The Market of Adoption

Sunday 21 oktober, 21h50 Netherland 2
And: Tuesday 23 oktober, 10.25 uur Nederland 2

See the speakers of the programme

See background interview Hilbrand Westra and Roelie Post

Once it seemed pure idealisme. By now adoption has become a worldwide buyer market. A market where the youngest, the healthiest and the whitest children go to those who pay most. An overstressed market above all. According to Unicef there are for every child 25 waiting parents available. About parents who in their desperate search explore the boundaries of law, raise prices and put doubtful organisations at work.

Thirty years ago adoption was above all idealism. Give a child a chance. Now adoption is foremost the last option. In the Western world we wait longer and longer with having a child. And when we want it, often it no longer works. The number of involuntary childless couples grows. For them adoption is more often the last safety net.

In the documentary, inter alia, some Dutch adoption agencies are speaking out. They acknowledge the existence of a market, but say they do not participate at the price battle. Not a penny too much and certainly not under the table. The Dutch as the best pupil of the classroom. Where other countries as the US and France pamper children's homes in the third world with luxerious dinners and fat dollarcheques. How proper are our adoption agencies? How far did the market functioning enter here? What must one pay for adoption? Is there a reduction for children with a handicap.

According to the Dutch adoption agency Wereldkinderen (Children of the World) the offer of children is changing. Because we pay less at the international market, we get more often less wanted children. Children with a heirlip, with a club foot or a developmental delay. And not everyone wants such a child. Most want a healthy baby. And these are less and less available and so most parents are mainly waiting. Often for years.

More and more parents no longer wait. They take the initiative at hand. They go to the US. The market where you can adopt a baby of a few days old. Only 10 years ago just a few children came from the US, but this year it will be over 60. These so-called "private adoptions" from the US are growing explosively. The way to get a young baby fast. If you pay. Pay a lot. Pay to US commercial adoption agencies who take care of it all. The Dutch agency who needs to check this, Kind & Toekomst (Child & Future), rings in Reporter the alarm bell. They can not do these checks well. They are very worried about the biological mothers who relinguish children. The import of children from the US must stop, according to this agency.