International Adoption: Current Status and Future Prospects

Throughout the poorer countries of the world, millions of children live out their young lives in substandard institutions or in the streets. In times of war or political and economic upheaval, added numbers of children become homeless. At the same time, thousands of couples in the more advantaged countries of the West have demonstrated their eagerness to offer permanent homes to many of these children through adoption, and have been doing so for more than four decades. .-ks a result of political pressure and rising nationalism, there h been growing hostility to international adoption in many countries, that have pre,Aously been willing to free some of the homeless children for adoption by foreigners. The laws regulating adoption are varied among the "sending" countries and numerous obstacles stand in the way of foreigners who wish to adopt. Aspects of the U.S. Immigration laws pose additional obstacles in the path of adoption of foreign-born children by American citizens. Declarations by the United Nations in recent years and current progress toward the completion of "Convention on Intercountry Adoption" by the Hague Conference on private international law offer some hope for facilitatingthe process of international adoption so that at least some of the children.may be able to find permanent homes: At the same time, modifications of U.S. Immigration laws will also be needed. Elizabeth Bartholet is professor of law at Harvard Law School, and auth of Family Bonds: Adoption and the Politics of