10-06-02

Kansas fertility clinic ends services to single women (Baltimore Sun)
Single women and lesbian couples seeking to get pregnant with help from modern science now have fewer options in the Kansas City area. Citing conflicts with its religious views, Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Overland Park recently stopped offering assisted reproduction services to single women. The hospital joins the growing ranks of private fertility clinics in Kansas and Missouri that for varying ethical and legal reasons have excluded single women from their practice.

Grandparents raising grandchildren (Huntsville Times)
G randparents have raised their grandchildren for generations. Within the last 25 years or so, though, the numbers have risen dramatically, according to national organizations that advocate for seniors. U.S. Census figures show a 53 percent increase between 1990 and 1998 in the number of grandparent-headed households that had neither parent present. As of the 2000 Census count, about 6 million children in the United States lived in households with their grandparents or with relatives other than their parents. Of those children, 2.1 million were being raised solely by grandparents. The 2000 Census was the first to document this trend. It asked if grandparents lived with their grandchildren and if so, if they were responsible for more than half their grandchildren's care.

10-03-02

Florida gets it right (Palm Beach Post)
Under the new rules, which the Florida Supreme Court approved in an Aug. 29 ruling and which took effect Tuesday, "every judges has a duty to expedite priority cases to the extent reasonably possible... Particular attention shall be given to all juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights cases, and to cases involving families and children in need of services." When there are conflicts on a judge's calendar, "juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights cases are generally to be given preference over other cases, except for speedy trial and capital cases."

Long-Term 'Pill' Users Just as Fertile as Others (Reuters)
Women who take birth control pills for at least 5 years are able to conceive just as easily as non-users when trying to get pregnant, new study findings suggest. In fact, former long-term birth control pill users were less likely to experience a delay in conceiving than others, suggesting that this form of contraception may even boost a woman's fertility. Whether or not the Pill increases fertility, users can at least be reassured that their ability to get pregnant will not suffer as a result.

10-02-02

California Governor Vetoes Pro-Homosexual Foster Care Bill (Cybercast News Service)
Conservative family groups are celebrating what one calls "a major victory on behalf of children" - the veto of a California bill that would have injected pro-homosexual policies into the state's foster care system. Calif. Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, quietly vetoed a bill (AB 2651) that would have "encouraged" all foster parents to attend "sensitivity training," to better help them deal with the sexual preferences of the children in their care. Foster parents would have been required to accept and support the homosexuality, bisexuality, or transsexuality of children coming into their homes.

S.A. agency denies that it buys babies (San Antonio Express-News)
As state inspectors reviewed files Tuesday during a surprise office visit, the operators of AAA-Alamo Adoption Agency denied buying babies or targeting pregnant women in Mexico. "We do not buy babies from anyone. We do not solicit clients from Mexico. We cannot work with clients who are not in this country," said Juanita Gray, an agency worker and daughter of co-owner Eleanor Gray.

10-01-02

Florida to stop offering homes to foster children at age 18 (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
A new law enacted by the Florida Legislature, which takes effect today, ends foster care for teenagers on their 18th birthday. Officials at the Department of Children & Families say the young adults will still receive state money, counseling, access to scholarships and mental health and medical services.

Nearly 500 'lost' from LA foster homes (Arizona Republic)
Nearly 500 foster children have disappeared from Los Angeles County's troubled child-welfare system, most of them believed to have been abducted by relatives or guardians, officials disclosed Tuesday. An unprecedented internal study by the Department of Children and Family Services found the nation's largest foster care system -- with some 50,000 youngsters -- was unable to locate 488 of them as of Aug. 30.

09-30-02

20-somethings infertile, too (Arizona Republic)
It's no secret that many women are postponing pregnancy until their 30s and 40s, even though fertility decreases with age. But some women in their 20s would do almost anything to get pregnant - even spend $20,000 at a fertility clinic. Dr. Jay Nemiro, a reproductive endocrinologist who heads the Arizona Center for Fertility Studies in Scottsdale, a top Valley fertility clinic, estimates that 5 to 6 percent of his patients are in their 20s. They come for the reasons some young women have always sought fertility help: They just want to get pregnant.

Disputed Genetic Testing Hits Marker (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
(AP) Scientists gathered Monday to mark a medical milestone - an estimated 1,000 babies born worldwide through a prenatal testing technique that screens eggs even before they are implanted in the womb. It has been used to test eggs and early embryos for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or Down syndrome, and discarding defective ones. But it is increasingly being used to boost chances of successful pregnancies in women in their late 30s who might otherwise never have children, said Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson of Baylor College of Medicine.

