An independent voice for ethical adoption
China’s Pink Pagoda child rescue organization and founder Jim Garrow draw criticism
From the Guelph Mercury:
For the past 10 years, Garrow has run an organization he calls Pink Pagoda. He says he works with 142 people in China to rescue baby girls whose parents might otherwise abandon or kill them. When his team hears about unwanted babies, they collect them from their parents and deliver them to local orphanages or the arms of friends and relatives, Garrow says.
When needed, he adds, the organization can provide money and supplies for a child’s upkeep.
He says Pink Pagoda is responsible for saving 34,000 baby girls since 2000…
But some of those familiar with China’s adoption networks question Garrow’s public statements.
Brian Stuy, a former financial services sector customer services worker, from Salt Lake City, adopted three children from China in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After several trips to Chinese orphanages, he says he began to question how well the system serves local children and parents. Today, he follows orphanages and Chinese adoptions closely and maintains a website listing his findings.
Stuy now makes his living providing adoptive parents with newspaper clippings and other clues about their child’s early life in China.
In 2008, he heard about Pink Pagoda and phoned Garrow to find out more.
“I talked with Jim Garrow a lot about the program,” Stuy says. “He indicated areas in China where he works, and I’ve made contact with orphanages in those areas and have been unable to substantiate anything he’s said.”
Garrow says he’s not surprised his work isn’t known in China because his organization tries to keep a low profile there.
He says he can’t reveal which orphanages or even geographical areas his organization works in for good reason.
“We are doing stuff that is illegal in China,” Garrow says.
According to Chinese adoption law, families can adopt domestically if a child’s parents are deceased, missing or unable to raise the child due to “unusual difficulties.” The law forbids the buying or selling of a child, including “under the cloak of adoption.”
Garrow suggests his work is also illegal under the International Convention on Child Trafficking, to which Canada is a signatory.
“If I save a baby, and give it to you, when I hand it to you, I’ve now just breached the Geneva Convention,” he says. “I’m now involved in a criminal activity called trafficking in human flesh. That’s exactly what happens if I pass a baby from me to you, even though I’m saving the life of a baby.
“Some parts of law have not caught up with some parts of morality and necessity.”
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