CALLS TO ACTION

Welcoming our newest board member

Dear friends, Ethica is thrilled to announce that our board is adding a new member. Farnad J. Darnell is an active member of the adoption community as a researcher, educator, and staunch advocate for justice in adoption. As an adoptee, he has recently become more involved in the adoption community through regular contributions to the [...]

Volunteer for Ethica or Donate to Support our Cause!

Dear Friends, Happy 2012! We hope your New Year is starting out well. Here at Ethica, we finished out 2011 very quietly as we contemplated our positioning for 2012. In 2011, we decided to shift our focus from crisis intervention to policy advocacy on a national level, and we worked diligently with officials in Washington [...]

 

Adoption Alerts

Honduras: US Embassy Update - Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) reinstates U.S. adoption agency Gladney

From the Embassy of the United States (Honduras): February 17, 2012 Reinstatement of U.S. Adoption Agency by IHNFA (Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia) The U.S. Embassy in Honduras informs citizens that the Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) recently reinstated U.S. adoption agency Gladney Center for Adoption, per [...]

Russia: USDOS Adoption Notice - Processing Time for Adoptions Increased

From the US Department of State: Russia February 21, 2012 Notice: Processing Time for Adoptions Increased On January 1, 2012, the Russian Family Code was amended so that presiding judges will announce decisions in cases, including intercountry adoption cases, at the end of in-person court hearings. Courts will issue written rulings five days later. In [...]

Malawi: USDOS Adoption Notice - Ongoing Nationwide Judicial Strike Closes Courts in Malawi

From the US Department of State: Malawi Feburary 08, 2012 Notice: Ongoing Nationwide Judicial Strike Closes Courts in Malawi Due to a nationwide judicial strike by certain judicial employees in Malawi, the court system halted all functions on January 9, 2012. Since this time, no new or pending cases have been processed. The strike has [...]

USCIS Unable to Resume Processing Adoptions from Vietnam

From USCIS: Released Feb. 2, 2011 Intercountry Adoptions Under the Hague Adoption Convention WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it cannot approve a Form I-800, Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative, filed on behalf of a child to be adopted from Vietnam. The Department of State (DOS) has [...]

In The News

Professor David M. Smolin Examines the Christian Evangelical Adoption Movement

From Professor David M. Smolin, Bepress, and SelectedWorks: OF ORPHANS AND ADOPTION, PARENTS AND THE POOR, EXPLOITATION AND RESCUE: A SCRIPTURAL AND THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN ADOPTION AND ORPHAN CARE MOVEMENT Abstract The primary purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the scriptural and theological analysis undergirding the evangelical adoption and orphan [...]

Missouri: Parents Regain Custody of Son After Six Year Legal Battle

From Fox News (Kansas City): Seven years after he was born, a Raytown boy is finally living with his biological parents. Noah Bond’s birth father fought all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court to get his son back. Until August of 2011, Noah was living in Texas with a couple who wanted to adopt [...]

Vietnam: Former nurse on trial for baby trafficking

From Thanh Nien News: The Hanoi People’s Court Tuesday opened the trial of a former nurse at the Vietnam National Ob-gyn Hospital who used her position to run a baby trafficking ring. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi told the court that she had noticed many women having unexpected and unwanted pregnancies while sterile couples pined for [...]

David M. Smolin and Elizabeth Bartholet debate international adoption

Intercountry Adoption: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes, edited by Judith L. Gibbons and Karen Smith Robati, will be published in June of 2012. The book will inlcude a chapter in which Professor Elizabeth Bartholet and Professor David Smolin debate the laws and policies of international adoption. That chapter is currently available online from SelectedWorks (The Berkeley [...]

Virginia governor to sign controversial adoption measure

From Reuters: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is poised to sign so-called “conscience clause” legislation protecting faith-based adoption agencies that deny placements based on religious beliefs such as opposition to homosexuality, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The measure won approval in both chambers of the state legislature, with the Senate passing it on Tuesday in a [...]

India: Sting busts shocking baby-selling racket

From MiD DAY Infomedia: In an explosive sting operation that lasted for about a week, MiD DAY blows the lid off a thriving baby-selling racket in the city, in which infants are sold like commodities for Rs 2-3 lakh. Two MiD DAY reporters posed as a couple and approached the syndicate operating out of the [...]

 

Articles and Resources

Honduras: US Embassy Update - Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) reinstates U.S. adoption agency Gladney

From the Embassy of the United States (Honduras): February 17, 2012 Reinstatement of U.S. Adoption Agency by IHNFA (Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia) The U.S. Embassy in Honduras informs citizens that the Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) recently reinstated U.S. adoption agency Gladney Center for Adoption, per [...]

Professor David M. Smolin Examines the Christian Evangelical Adoption Movement

From Professor David M. Smolin, Bepress, and SelectedWorks: OF ORPHANS AND ADOPTION, PARENTS AND THE POOR, EXPLOITATION AND RESCUE: A SCRIPTURAL AND THEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN ADOPTION AND ORPHAN CARE MOVEMENT Abstract The primary purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that the scriptural and theological analysis undergirding the evangelical adoption and orphan [...]