The French and the Adoption Market

With courtesy to ABANDON & ADOPTION where the full text can be read in French.

ADOPTION, THE PRACTICE OF "ENVELOPES" DIVISES

The French adoptive families are increasingly faced with requestf for "gifts" to the adoption countries. The Associations
affected by this are divided on the practice. The President of the French Adoption Agency, Yves Nicolin, outraged Enfance et Famille d’Adoption, the main association of adoptive families, when he recently mentioned, seeming justifying the practice of requesting "envelopes" from families at the time they receive the child: "I am not there to promote a practice, but it is reality, we must break the taboo and help families by indicating the reasonable sum.
Adopters "are free to give or not, but, those who do not give or do not give sufficiently, must know that they are -- quotation marks – putting "at risk" the adoption of prospective adopters, Yves Nicolin said on radio on August 27.

For the association EFA, this "value” given to unofficial donations is not welcome,
while adoption is regularly suspected of financial and ethical abuses, based on the strong demand.

"Giving more, to adopt more»

While it is "normal" to help the countries of origin, "without returns”
"to create child protection services or to support families, "it should in no way encourage them to monetize their children and create human distress," she counters. "It is abnormal that the president of a public authority encourages himself an attitude which could be summarized with the motto "give more, to adopt more" "
adds the association, who refers to the risk that international adoption
"market economy"….

The number of adoptions in France has dropped 20% in two years(3,162 in 2007 against 4,136 in 2005).