09-29-02

Searching for birth families through the click of a button (Seattle Times)
Add adoption searches to the list of things that the Internet has changed. Internet registries, support groups and search engines have sprung up all over the Web, giving a new sense of hope to thousands of adopted Americans searching for their biological families. While people used to hire private investigators or pay publications to post listings, adoptees now have a powerful resource at their fingertips. And it's free.

A 'scarlet letter' is the law in Florida (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Can a woman be compelled by law to publish details of her sex life in the newspaper, including the names of the men she has been intimate with? In Florida she can, if she is offering her child for adoption. The law, intended to give biological fathers a greater say in adoptions, has stirred controversy nationwide. Opponents call it a latter-day "scarlet letter" meant to shame promiscuous women. Even the state senator who championed the measure concedes that it has had unintended results.

09-28-02

Law reforms help boost adoptions by 45 percent (Beacon Journal)
Adoptions have increased 45 percent in Ohio in the years since the state and federal governments started making changes to pair children and parents more quickly. Ohio finalized 2,032 adoptions in 2001, compared with 1,777 the previous year, 1,605 in 1999 and 1,400 in 1998.

Adoption judges gain more say (Sacramento Bee)
A state appellate court has given juvenile judges and referees broad discretion to ignore state approved private adoptions if they determine such a move would not be in the child's best interests. The ruling this week stems from a biological mother's attempt to give up her child to a specific set of adoptive parents, Doug and Kassy Clifford, who had provided foster care to the boy for the first two months of his life. Though the court ruled Sacramento County had no authority to revoke the Cliffords' private adoption, which was approved by the state, it said removing the boy now from his current foster home could be harmful.

09-27-02

Charges Dropped in Baby-Selling Case (Newsday)
(AP) -- Federal prosecutors dropped charges against a woman who allegedly operated a baby-buying business, yielding the investigation to the state. "The U.S. moved to dismiss these charges given that the state is pursuing its charges on the same conduct," Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Herrera said Thursday.

09-26-02

Pill may boost fertility (BBC)
Taking the Pill for a long period may actually improve women's subsequent fertility and not reduce it as had been feared, researchers suggest. The findings from the Children of the 90s study can be seen as reassuring for long-term Pill users, say the researchers.

09-25-02

Boosting adoptions pays off (Washington Times)
The federal government yesterday awarded $17.5 million in bonuses to states that increased their adoptions of children in foster care. Maryland got the second-highest bonus, with $1.5 million. Virginia received the ninth-highest, with $922,000, and the District did not qualify for one. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson praised the 23 bonus-winning states and Puerto Rico for their efforts to increase their foster care adoptions in 2001 over 2000.

Baby-buy warning isn't new (San-Antiono Express-News)
Concerned that San Antonio adoption agencies might be buying babies from Mexican mothers, the governor of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, sounded the alarm to Texas officials more than five years ago.

6 Adoption Petitions Withdrawn (Ann Arbor News)
The six remaining adoption petitions by same-sex couples have been withdrawn for consideration by Washtenaw County Chief Circuit Judge Archie Brown. The move comes a week after Wayne County Circuit Co-Chief Judge Timothy Kenny ruled that he would not disqualify Brown from hearing second-parent adoption cases.

The gift of a lifetime: Infertile couples aided by donated embryos (Seattle Times)
In the past year, embryo donation has become a contentious issue at the crossroads of revolutionary research and abortion politics. Most recently it gained momentum with a $1 million federal program to promote the practice. Opponents of abortion rights have touted embryo donation as a better use of embryos than embryonic stem-cell research, in which embryos are destroyed. President Bush cited the babies born through such donations last year when he set limits on funding of embryonic stem-cell work.

09-24-02

Finding Answers Close to Home (Newsday)
Institutional foster care costs have spiraled upward at an alarming rate over the past few years, particularly in Suffolk, where the costs are expected to top $50 million next year. The problem prompted the county in January to convene a task force of social service and probation officials, Family Court and county budget officers. It has made recommendations, which are expected to be made public at the end of the month. At the core is developing community-based services to keep children out of institutions.

Calif. Adopts Family Leave (Washington Post)
Gov. Gray Davis (D) today signed broad family leave legislation into law, making California the first state in the nation to require paid time off for workers who want to stay home with a new child or care for a sick relative. Nearly 13 million of the state's 16 million workers will be eligible for the leave, which allows employees to be away from work for six weeks at about half-salary. The program will be funded entirely by employee payroll deductions averaging $27 a year.

Updating 'the talk' (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
New fertility techniques and embryo adoption complicate the age-old discussion of the birds and the bees.

