Legal issues

by Harriet Fancott

As the millenium comes to a close, we thought a recap of the most important changes in adoption over that period would be fitting. For simplicity, however, we decided to stick to the last decade.

The Adoption Act: The biggest catalyst for change within the BC adoption community over the last decade came with the new Adoption Act, which was introduced in 1994 and came into force Nov 4, 1996. The 1994 Act replaced the 1957 Act and was hailed as one of the most progressive in North America.

In this discussion paper, I hope to open a door for reflection and discussion within the adoption community, meaning adoption agencies, support services, and adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. It is time to examine our underlying values and biases in adoption, and address how the adoptive system advantages some, while disadvantaging others.

Based on a workshop by Dr. George Annas titled "Ethics in a World Ruled by Law and the Market: Adoption, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and Parenthood," which was part of the Ethics and Adoption Conference held Nov 3 - 5, ‘99 in Anaheim, CA. Dr. Annas is the Professor and Chair of the Health Law Department, Boston University School of Public Health. This is a summary of that workshop.

We were waiting for the call to pick up our child. One day the phone rang. “There’s been a terrible plane accident at Ton Son Nhut airport outside of Saigon. The back doors of a Lockheed C5A transport plane carrying children bound for the US and Canada were not properly secured. About 15 minutes after take-off, the Galaxy reached cruising level and the rear cargo door blew out. The plane smashed down in a rice paddy a short distance from the airport. Several children and their escorts, who were on the lower deck of the plane, have perished.

The permanent ban on adoption from Romania highlights the political nature of international adoption. Romania is a country from which many Canadians adopted throughout the 90s to 2001, when the government brought a moratorium into effect.

The Romanian government has faced pressure from all sides, from countries whose citizens are eager to adopt, and from the European Union (EU), which appears to have political biases against international adoption.

An adoptive family was ordered to give up their 10-month baby girl, adopted at 11 days old, when a birthfather applied for custody of the child. The ruling was later overturned. In light of this case, we have chosed to reprint various clarifications on the legal rights of birth fathers and adoptive families. To put things in perspective, less than one per cent of adoptions are contested by birth fathers.