Adoption Ethics and Issues

January 31st, 2007
Dutch Television

(Link to Original Story)

This is the story of a 10 year old adopted girl named Eline, who finds her birth parents in China.

The transcription as done by Mirjam follows here.

This story is from 2007 - and the links to it may or may not be dead, you can try but I can’t read Dutch so… here’s the link http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/

Navigate to “Spoorloos”, the interview is third along, the child’s name is Eline.

“Cllick orange button with “bekijk uitzending”(watch broadcast).First part is about Dutch couple adopting second cleft-affected son.Second part is about a Dutch agency (Wereldkinderen) that provides means for Chinese foster-parents who are willing to take up severely handicapped children. Third part: Eline. Starts at 0:27:35. Eline’s A-mother is/was a volunteer at Wereldkinderen (agency) who advertises for funds during the program. Same agency is afraid that more searches will bring hazard to future adoptions from China”.

Here is a translation ( thank you Mirjam ) of the interview:

http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/index.php/aflevering?aflID=3906136

click orange button with “bekijk uitzending” (watch broadcast)

starts at 0:27:35

Background: in church

A church in Noord-Holland (province), a couple of weeks ago. We meet Eline.

Eline is an altar girl and searching for her Chinese parents. For a couple of years now she has been asking her Dutch parents about her roots. Eline was born in the surroundings of Chongqing.

Chongqing ~

Here she was abandoned shortly after her birth. The first months of her life she stayed with a Chinese foster family.

(Continued)

By ELLEN ULLMAN
Published: January 1, 2009

The New York TImes

(Original Story)

I AM not adopted; I have mysterious origins.

I have said that sentence many times in the course of my life as an adopted person. I like it so much I put it into the mouth of a character in the novel I’m writing. The character and I are both fond of the idea. We can think of ourselves as living in the dense pages of 19th-century fiction, where one’s origins — the exact mother and father — are not nearly as important as one’s “circumstances.”

(Continued)