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