09-23-02

Infertility linked to mercury in seafood (BBC)
Raised levels of mercury in the blood, from high seafood consumption, are linked to infertility, researchers have found. The study was carried out in Hong Kong, where people eat a large amount of seafood, and where seas have high levels of pollution.

Aids orphans 'to double' (BBC)
The number of children orphaned by Aids will almost double to 25m by the end of the decade, experts predict. A report compiled by aid agencies, presented to the International Aids Conference in Barcelona, said extended families often fail to cope, and many children are forced to live on the street.

09-19-02

Federal Audit: DCF Failing (Hartford Courant)
A federal audit of Connecticut's child-protection system shows the state still lags far behind national standards in finding permanent homes for children in foster care despite some recent successes. Connecticut's failure to finalize adoptions or pursue other placement options for abused and neglected children was the most significant concern raised by auditors with the U.S. Administration for Children and Families who visited the state last April.

09-18-02

More Evidence That Smoking Harms Men's Fertility (Reuters)
Men with fertility problems who smoke should kick the habit if they want to become dads, according to researchers. Researchers found that infertile men who smoked had signs of oxidative damage in their semen, which is known to reduce fertility.

Momma vs. Mommy in court (Rocky Mountain News)
Does a woman who raised a child with another woman deserve equal custody rights when the lesbian couple breaks up? That's the question at the heart of a parental-rights battle pending before the Colorado Court of Appeals - a Momma vs. Mommy case. Depending on how the appellate court rules, it could set in place how the rights of "psychological parents" and legal parents are determined.

Judge to hear adoption cases (Ann Arbor News)
Washtenaw County Chief Circuit Judge Archie Brown will continue to hear cases involving adoption by same-sex couples now that a Wayne County judge denied a request Tuesday to disqualify Brown. TImothy M. Kenny, co-chief judge of Wayne County Circuit Court, ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan's claims that Brown was biased against second-parent adoptions were without merit.

Study finds DCF lacks plan to get kids out of crisis (Miami Herald)
For four out of five children in Florida's troubled child-welfare system, the Department of Children & Families has lurched from crisis to crisis, failing to develop a long-term plan for providing a safe, stable and permanent home, a recent study suggests. The study, conducted by Paul Vincent, the former chief of Alabama's child-welfare department and head of the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, evaluated child safety and system performance in eight of the state's 15 DCF districts, including Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

09-17-02

'Adoption' of frozen embryos a loaded term (CNN)
The estimates are striking: over 200,000 embryos are left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts to help couples have children. The unused embryos are frozen in labs all over the United States, waiting for a decision about what will be done with them.

Texas adoption agency accused of running baby ring (Arizona Republic)
A South Texas adoption agency is under investigation and one of its workers is behind bars in what authorities described as an international baby-selling scheme that preyed on perhaps hundreds of pregnant young women from Mexico.

Vietnam adoption nightmares (St. Petersburg Times)
The Times interviewed 10 families who had bad experiences adopting in Vietnam, as well as 10 who had positive experiences with Tedi Bear Adoptions. The troubled adoptions all involve Mai-Ly LaTrace, a 29-year old Vietnamese-American woman who is a "facilitator," arranging adoptions in Vietnam.

Grandparents sacrifice golden years to again raise kids
Grandparents like Smith raised their own children and now face giving up a relaxed retirement to raise yet another generation. They fulfill the role of parents, providing food, clothing and shelter. Some have to work longer to cover the bills, some use public assistance, and others dip into their retirement funds.

09-12-02

Infertile Indians Favor IVF Over Adoption, Despite Huge Population
Infertile Indian couples are being urged to consider adoption rather than expensive in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, but the appeal faces an uphill struggle in the face of social and religious pressures.

09-10-02

South Africa Allows Gay Adoption (Newsday)
(AP) Gay couples have the right to adopt children and laws that prevent them from doing so violate their constitutional rights, South Africa's highest court ruled Tuesday. The Constitutional Court found that people in permanent same-sex partnerships could provide children with the stability, support and affection they needed.

B.C. has failed aboriginal kids: premier (Vancouver Sun)
British Columbia has systematically failed aboriginal children, Premier Gordon Campbell said Monday as he announced "a historic plan" to reduce the number of native youths in foster care. "Over the last 200 years, in so many cases, so many times, we have failed aboriginal children in B.C.," Campbell said. "The old system simply did not work. It didn't provide for the support, for the love, for the sense of community that was so critical to any young person."

