Opinion / China Watch
Child adoptions rule tightened
By Dune Lawrence and Steven Bodzin (Bloomberg)
Updated: 2006-12-19 15:11
China, the largest source of overseas children adopted in the US, plans
to bar would-be parents who are obese, single or over 50, according to
notices posted on the Web sites of three leading US adoption agencies.
Under rules effective from May 1, applicants must be married for more
than two years with at least a high school education. The measures also
ban multiple divorcees, the blind and those taking depression medication
from becoming parents, according to the postings.
The changes come as the government wants to ensure Chinese children get
the best possible homes while demand for the children outstrips the
number available for overseas adoption.
The government "is doing what they see as the best thing for their
children and their country," said Kristine Altwies Nicholson, who runs
Hawaii International Child, a Honolulu-based adoption agency.
The rules were described on the Web sites of Spring, Texas-based Harrah's
Adoption International Mission, which has placed 1,200 orphans from Asia
since 1995; New Beginnings Family & Children's Services Inc. in Mineola,
New York; and Evansville, Indiana-based Families Thru International
Adoption. Nicholson said she had heard the same information from people
who had met Chinese authorities.
The postings said the China Center of Adoption Affairs briefed overseas
agencies on the new rules at a Dec. 8 meeting, without specifying where
it was held. The center, part of the Beijing-based Ministry of Civil
Affairs, hasn't made the changes public. A man who answered the telephone
at the center declined to comment or to give his name.
'Model Program'
"The Chinese government's adoption program is considered a model program
in terms of efficiency," Susan Soon-keum Cox, vice president of public
policy and external affairs at Holt International Children's Services,
testified in June to a subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations in Washington. Eugene, Oregon-based Holt has placed almost
40,000 children in the US since the 1950s.
China placed 13,000 children with overseas families last year, ministry
statistics show. In 2001, the ministry received just 8,000 applications
for international adoptions.
A total of 62,000 children entered Chinese welfare institutions such as
orphanages last year, down from 66,000 in 2004, according to the
ministry. Only certain orphanages can arrange international adoptions.
Guatemala Second
China, the world's most populous nation, has been the leading source of
overseas adoptions in the US since 2000. It provided 6,493 children in
the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 57 percent more than second-placed
Guatemala, visa statistics from the US Department of State show.
US families adopted about half of all Chinese babies available in fiscal
2005, according to US figures and Chinese totals. China does not make
public the destinations of adoptees.
Overseas applications last year doubled from 2004, and adoption affairs
center officials said they don't have enough children to meet the
increase, according to Harrah's Web site.
"It's a supply-demand issue," said Jane Liedtke, chief executive officer
in Beijing of Our Chinese Daughters Foundation, which works with 10 US
adoption agencies.
China's main rule changes disqualify single parents, anyone divorced more
than twice, people aged over 50 and families with net assets of less than
US$80,000. Couples must have been married for at least two years.
For couples adopting a child with special needs, the age limit remains 55.
Depression, Anxiety
Also excluded are people with a body mass index more than 40 --
translating to about 5 feet 7 inches (170 centimeters) tall and weighing
about 262 pounds (119 kilograms) -- the blind or severely nearsighted and
those who have taken depression or anxiety medication in the past two
years, the Web sites said.
Previously, rules stated that parents had to be aged over 30. Priority
went to those 30 to 45 for children about 1 year old, and applicants 50
to 55 for children above 3 years old.
Health qualifications weren't specifically defined, and there were no
education or marriage requirements. The government limited applications
by single parents to 8 percent of the total, said Nicholson in Hawaii and
Liedtke in Beijing.
About 30 percent of Chinese children went to single parents in 2001,
before the quota system went into effect, according to Families with
Children from China, a New-York-based support organization.
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