Children in Peril: From Haiti's Dubious Adoptions, to the Vatican's Continuing Cover-up I

Marci A Hamilton
Thursday, February 4, 2010
FindLaw,

The plight of children in Haiti has drawn headlines recently – rightly so, for Haiti's children, like all children, deserve our avid concern. But it is important that we also keep in mind the continuing fight to get justice for children who have been mistreated and abused here in the United States.

Thus, in this column, I'll cover both the Haiti situation and new evidence regarding the Vatican's continuing cover-up of clergy sex abuse.

The Questionable Actions of an Adoption Organization in Haiti

A Baptist group's actions in Haiti have recently triggered controversy. The group's website states that they intended "to rescue orphans from Port-au-Prince," but questions have been raised about their intentions and their operation.

At this early stage, a few facts seem apparent: First, the group attempted to take 33 children to the Dominican Republic, though their original intent had been to transport 100. It is not clear what they intended to do with the children after they arrived in the Dominican Republic, but the group was linked to the "New Life Adoption Foundation," which seeks to arrange adoptions for Christian parents who cannot afford to adopt through the ordinary channels.

Second, the group did not go through proper legal channels and, therefore, failed to do minimal due diligence -- which, at the very least, would have revealed to them that some of the children that they had taken were not orphans; rather, these children had parents in Haiti with whom they could, in the future, be reunited as circumstances in Haiti improved.

Third, the essence of the group's defense appears to be that God and their faith led them to Haiti, and that a religious group in Haiti gave them the children. However, Haitian officials appear poised to make them an example of Haiti's intention to protect its children from exploitation of any kind in the midst of its earthquake crisis.

Whether this group is a bunch of bumbling do-gooders or something more nefarious, the facts available thus far suggest that they crossed the line with their apparent disregard of the basic legal principles governing all adoptions, and with their reported failure to look into the children's actual familial relationships. Even if they intended to eventually fix their "paperwork" problems, they reportedly removed the children from Haiti into the Dominican Republican without knowing whether they still had family ties in Haiti -- a decision that violate every principle underlying adoption laws. It would be illuminating to learn whether the New Life Adoption Foundation has gone to other countries before, to secure children for Christian parents without the resources for ordinary adoptions, and if so, precisely how they did so. For this observer at least, it appears that, once again, the interests of children were likely being sacrificed for the interests of religiously-motivated adults.

The good news, though, is that the children were returned to Haiti and are currently under the care of a reputable adoption organization from Austria that has been operating in Haiti for 30 years. The children are getting needed medical care and, where possible, the issue of finding their family members and reuniting them with the children is being addressed. The primary reason that the children are now in a better position is that the Haitian government imposed its law to forestall harm to its children.

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As both of these developments in Haiti and the Vatican reveal, around the world, we have a long way to go in the emerging civil rights movement for children. The first question in each of these scenarios should have been: What is best for the children? Until everyone, including religious organizations, starts making that question the priority, children will be hurt.