09-09-02

Mothers scammed by Web impostor (Chicago Tribune)
"How could anyone be so cruel?" That question torments a dozen women from Arizona to New Jersey--and maybe many more. Each was using the Internet to search for a daughter she reluctantly gave up for adoption years ago. Each received e-mails from a woman posing as her long-lost daughter. And each was hurt when she opened her heart to the mystery woman. The "daughter" who called them Mom, e-mailed photographs showing a family resemblance, and had such a sweet voice began to manipulate them with tales of woe, playing on their deepest maternal regrets, guilt and fears--and then vanished into cyberspace.

09-08-02

She rode the orphan train into history (Chicago Daily Herald)
In 1915, Macior, then a 2-year-old with a brown pageboy haircut and clad in a white smock, was sent to Illinois on a train filled with orphans -- each of them tagged with their name, their age and the address of their future parents. The train that brought Macior to Chicago was one of the so-called "orphan trains" -- an ambitious rescue effort organized in the mid-1800s by Charles Loring Brace, an idealistic young minister whose attempt to find healthy homes for New York City's street children was a precursor to today's foster care system.

Feds, state face off over foster care (Contra Costa Times)
More than $100 million designated for relatives who care for California's foster children is in danger of being withheld during the next year while California's Department of Social Services and a federal regulatory agency wage a fierce battle over standards. At issue is a 2-year-old federal requirement that relatives caring for foster children be screened and approved using the same criteria as is used to license nonrelative foster homes.

Grandparents find parent role tough (Contra Costa Times)
More than 50,000 grandparents in the Bay Area are raising their grandchildren, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's first count of a crucial but overlooked group of the nation's caregivers. Across California, almost 1 million grandparents are living with their grandchildren in either extended-family households or alone. Of those, about one in three are primarily responsible for the children's care.

09-07-02

Court Weighs Custody Tangle (Salt Lake Tribune)
Do Utah juvenile court judges have the right to sever the rights of parents in another state whose children have been abandoned here, as is the case with E.W, who has been separated from his parents since 1995 when they went to prison. In two hours of arguments before the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys raised many other questions dealing with rights of the birth parents vs. rights of the boy and which state, if any, has jurisdiction to sever the parents' rights.

Settlement near in foster care suit (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
A nearly 10-year-old lawsuit that accuses the foster care system in Milwaukee County of routinely failing to protect children in its care would be settled under a proposed deal disclosed Friday.

09-05-02

Researchers Study Healthy Sperm (Newsday)
(AP) Researchers have determined the genetic fingerprint of healthy human sperm -- an advance that could be a major step forward in understanding male infertility. The discovery could also lead to new types of male contraceptives.

09-04-02

Relative child-care program runs low on funds (Delaware News Journal)
A new state program to help grandparents and other people raising their relatives' children could run out of money by early next year, a state official said. The Kinship Care Program has handed out $14,000 in vouchers for cribs, high chairs, baby carriers and other child-care items since June, leaving $36,000 to cover the next nine months, said Jan Rheingold, director of the state Division of State Service Centers.

Romania Plans to Close Orphanages (Newsday)
(AP) More than 30 of Romania's state-run orphanages, which gripped the world with images of squalor and misery in the 1990s, will be closed or restructured by year's end. Gabriela Coman, head of Romania's office for child welfare, said Wednesday the government plans to close or restructure 34 large orphanages, part of a wider reform of the system. Children in those homes will be put in foster homes and other family-style homes.

09-03-02

Children In Peril (Washington Post)
The failure of child protection has become a national scandal. In Florida, the director of the Department of Children and Families resigned after months of institutional embarrassment initiated by a missing 5-year-old foster child who has yet to be located. Not only were Florida child welfare workers found derelict in their duties but three children have died under agency supervision during the past four months.

09-02-02

DCF sees more stability in state child care (Newsday)
The number of children in state care has dropped 18 percent in the last three years and the percentage of children "bounced" between homes was cut by two-thirds in that time, the state Department of Children and Families reported. A recent DCF report states that two main factors are responsible for the drop: the number of children leaving state care for adoption or guardianship has risen sharply; and the number of children found to have been abused or neglected has fallen 45.8 percent in the last five years.

09-01-02

Focus falls on Native kids (Anchorage Daily News)
A growing problem of high numbers of Alaska Native children taken from their parents because of abuse or neglect is drawing new attention and new solutions. Alaska Native children are more than five times as likely as white children to be taken from their parents because of concerns about dangerous home situations, according to a new analysis by Casey Family Programs, a national child welfare organization.

08-30-02

State loses track of 302 abused or neglected kids (Detroit Free Press)
Prentiss is just one of 189 abused and neglected children from Wayne County -- and a total of 302 statewide -- whom the state has lost track of, according to the Michigan Family Independence Agency.

