So Yung Kim, Korean adopted by Americans
“Taking a child from another culture is an act of aggression.”2
-- Lemn Sissay, Ethiopian adopted by British parents
“… international adoption has many parallels to the Atlantic slave
trade. Both are driven by insatiable consumer demand, utilize a
system of pricing and dependent on intermediaries in the form of
slave hunters and adoption agencies…”3
-- Tobias Hubinette, Korean adopted by Swedish parents

3. “There comes a time when
one must take a position that
is neither safe, nor politic,
nor popular, but he must do
it because Conscience tells
him it is right.”
-- Martin Luther King

4. In whose best interest?
"… the emphasis has changed from the desire to
provide a needy child with a home, to that of
providing a needy parent with a child. As a result, a
whole industry has grown, generating millions of
dollars of revenues each year . . .”
-- Special Rapporteur, United Nations,
Commission on Human Rights, 2003

5. International adoption from a
market perspective
• children are commodities in transactions
• a child is first commodified and then sold
• import, export, minimum pricing of adoption
• cost of adoption for the US citizen
• selling children to rich pedophiles
-- Lilia Khabibullina, Fellow, University of Barcelona, “Minor's Adoption
in Russia: International Adoption or Child Transaction?” March 25, 2011

6. "… lack of regulation and oversight coupled with the
potential for financial gain, has spurred the growth of
an industry around adoption, where profit, rather than
the best interests of children, takes centre stage. Abuses
include the sale and abduction of children, coercion of
parents, and bribery.”4
-- UNICEF position on intercountry adoption

7. “I was appalled by the moratorium
put in place under pressure from
UNICEF and the U.S. and I‟m appalled
by the new law.”
Elizabeth Bartholet international adoption industry
advocate responding to Guatemalan ban on foreign
adoptions put in place to prevent baby thefts, child
trafficking and agency corruption.
-- Ezra Fieser, “Guatemala: a baby factory no longer?” Globalpost.com, Dec 23, 2009

8. The “Stolen Generations”
• a term used for the thousands of Aboriginal children
who were forcefully taken (stolen) from their families
• by the Australian government and Christian
missionaries
• between the 1890s and 1970s

9. Effects on Aboriginal children
removed from their homes & cultures
• mental and physical health problems
• delinquency and behavioral problems
• loss of cultural heritage
• broken families and communities
• racism
1995 Australian National Inquiry into the Separation of
the Stolen Generation from their Families

10. Australian formal apology
to the Stolen Generations and Aboriginal people
• “We apologise for the laws and policies that have inflicted
profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow
Australians”
• “We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their
communities and their country.
• “For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations,
their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
• “To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for
the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.”
-- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; February 13, 2008

11. Foreign adoptees are “deaf” suffering trauma until
learning the language of their adopting parents
“Deaf children often need trauma-specific mental
health services to equip them with the skills they need
to cope with their traumatic experiences.”
-- National Child Traumatic Stress Network, "White Paper on Deaf and
Hard of Hearing Children," October 2005
“Inadequate communication with significant others
during one's developmental years severely impedes all
facets of psycho-social development.”
-- Dr. Michael Harvey, National Child Traumatic Stress Network,
"White Paper on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children," October 2005

12. “If ... the best interests of the child are to be the
determining factor in child custody cases ... persons
seeking babies to adopt might profitably frequent
grocery stores and snatch babies from carts… they can
assert they have a nicer home, a superior education, a
better job or whatever, and that the best interests of
the child are with the baby snatchers. Children of
parents deemed less affluent might be considered
particularly fair game.”
-- Justice James Heiple, Illinois Supreme Court
in the “Baby Richard" case

13. “Children in orphanages are highly likely to have one
or even both parents alive. Many of these children --
80 percent or more in some countries -- have at least
one surviving parent.”
-- Better Care Network, August 2009

14. There is no word for adoption
in most African languages.

15. "Poverty is no reason to take children away. Poverty is
not a disease and international adoptions are not a
solution."
-- Roelie Post, Former EU official once responsible for foreign
adoptions from Romania

16. Preying on the poor
Adoption agencies charged The total monthly outgoings
prospective parents up to which would allow a mother and
$64,357 for processing an child to stay together as a family
intercountry adoption in unit in Ethiopia: $15 per month.
2011.
U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs Elizabeth Willmott Harrop, “Adoption
trade sets up shop in Africa,”
Libertyandhumanity.com,
12 July 2012

17. Holt International Children's Services:
Adoption fees overview
“Holt believes finances should not stop a child from
having a loving family.”
-- http://www.holtinternational.org/adoption/assistance.php.
web 12 October 2012.
Holt marketing ploy to prospective adopting parents
while poverty forces mothers around the world to give
up their children.

