LGBT Conference

CALLS TO ACTION

Ethica to host LGBT adoption conference

LGBT Adoptions: Our Community, Our Voices Conference Ethica and The Alliance Fund November 6, 2010 Tucson, AZ Holiday Inn-Tucson Airport North 4550 S Palo Verde Tucson, AZ 85714 520-746-1161 Join Ethica and the Alliance Fund as we gather the LGBT adoption community for a day-long conference exploring the struggles and joys of creating families through [...]

Letter From the President

Fighting for “orphans”

Ethica is happy to announce the addition of a new board member to our team. Rachel Schatz Wegner is a member of our international policy advocacy team. She became a passionate proponent of adoption ethics and transparency after she and her husband chose to abandon their plan to adopt from Vietnam amidst reports of corruption [...]

Wealth, Poverty and the Child’s Best Interests

It’s interesting how the public is drawn into celebrity adoptions and is beginning to explore the complex issues surrounding wealth, poverty, and how they play into building or in some cases, the need to rebuild families. I live in Michigan and work as a social worker here. Ironically enough, Michigan is also Madonna’s home state. Food banks are scrambling to meet the demands of hungry families and the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Now more than ever we can empathize with struggling families and the terror that comes with the need to feed and care for our children. Now more than ever we can empathize with the daily realities of families in developing countries. Most of us would recognize that tearing a family apart and institutionalizing our children, or placing them into adoption, would be a last resort. Yet, many of us are ready to condemn a Malawian grandmother for fighting to keep a child when it seems like the child’s best interests can be met by a wealthy stranger.

In The News

Missouri: Guatemalan adoption case may make it to Supreme Court

From the Joplin Globe: Arguments in an adoption case involving a Carthage couple and a child born to a Guatemalan mother in the country illegally may be heard by the Missouri Supreme Court. A petition filed on behalf of Seth and Melinda Moser is asking Missouri’s highest court to hear the issue after a motion [...]

Russia sees Colorado abuse trial as push for U.S. adoption pact

From RIA Novosti: The trial of a Colorado couple accused of abusing three sisters adopted from Russia shows why a Russian-U.S. treaty on adoptions should be signed soon, Russia’s children’s ombudsman said on Sunday. The Russian president’s commissioner for children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, warned that Moscow had no way to legally assist children adopted from [...]

Articles and Resources

New data: Many fewer US kids in foster care

From Google News (and the Associated Press): The number of U.S. children in foster care has dropped 8 percent in just one year, and more than 20 percent in the past decade, according to new federal figures underscoring the impact of widespread reforms. The drop, hailed by child-welfare advocates, is due largely to a shift [...]

Oregon and Washington sign agreement making it easier to place kids in foster homes with relatives

From Oregon Live: Child welfare officials in Oregon and Washington inked a new agreement Monday that will make it faster and easier to place children who come into foster care with family or close friends on the other side of the border. The new rules will cover children and their families in Oregon’s Multnomah, Washington [...]