Tennessee children's welfare flunks HHS test (Go Memphis)
Tennessee's Children's Services system - like those of all 27 states evaluated by federal officials - still doesn't do enough to protect children from abuse and neglect, reunite families or find stable, permanent homes for troubled kids, a federal report concluded Thursday.

08-29-02

Court: Mother gives up rights to children after adoption (Chicago Tribune)
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mother's attempts to get her parental rights restored ended when her children were adopted by someone else.

Orphans a tiny hint of Africa's AIDS apocalypse (Chicago Tribune)
One in 4 South Africans is infected with the AIDS virus, and 1 in 9 has developed AIDS. The disease has created nearly 11 million orphans across the continent, and the United Nations estimates that a quarter of Africa's workforce will die of AIDS by 2020. Life expectancy has plunged to just over 40 years in a growing number of southern African countries, poverty is deepening, and places such as Ingwavuma find themselves fighting not for sustainable development but for preventing wholesale social and economic collapse.

Study: More in vitro fertilization done in states requiring insurance coverage (Newsday)
Infertile couples in states where health insurers must cover in vitro fertilization were nearly three times more likely to try the costly, complex procedure than those in states with no such law, researchers found. States where IVF coverage is required also had slightly lower rates of risky multiple births, a common result of fertility treatments that can endanger the mother and babies and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just for initial medical care.

08-27-02

Officials Weigh law change to help find kids (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Anxious to use every tool available to find missing children, state legislators say they will propose a law to allow Florida’s child welfare agency to publicize youths missing from state care.

'Small' risk from fertility technique (BBC)
Scientists say a popular method of overcoming male infertility carries a higher chance of birth defects. However, a major analysis of research into the safety of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)has found that the risk is small.

Embryo gene test 'cuts miscarriages' (BBC)
Women who suffer repeated unexplained miscarriages can be helped to have babies by the use of genetic analysis, say experts. Researchers say the problem could be addressed by simply analysing the genetic make-up of embryos before they are placed in the womb - a technique known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

08-26-02

Missed conception (Arizona Republic)
Technology can create life in a petri dish, allow postmenopausal women to experience birth and give parents the ability to select the sex of their child. All amazing feats, yet science still can't do one thing: It can't make a woman's eggs young again. So when recent news stories issued warnings about declining fertility rates to women in their 30s following a study by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Robin Roberts was relieved to see attention shifting from technological feats to biological reality.

Private agencies find troubled kids homes (Beacon Journal)
The teen boys accused of beating a 4-year-old girl to death earlier this month were placed in their Akron foster home by one of Ohio's largest private organizations. Summit and Cuyahoga counties' children services agencies paid Ohio Youth Advocate Program to find homes for 13-year-old Diarice Fitzgerald and 14-year-old Jai Chandler.

08-25-02

AIDS Scourge in Rural China Leaves Villages of Orphans (NY Times)
AIDS is creating an explosion of destitute orphans here in China's rural heartland and is driving large numbers of families into such dire poverty that they can no longer afford to feed or clothe, much less educate, their children.

DNA damage in infertile men's sperm (BBC)
The sperm of infertile men may look and behave normally, but have hidden genetic damage that could stop them producing a child. Approximately half of all infertility is thought to be due to problems on the man's side.

08-24-02

Access to welfare files is elusive goal (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
After millions spent, Georgia no closer to building computer system to help track abused and neglected children.

Pennsylvania court allows same-sex adoptions (CNN)
In a 6-0 decision Tuesday with one justice abstaining, the court found that one partner in a gay or lesbian relationship can adopt a child without forcing the other partner to give up parental rights. Previously, the parent would have had to give up rights to the child in order for the adoption to proceed. The decision means children in gay and lesbian families could now qualify for health insurance, inheritances and other benefits from the adoptive parent.

08-23-02

Foster parents won't see cuts (San Antonio Express-News)
The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services will not change the state's payments to foster parents, its board decided Thursday. The agency will keep looking for outside funding to balance a projected $69 million budget shortfall in the state's foster care system.

08-22-02

We need some breakthroughs in caring for children (Boston Globe)
When presidential commissions, congressional committees, and journalists elicit information from experts about the implications of wondrous new ways by which we might create children, they should also include experts on foster care in the conversation, so Americans can gain a full understanding of the context in which we - as individuals and as a nation - plot our future.

A Tale of Two Families (ABC)
After Bob and Susanne Gray had one child with the help of fertility drugs and then twins by in vitro fertilization, they were amazed when Susanne became pregnant with a fourth child - by an old-fashioned accident.