18. "… the promise of money from abroad has turned
children into commodities in the graying and
increasingly amoral world of intercountry adoption.”
-- African Child Policy Forum
“Africa: The New Frontier for Intercountry Adoption”

19. “Africa: The New Frontier for Intercountry adoption”
Highlights
1. Develop and support community based child care
2. Children‟s right to cultural identity
3. Equating “orphans” with “adoptable” children runs
the risk of compromising children‟s rights
4. The best interests of African children should be the
primary obligation of African families, communities and
governments

20. 104,000 children in the U.S. foster care system
wait to be adopted.5
“My concern is that when these foster care children see
so many Americans stepping over them to go abroad,
they will feel a sense of not being good enough.”
-- Rita Soronen, Executive Director, Dave Thomas Foundation
Foxnews.com, April 3, 2009

21. Ethiopian Adoption Overview
Many international adoption agencies flashing Christian credentials
are taking advantage of Ethiopia's situation.
Corruption, fraud and deception are rife.
Many „relinquishing‟ Ethiopian parents or carers may have been
duped into giving up their children.
-- www.abc.net.au, Fly Away Children, 15/09/2009

22. The Evangelical Adoption Crusade
“I think Christians are the worst at this sometimes, about
the ends justifying the mean... You‟ll hear people saying,
I‟m following God‟s law, not man‟s laws… I will falsify a
visa application if I have to.”
-- Chuck Johnson, Executive Director
National Council for Adoption
-- www.thenation.com,The Evangelical Adoption Crusade, May 9, 2011

23. Nina Hilt, one of 19 Russian children murdered by their
American adopting parents.6

24. Hannah Williams an Ethiopian murdered by her
American adopting parents.

25. Drop-side crib deaths compared to
murdered "foreign" adoptees
Since 1997: Since 2001:
20 “foreign” children have 32 children have died
been murdered by their as the result of drop side
cribs from a pool of about
American adopting parents 40 million children.
from a pool of about
250,000 children. (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)

26. Per capita murders of foreign adoptees
by their American adopting parents
far exceed deaths caused by drop-side cribs.
The US Congress found drop-crib deaths
to be a public health and safety issue and took action7:
1. stopped the manufacture and sale of drop-side cribs
2. recalled millions of these dangerous cribs
3. implemented new safety standards

27. Adoption Policy and Reform Collaborative
A diverse group of adoptees from across the United States
who identify, create, implement, and sustain ethical adoption
practices through collaboration with other stakeholders.

28. The Adoption Policy and Reform Collaborative
Recommends:
The U.S. Congress create an independent
commission to study the murders of foreign
children adopted by Americans, identify systemic
problems and recommend reforms to prevent
further abuses.

29. In memory of the 20 "foreign" adoptees who
lost their lives to international adoption.

30. African Child Policy Forum:
Africa the New Frontier of Intercountry Adoption
"… intercountry adoption as one of the significant
responses to addressing the problem of children
deprived of their family environments is neither
sustainable nor feasible."

31. Edmund Blair Leighton, To the Unknown Land

32. About Peter Dodds
Peter Dodds was born Peter Friedrich Sander and adopted from a
German orphanage by American parents.
His autobiography, Outer Search Inner Journey, is the first book
written by a foreign born adoptee on the subject of intercountry
adoption. An international speaker, Peter has delivered keynote
addresses at New Zealand's National Adoption Conference and
Toronto's Adoption Experience 2012.
He is a graduate of the International Olympic Academy (Greece),
holds advanced university degrees, Directed a program for the
United States Olympic Committee, worked on a legislative staff and
was an elite‟ Ranger when serving as a U.S. Army officer.
Peter can be reached at: aphpub@hotmail.com

33. Endnotes
1 Kim So Yung, “Trading in Babies,” Conducive Magazine, 13 August 2009
2 BBC News, “Out of Ethiopia: Is international adoption an ethical business?” 25 June 2012
3 “A critique
of intercountry adoption”, in William Dudley (ed.), Issues in adoption-Current
controversies, Greenhaven Press, 2004, pp. 66-71.
4 “The big business of Haitian adoption,” Alter Press, 23 March 2010. web 6 October 2012.
5 “Common myths about adoption,” AdoptUSKids. web 29 September 2012.
6 “Russia signs tougher adoption deal with U.S.” Chicago Tribune, 30 July 2012
7 “Federal
Government Passes New Crib Safety Regulations,” New York-Presbyterian,
1 September 2011