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In a commentary in Politico, John Echohawk, Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund; Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians; and Terry Cross, Executive Director, National Indian Child Welfare Association, discuss today's oral argument in the Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl:

All across this country - but especially in states that are home to multiple Native American Tribes - unethical adoption attorneys are purposely circumventing the federal law that is meant to protect Native American children. Even worse are the continuing attempts by some adoption lawyers to take advantage of active duty service members in the process of being deployed to combat, or in active deployments.

Today's lead story on NPR was also about this case: Adoption Case Brings Rare Family Law Dispute To High Court.

Read the Politico commentary here and listen to the NPR story here.

Oral Argument: April 16, 2013

Court Below: South Carolina Supreme Court

Petitioners, Adoptive Couple, decided to adopt a baby girl from a single mother. After Baby Girl's birth, Adoptive Couple began the official adoption process and Birth Father, a member of the Cherokee Nation, signed a form relinquishing his rights to Baby Girl. Later, however, Birth Father claimed that he did not intend to relinquish his rights and sought to invoke the Indian Child Welfare Act ("ICWA") because Baby Girl is of Indian heritage.

Both the Charleston County Family Court and the Supreme Court of South Carolina held that Birth Father should have custody of Baby Girl.

Adoptive Couple argues that Birth Father does not qualify as a “parent” under the ICWA and, thus, does not have parental rights to stop Baby Girl’s adoption. Furthermore, Adoptive Couple asserts that given the intent of the ICWA and the fact that Baby Girl has no parental relationship to Birth Father or other ties to the Cherokee Nation, the ICWA cannot be applied to oppose her adoption.

Respondents Birth Father and the Cherokee Nation claim that Birth Father does meet the “parent” definition of ICWA because he has proven his biological link to Baby Girl and also acknowledged her as his child. The Supreme Court's decision in this case will have an impact on the adoption process and system for children of Indian heritage, their biological parents, and prospective adoptive parents.

QUESTIONS PRESENTED:

Whether a non-custodial parent can invoke ICWA to block an adoption voluntarily and lawfully initiated by a non-Indian parent under state law.

Whether ICWA defines "parent" in 25 U.S.C. § 1903(9) to include an unwed biological father who has not complied with state law rules to attain legal status as a parent.

Read the entire case preview at the Legal Information Institute here.

A new effort by the Muslim Women's Shura Council aims to address the complex issue of adoption and Islamic law. The Shura Council is a global initiative composed of Muslim women scholars, activists, and specialists dedicated to connecting Islamic principles to strategies for social change. A new white paper and brochure by the Council explores the concerns of Muslims interested in adoption and identifies what it means to serve "the best interest of the child" according to Islamic principles.

Adoption in Islam is complex given the religion's guidelines pertaining to naming and inheritance, and the Council suggests that current misconceptions of adoption as forbidden under Islamic law apply to what is commonly referred to as open adoption. After consulting several Islamic texts and social science data, the Council asserts that when all efforts to place a waiting child with family or kin have been exhausted, open adoption is an acceptable alternative to institutional care. The white paper and brochure point to the many mentions in the Quran emphasizing the importance of taking care of orphans and others in need.

The Council contends that, as long as appropriate ethical guidelines are followed, the six objectives and principles of Shari'ah—the sacredness of life, mind, family, wealth, dignity, and religion—support adoption.

• The Protection and Promotion of Life: Adoption can create a nourishing environment for children, providing the necessities of food, care, and emotional support for healthy development.
• The Protection and Promotion of Mind: Adoption can counteract the experience of neglect and abuse, severe emotional and behavioral issues, and setbacks in cognitive and physical development suffered by many children who grow up in group care.
• The Protection and Promotion of Family: Adoption can provide children with a family model and a sense of family lineage and community.
• The Protection and Promotion of Dignity: Adoption can promote secure attachment, which helps build self-esteem.
• The Protection and Promotion of Wealth: Adoption can help develop children into productive members of society, encouraging them to pursue their professional goals and foster their personal financial stability.
• The Protection and Promotion of Religion: Adoption can encourage spiritual growth.

