Decrease in International Adoptions

And, by the way, not all decreases in adoption are bad.It is absolutely true that, as countries become more prosperous, the need for international adoption decreases. Look at South Korea. It was the first country to have a formal adoption agreement with the U.S., beginning shortly after the Korean War. For a long time, it was a major source of internationally adopted children in the U.S. But times have changed for South Korea. Instead of stagnating, like North Korea, with a totalitarian government, South Korea has become very prosperous and modern. It is known for its telecommunications, electronics, and automotive industries. It is also one of few countries in Asia to have a Western-type medical system, and to support universal immunization against childhood diseases and the diseases common in less developed countries.Today, the number of healthy infants and toddlers available for adoption has decreased dramatically, in part due to the increasing prosperity. The #1 reason for placing children for adoption, around the world, is poverty, so more prosperity means fewer people who can't afford to raise a child. Along with becoming more prosperous, South Korea is becoming more Westernized, for better or for worse. For one thing, there are fewer people who hold traditional beliefs about the importance of the "blood tie", and more people who are open to adopting unrelated Korean children. For another thing, girls and young women are not as sheltered as they used to be, and know more about sex and reproduction, including how to prevent pregnancy, so they are less likely to wind up getting pregnant and placing children for adoption. Some single women, as in the U.S. are even choosing to raise children they bear while single. Unfortunately, while Westernization has reduced the need for adoption, one of its downsides has been that there is a great increase in alcohol consumption by young Korean women. The per capital consumption of alcohol in Korea, in general, and especially among young people, is surprisingly high, and what is consumed is often a high-proof version of shoyu, the national drink. Thus, while fewer babies are relinquished for adoption, overall, a higher proportion of them will turn out to have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), sometimes undiagnosed until they reach school age, by which time they are already in adoptive homes. Some of the relinquished children also may have had in utero exposure to illicit drugs and to tobacco use, both of which are more common in young women than it used to be.Finally, South Korea truly needed help with the number of parentless children in the country, many years ago, but with the reduced number of relinquishments, the South Korean government is more confident now that, over time, it may be able to phase out international adoption completely. As a result, it is beginning to implement programs to encourage more Koreans to adopt domestically -- for example, with tax credits. While South Korea was a little optimistic in its original timeline for phasing out international adoption, it probably will be able to do so at some point down the road, at least for children with no known special needs.And South Korea isn't the only country going through changes, like South Korea. China has seen a rather dramatic downturn in international adoptions, as a result of increased prosperity, greater public acceptance of domestic adoption by families within China, and government efforts to stimulate domestic adoption. World criticism of China's one-child policy, ultimately leading to China's decision to permit many families to have two children, has also had an effect on child abandonments/relinquishments. Today, orphanages in some of China's most prosperous cities, once full of relatively healthy baby girls, now house mainly children with special needs, and many of them are boys. Unfortunately, Chinese laws do not protect disabled people from discrimination as well as they should, and do not mandate special accommodations, such as ramps and curb cuts, for people with disabilities as well as they should. And many less educated people still believe that families who give birth to children with special needs did something wrong or were "cursed". So China is now allowing foreigners -- except for those who have been waiting in line for referrals for several years -- to adopt only children who have special needs or who are of school age and likely not to be adopted domestically. Greater prosperity, greater societal acceptance of adoption, and government incentives to promote domestic adoption are all positive. But at this time, there are many countries in which the number of parentless children remains fairly significant. Unfortunately, not all of these countries permit international adoption, and some of those that do simply don't have a well-organized, transparent system that is relatively free from corruption. Nowadays, the U.S. government is advocating in many of these countries, for both creating a Hague-compliant adoption system and for the opening of the system to Americans. But that's simply not going to happen overnight. While I'd like to see more children in permanent loving families, I hope that we all agree that corruption in adoption must be rooted out, and that we should not be adopting children who may have been bought or stolen, who may have been procured from biological parents who did not understand the finality of adoption, who may not have been adopted according to the laws of their country, and so on.Sharon