Dads deserve to know (Washington Times)
A new Florida statute requires that mothers who seek to put their children up for adoption must first make a substantial effort to notify their children's fathers. To those who believe that fathers should have the right to be an integral part of their children's lives, this is a reasonable law. Yet to the National Organization for Women (NOW) it is an "outrage." And to Jeanne Tate, executive vice president of the Florida Association of Adoption Professionals (FAAP), the statute's requirements are "horrible," "degrading" and "reminiscent of 'The Scarlet Letter.' "

Review finds Florida-style lapses in Maryland child care (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
The Maryland state agency responsible for 12,000 orphaned, abused and neglected children has lost track of some children for months, failed to ensure proper health care and in one case, entrusted a foster child to a sexual offender, a comprehensive review by the state's Office of Legislative Audits has concluded. The review reported "significant concerns" about Maryland's Social Services Administration and found numerous instances of neglect on the part of the state's social workers. In almost half of 163 cases randomly chosen for inspection, caseworkers' files showed that they had lost contact with the children and their caregivers for anywhere from two to 16 months.

State cuts private foster care funds (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Private agencies that monitor the well-being of about 1,600 foster children in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas were informed Wednesday that their funding will be cut by a fourth this fall because of state budget cuts. Critics of the plan say it will mean many foster children will once again be served by overworked state employees, who have less time to check on the quality of foster homes and help kids find adoptive families.

Questions surround tragic adoption (Boston Globe)
When a 2-year-old boy died last week of a blow to the head and his adoptive mother was charged in his death, the North Carolina adoption center that brought the Russian child to the United States insisted that both parents had been subject to extensive background checks. But, despite numerous calls from reporters over the past week, the agency has not explained how a restraining order filed by Natalia Higier in 1995 to protect herself from her husband Louis apparently was overlooked during baby Zachary's 2001 adoption process.

08-21-02

Freeze Now, Conceive Later (CBS)
In an effort to increase their chances of getting pregnant later in life, some women are planning on freezing their eggs now and putting them in the country's first commercial egg bank.

Transplanted Mouse Womb Bears Fruit, Swedes Say (Reuters)
Mice with transplanted wombs have successfully carried pregnancies to term and produced healthy offspring, Swedish scientists reported on Wednesday. The research raises hopes that women who have had a hysterectomy or other uterus problems could one day carry their own child in a transplanted womb, although experts cautioned there were hurdles to overcome before that became a reality.

Adoptee's journey is bittersweet (Chicago Tribune)
When Katy Robinson was 7 years old, her mother and grandmother took her to the airport in Seoul and put her on a plane bound for America. The only piece of evidence Robinson had to remember her family was a Polaroid snapshot taken of the three of them together at the airport--a single square picture. This photo graces the cover of Robinson's new memoir, "A Single Square Picture" (Berkley Books, $14). Her book is the story of Robinson's childhood in Salt Lake City and, after she becomes an adult, her journey back to Korea to find her birth family.

Ovary tissue breakthrough (BBC)
A 29-year-old US woman has had her ovarian tissue removed and reimplanted in what is claimed to be the first operation in the world of its kind. If successful, the surgery could help thousands of women whose fertility is threatened by chemotherapy.

08-15-02

Adoption advocates want applicants' `morals' considered (Newsday)
New Jersey's largest adoption advocacy group wants state lawmakers to toughen the regulation of adoption agencies. State Sen. Joseph Palaia, R-Monmouth, said he plans to introduce legislation that would require licensing officials to consider the moral character of applicants who want to operate adoption agencies. Palaia cited reports last week by The Star-Ledger of Newark that DYFS repeatedly licensed a Somerset County adoption agency whose founder, David Bentley, had spent the previous three years operating hard-core pornographic Internet sites.

No Easy Fix for Florida's Troubled Child Welfare System (Washington Post)
The outsize problem of fixing Florida's sprawling and deeply troubled child welfare system persists and, according to many child advocates, is growing by the day, making it a touchstone issue in the governor's election this fall. The depth of the system's problems were highlighted this week by the resignation of Kathleen A. Kearney, a former judge whom Bush had selected to head Florida's Department of Children and Families.

08-14-02

Police seek possible victims of alleged adoption scam (Asbury Park Press)
A Lacey woman was arrested yesterday and charged with two counts of theft by deception in a what police called a plan to string along two couples. Police would like to hear from any childless couples who may have answered a classified advertisement for a baby up for adoption -- and may have been duped by the child's natural mother.

