Ethics and NOID's

I know that I am going to have special challenges in raising Chloe that I wouldn't neccesarily face if I didn't have an internationally adopted child.

The big talk in Vietnamese adoptionland right now is on ethics. The US embassy in Vietnam has issued several NOIDS to families who are in Vietnam with their children right now. NOID's are Notices of Intent to Deny. What this means is that the Embassy is saying that they think that there might be a reason that the child doesn't meet US orphan guidelines. Therefore, they won't issue a Visa to the child to enter the US. The problem is that Vietnam has already approved the adoption, so the child belongs to the family in Vietnam's eyes. If issued a NOID, the family has the following options:

1) To relinquish the child back to Vietnam, at which point the child would go back to an orphanage.
2) To return to the US without the Child. The child might be placed in private foster care. Once back in the US, hire an attorney to fight the NOID. Who knows how long this process would take...
3) Live in Vietnam or another country abroad for two years at which point the US will issue a Visa.

NOID's can be issued for a variety of reasons. The US might suspect baby trafficing, the birth family might not realize that the child will be adopted abroad, there might be translation mistakes in the paperwork. As you can see, some of the reasons can range from simple typographical errors to illegal activity.

In the end, I don't want to see a baby being put up for adoption that was obtained without the consent of the birth parent(s). So if these NOID's are actually warrented, I am happy that the US is doing something about it. I'm not going to debate whether NOID's are a good thing or not.

What I would like to address are the rumors, accusations, and plain nastiness that is going on in the adoption world.

There are certain agencies that are going issued these NOID's at this point. The embassy issued a statement about the integrity of adoptions in two specific provinces. Does that mean that every adoption out of those provinces have been unethical? No. Does it need to be looked at? Yes?

What I have a problem with are all the people who are not involved in these specific cases preaching about them as though they are fact, and attacking the families involved. Automatically assuming that all these NOID"s are warrented.

It seems to me like the US embassy in Hanoi might be trying to make an example out of these cases. There have been rumors going on surrounding certain agencies for awhile now, but never have any NOIDS been issued. Then all of a sudden, a huge amount of NOID's. Are all of these actually warrented??? I don't know. And really, neither do most of the people out there who are speculating on them.

It's sad to me to think that some of these options are on the up and up, yet there experience might be forever tainted because of a power play. Of course, it's also sad to me that some of these babies might not have been obtained legally. So I don't know what the answer is.

What I do know is that it's awfully strange to me that out of nowhere the embassy seems to have a bunch of questionable cases. And if all the adoptions from a certain agency really were questionable, then why weren't there any questions with prior adoptions???

I am not by any means saying that there aren't unethical agencies operating in Vietnam. And I truly believe that they should be stopped. But I think that these cases should be based on facts and not rumor and/or speculation. I just hate to think of the effect that this has on innocent families and adoptions that might have been done ethically. And I hate to see so many people acting like they know all the facts about these NOID's. More than the families actually involved.

In all honesty, I would not use an agency that was issued a NOID unless I had proof that the NOID was unwarrented. Does that mean I think the agency is currupt?? No, I can't say that. I just know that I wouldn't want to have to go through the ordeal.

See my next post for why this really hits home for me...