How do children end up in institutional care?

A comment on our German blog asked this question. This is an important issue, because institutional care is the key decision for a potential adoption. Only an abandoned and parentless child needs new parents. A placement in an orphanage for a period of time is usually seen as evidence that the child was abandoned. There are two arguments that are run by adoption critics on this issue.

The first argument states that adoption in itself leads to the abandonment of children. Because there is the possibility of adoption, parents or relatives are prepared to give up their children in hope of a better life. Fewer children would be abandoned without the option of adoption. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for this claim (apart from a highly controversial study), although the evidence would be not so hard to provide. Many countries do not allow foreign adoptions at all. Are there fewer children in care compared to countries with international adoption? Did the number of abandoned children increase in Ethiopia, since the increase of adoptions? Is this due to adoptions? Does the demand create the supply? We do not know it and are grateful for any reliable evidence. However, we should not forget that UNICEF estimates the number of (semi) orphans in Ethiopia at just under 5 million and the number of adoptions was so far no higher than 5000 in the year. This is less than a thousandth. This is not to gloss over the problems of corruption but merely to point out that there is most likely a real need which is not addressed by removing adoptions altogether.

The second argument is about a different approach towards institutional care in poorer countries. Parents bring their children to orphanages, because they can temporarily not care  for them. Or in order to provide them a better education. This is confirmed in this report on child trafficking in Nepal. It is obvious that these are not adoptable children. Where children have caring parents, they are not orphans or abandoned. As the report makes clear, some orphanages keep children away from their parents, because they receive funding in the case of adoption. This is a criminal offence.

To eliminate corruption and trafficking of children, the process of placing children in institutional care must be carefully documented and documentation must be checked. Direct financial assistance for adoption must be regulated, limited and in the case of institutional care stopped. There must be no financial incentive for abandoning a child, neither for orphanages nor for parents or relatives.

Adoptions may be an individual solution for abandoned children but must never be a reason to abandon children.

First published in German on May 11^th, 2011.