Virginia allows lesbian to adopt in D.C. (Planet Out)
The state of Virginia has agreed to let an Arlington lesbian adopt a child from the Washington, D.C., foster care system, and to clarify its policies on out-of-state adoptions. The agreement, announced on Wednesday, settles a lawsuit filed on behalf of Linda Kaufman by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Surrogates for Sperm (Arizona Central)
In a first with implications for infertile men, scientists have grafted testicles from three different mammals onto mice, then fertilized rodent eggs with the resulting sperm. The feat, reported in this week's Nature, should apply to all mammals, the researchers say. As a result, it could one day help young men reproduce even after they've been rendered infertile by cancer or other causes. It also has implications for the preservation of endangered species and prized livestock, the study points out.

Forgetting children we've already created (Baltimore Sun)
When presidential commissions, congressional committees and journalists elicit information from experts about the implications of wondrous new ways by which we may create children, for example, they should also include experts on foster care in the conversation so that Americans can gain a full understanding of the context in which we -- as individuals and as a nation -- plot our future.

Foster care, adoption stats grim (Clarion-Ledger)
Because of grim statistics showing African-American children are the most abused and neglected, and because in Mississippi they represent a majority of those in foster care and seeking adoption, legislation must be crafted to address a community of children in crisis, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said Tuesday.

Embattled DCF chief resigns (Orlando Sentinel)
Gov. Jeb Bush, gearing up his re-election campaign, has jettisoned a political liability with Kathleen Kearney's sudden resignation Tuesday as secretary of Florida's embattled Department of Children & Families.

Infertile Men May Have Damaged Sperm, Study Shows (Reuters)
Infertile men who have normal-looking sperm may in fact have unseen DNA damage that can not only interfere with their attempts to conceive a child but could affect the child's future health, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

08-13-02

Critics Target Florida Adoption Law (Newsday)
"There's no comparable law in any other state and it's really hard to imagine how a legislature could pass such a law if they thought about it," said Bob Tuke, president of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. "It treats women like chattel."

Requirements of Florida Adoption Law (Newsday)
(AP) Here are some requirements of the Florida law that aims to prevent complications in adoptions:

Caucus eyes African-American representation in child welfare (Clarion-Ledger)
The Congressional Black Caucus will hold one of five national hearings in Greenwood today to determine why African-American children are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system. What prompted the hearings, 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said, are 1999 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics showing African-American children represent 26 percent of abuse victims, 39 percent of those in foster care and 42 percent of those waiting to be adopted.

08-12-02

US baby smugglers jailed (BBC)
Three people have been sentenced to prison in New York City for operating a baby-smuggling ring which involved charging would-be parents ten of thousands of dollars for adoptions. The three smuggled at least 23 Mexican babies into the United States over the course of several years. They received prison terms of up to two and a half years.

Revise adoption law, Senate sponsor says (Miami Herald)
Besieged by complaints from Florida and around the country, state Sen. Walter ''Skip'' Campbell, D-Tamarac, is asking for a revision to a law -- one that he sponsored -- that requires women who put a child up for adoption to take out an ad stating the names of all persons who could be the father.

Try and Try Again (Los Angeles Times)
More couples are refusing to give up on protracted fertility treatments despite slim chances of success

08-08-02

Slow but Steady Progress on Adoption (The Wall Street Journal)
Commentary on recent Adoption Attitudes Survey.

Foreign Adoptees Have Higher Mental Risk -Study (Reuters)
Children adopted from foreign countries have a higher risk of suffering mental health problems in adolescence and early adulthood, Swedish researchers said on Friday.

State tells adoption agency to close (Star-Ledger)
New Jersey regulators yesterday ordered a controversial Somerset County adoption agency to close, finding that the one-time Internet pornographer who founded the agency was unqualified to arrange adoptions.

08-07-02

Women who put babies up for adoption required to publish sexual pasts (Sun-Sentinel)
One is a woman who was slipped a date-rape drug. Another is a teenage girl who had sex with numerous classmates. A third traded her body for drugs. All three women want to put their babies up for adoption and don't know who the fathers are. But each is hesitant to go through adoption proceedings for the same reason: They fear a new law will require them to detail their sexual pasts in local newspapers.

Women Challenge Fla. Adoption Law (Newsday)
(AP) A handful of women are challenging a Florida law that requires mothers who don't know who fathered their children to detail their sexual past in newspaper notices before they can put the children up for adoption.

08-06-02

Web site eases adoptions (Arizona Central)
(USA Today) The nation's largest Internet adoption site - www.adoptuskids.org - was launched recently with photos and descriptions of about 3,000 children who desperately need parents. The children on the site, awaiting adoption through public agencies, are not much-desired healthy infants. Most are school-age and have disabilities, physical, emotional or intellectual. Some are part of sibling groups to be adopted together. Many are ethnic or racial minorities.

