Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Catholic adoption agency must change how it operates to conform to new Adoption Act

As of November 1, the Adoption Act brought Ireland under the Hague Convention for inter-country adoption.  

The new law is expected to bring greater protection to adoptive parents and their children.  

The Act provides for the replacement of the former Adoption Board with a new Adoption Authority having responsibility for the recognition of adoptions, both from Ireland and abroad, and for accrediting and regulating the bodies involved in adoption. 

One such body, the Catholic adoption organisation Cunamh, will have to substantially change its holistic approach covering all stages of adoption from pregnancy counselling to assessment of perspective parents, adoption and follow-up.  

“When a mother decides to place a baby for adoption then she can choose from among our couples, that we have assessed and found suitable within the agency, and those couples are practicing Catholics,” said Julie Kerins, Senior Social Worker, Cunamh explaining the situation as it was before the new law came into force.  

“Under the new Act, you can only do certain activities together and if you continue to be an assessing agency of prospective parents you cannot do any other sort of work.”

This means that if Cunamh continues with counselling pregnant women, then it might have to liaise with another service provider in order to find homes for their babies.  

“Our ethos has always been Catholic; our couples are practicing Catholics, and what might happen around that in the future in relation to other agencies we don’t know,” said Julie Kerins. 

Another shortcoming of the Act is that it fails to provide legal rights in relation to tracing and information, for example where an adopted child wishes to trace natural parents and / medical and other information.  

A new law will be needed to address this.

Many organisations, including Cunamh, offer tracing, reunion and other services but want this on a statutory basis with proper funding.  

At the moment in an open adoption, the birth mother or birth parents can visit with the child in the adoptive parents home, and Cunamh supports and facilitates this.  

Likewise, in a semi-open adoption Cunamh will pass on letters, cards, gifts and photos from birth parents to children and vice versa.  

Most adoptions nowadays are open or semi open so the issue of tracing and seeking health information does not arise as often.  

But this does not help people who currently seek information in a timely fashion.

The new law also brings changes to inter-country adoption and some countries will now be closed for adoptions while others are opened up. 

There are 80 countries governed by the Hague convent, of which about half are “sending countries,” so the ratification brings certainty to the inter-country process for couples seeking to adopt abroad.  

Bulgaria, South Africa and Thailand, are now places where Irish couples can go to adopt.

The new legislation requires both parties (parents and child) to be from countries where the Hague Convention is ratified, so this rules out adoptions from Russia and Ethiopia.  

However, transitional arrangements are in place so that people who are within the adoption process under the old system are not disadvantaged as the new system comes into place. 

There is a provision that anyone with a declaration of suitability and eligibility to adopt can still adopt from non-Hague countries like Russia and Ethiopia. 

There are approximately 400 inter-country adoptions completed each year by Irish couples.  

Some 4,600 children have come to Ireland under inter-country adoptions since 1991, with about 1,400 of these coming from countries not covered by the Hague Convention or bilateral agreements.

SIC: CIN/IE