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US to resume limited child adoptions in Vietnam soon
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VIETNAM and the United States will soon resume limited inter-country adoptions, the US Embassy said yesterday, six years after a ban was imposed because of allegations of widespread baby-selling and children offered without the consent of their birth parents.
The embassy said under the new agreement, Americans will be able to adopt children with special needs and those over 5 years of age.
It said adoptions would resume “soon” once the Vietnam government announces which US -based adoption service providers are authorized to represent American parents.
Prior to the ban in 2008, Vietnam was a popular destination for Americans wanting to adopt children. But the popularity led to concerns within the US Embassy that the demand had led to an unregulated industry supplying young, healthy babies to prospective parents, raising profound ethical questions.
The adoptions were arranged by American firms, which contracted local agents to source the babies.
In 2009, a UN-commissioned report into adoptions in Vietnam in 2009 confirmed those allegations. It said cash payments by adoption agencies to orphanages led them to seek out children for adoption, often without proper checks into their background or their family circumstances.
American senators and international adoption lobby groups have been urging Vietnam to pass stronger laws and better monitor the process so that adoptions can resume. The embassy said the agreement was a “success in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Vietnam.”
There is limited demand among prospective adoptive parents for older children and those with special needs, meaning monitoring is much easier.
A delegation of American senators who visited Vietnam last year said allowing for special needs adoptions would be seen as a first step to resuming all adoptions.
Demand for inter-country adoptions has risen in recent years. For singles wanting a child, or couples unable or unwilling to conceive, adopting a foreign baby from an orphanage in a poor country is attractive.
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