Adoption and the Care of Children: Islam and the Best Interests of the Child, the brochure, is available here.

In response to troubling issues identified by the Office of the Family and Children’s Ombudsman (OFCO) concerning cases of severe child abuse and neglect of adopted children, Washington state Governor Gregoire requested that Children’s Administration (CA) and OFCO convene a workgroup to examine these issues and make recommendations to improve the adoption process and protect children.

Members of the workgroup represent various professions and organizations including: Children’s Administration; private child placing agencies who conduct domestic and international adoptions; the Office of the Attorney General; the court; public defense attorneys; the Governor’s Office; researchers; and medical professionals.

The workgroup conducted a thorough review of the adoption process with formal presentations discussing the following topics: Case Reviews of Incidents of Severe Abuse of Adopted Children & Common Elements; Legal Framework - International Convention, Federal and State Laws and Regulations Governing Adoptions and Child Placing Agencies; International Adoption Process; Domestic Adoption Process; Foster Care Adoption Process; Adoption Home Studies and Post Placement Reports; Medical Perspective on Child Maltreatment including Starvation; and a Summary of Research on Adoption Attachment and Abuse. Additionally, co-chairs Revels Robinson and Meinig met with representatives from private adoption agencies throughout Washington state.

Contact your Congressional Representative and ask them to Co-Sponsor H.R. 4373!

If Congress does not act the tax credit as we now know it will expire on December 31, 2012.

If the adoption tax credit helped you or someone you know to adopt a child or if it could help you in the future to adopt a child, call your Representative today and urge that he or she cosponsor the bipartisan bill H.R. 4373, the Making Adoption Affordable Act.

Action:

We are contacting you today to urge you to call your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. You can reach your Representative by calling the U.S. Capitol Operator at (202) 225-3121 and asking for your Representative's office. If you don't know your Representative's name, go here and enter your zip code in the box provided.

Message:

• I urge the Representative to become a co-sponsor of the Making Adoption Affordable Act, H.R. 4373.
• If Congress does not act the adoption tax credit as we now know it will expire in December 2012.
• H.R. 4373 is bipartisan and it supports all types of adoptions (domestic private, foster care, and international adoptions).
• This tax credit has made adoption a more viable option for many parents who might not otherwise have been able to afford adoption, allowing them to provide children with loving, permanent families.
• Thank you for your support of H.R. 4373.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to make this important phone call!

If you want to learn more about the adoption tax credit go to http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/.

Also, please “like” the Save the Adoption Tax Credit mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AdoptionTaxCredit

Thanks to the NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children for this information. They are an excellent organization which won one of my very few gold stars way back in 2003!

From the Harvard Political Review:

International adoptions have an illustrious façade, conjuring images of couples saving a hungry, orphaned child and living happily ever. While imagining international adoptions as a corrupt business is abhorrent, connections to child trafficking have recently arisen. Accordingly, the State Department reports that though Americans adopted 22,991 international children in 2004, the implementation of The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption brought about a precipitous drop to 9,319 adoptions in 2011.

Over the past decade, Western investigative journalists led by Scott Carney have published on hidden realities. Despite the illusion that there are more orphans available than parents looking to adopt, there is insatiable demand for children from the developing world, particularly healthy infants.

With this enormous market, many opportunities exist for profit seekers. Promises of astronomical adoption fees motivate orphanages to ensure a steady supply of children. This causes orphanages to resort to drastic measures, even occasionally paying kidnappers directly. According to Carney’s reports in his book The Red Market, the problem is particularly rampant in impoverished Asian countries. Malaysian Social Services, located in Chennai, India, has paid about $236 per child, while China’s Hunan Province hosts institutions that openly purchase children openly for up to $350. Western adoption agencies are not immune from temptation either. Notably, employees of Zoe’s Ark, a French charity, attempted to fly 103 “Sudanese war refugees” from Chad in 2007. Police later determined that most of the children had been taken unwillingly from their families in Chad.

The author, Gina Kim, goes on to discuss the limited utility of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, the persistence of corruption and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. For the full article click here.