08-05-02

New test shows promise in weeding out bad sperm (Houston Chronicle)
(AP) A new method that allows fertility doctors to select genetically healthy sperm raises the possibility that they will soon be able to routinely pick good sperm, giving them a better chance of success in creating test-tube babies. Chromosome defects in sperm are more common in infertile men, but are hard to identify. Most fertility clinics select which sperm to inject into the egg by checking their shape and the way they move.

Artificial Insemination Can Work in Older Women (Reuters)
Although more likely to be successful in younger women, artificial insemination is less pricey than other fertility treatments and can work for some women over 40, according to researchers. Their study found that a similar percentage of women 40 to 42 years old became pregnant and delivered babies after undergoing intrauterine insemination (IUI), compared with women in their late 30s.

Donor sperm quality varies within, between banks (Reuters Health)
Despite guidelines for screening donors and freezing samples, the quality of sperm within a single sperm bank can vary substantially, researchers report. The findings suggest that a large proportion of donor sperm may be of poor quality and thus undermine a woman's attempts to get pregnant.

08-04-02

Freezing ova offers fertility options (Contra Costa Times)
Infertility experts have helped a woman become pregnant through a new way of freezing human eggs, avoiding the ethical baggage that goes with freezing and banking embryos. The new technique could offer an option to couples who, for religious or moral reasons, won't do in vitro fertilization because they don't want to risk creating excess embryos.

From 'perverted' Web sites to child adoption (Star-Ledger)
David Bentley was 23, single and living with his mother in Somerset County when he asked New Jersey for permission to start an international adoption agency two years ago. Bentley had no related education or training, and his primary business experience came in a field far removed from the world of hopeful parents and needy orphans: He designed, maintained and hosted hard-core pornographic Web sites.

Adopt, Then Adapt (Los Angeles Times)
Trans-racial families face unique challenges of prejudice and identity. In 2001, about 30% of an estimated 50,000 adoptions from foster care involved at least one parent whose race is different from that of the child, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Trans-racial adoption has increased steadily in the last five years, largely as a result of federal legislation to get children out of foster care, but it remains a hot-button issue. This is particularly true when the parents are white and the children are black, reflecting, perhaps, lingering racial tensions in American society at large.

08-02-02

8 get prison terms for child-selling in Vietnam (Orange County Register)
A court handed down prison sentences of as many as 12 years for eight people convicted of selling children to foreigners for adoption, official media reported Thursday. The police investigation said the ring acquired 39 children from 1996-98 from unwed mothers and poor families.

08-01-02

Adoption doctor found guilty (Budapest Sun)
Prominent Hungarian geneticist Dr Endre Czeizel was found guilty in Budapest Metropolitan Court last week of four counts of being an accessory in a trans-Atlantic infant adoption scheme in violation of Hungary's Family Act.

07-31-02

Canada's troubled native children (BBC)
The case of the prime minister's son . . . illustrates many of the long-standing troubles of Canada's native population, sometimes called first nations. But, native activists say, it also illustrates the problems Canada's federal and provincial governments have created with some of their efforts to help. In the 1960s and 70s, child welfare agencies were quick to remove native children and place them with white, middle-class families, sometimes far from native communities.

Scientists grow mice eggs outside the body (Arizona Central)
(Reuters) In an achievement that may one day help young cancer patients become mothers, Japanese scientists have grown immature mice eggs in the laboratory and used them to create healthy animals. If the results can be duplicated in larger animals and humans, which is still a long way off, ovaries from young girls diagnosed with cancer could be removed before they undergo cancer treatment to preserve their fertility and create babies through in-vitro fertilization.

Sperm and eggs: the legal background (BBC)
Following a ruling which allows women to use their frozen eggs for IVF, BBC News Online examines exactly what you can and cannot do under the law.

Frozen egg ban lifted (BBC)
A decision to lift the ban on using frozen human eggs could help thousands of women - including those delaying motherhood for career reasons. The clinic which has won the right to thaw and use the eggs for IVF already holds eggs from 10 women who have chosen to freeze them for "social" purposes. However, most of those likely to benefit immediately have stored eggs before undergoing cancer treatment likely to make them sterile.

July 30, 2002

Foreign adoption can be hazardous (USA Today)
Adoption is never easy, but with international adoption, parents also tiptoe outside the U.S. legal system. Agencies may charge exorbitant rates and are largely unaccountable for complications.

July 29, 2002

Jalisco gov't accused of supporting illegal adoptions (The News Mexico)
An advocacy group announced over the weekend it began the process of filing a complaint against the federal government and the state of Jalisco before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for permitting illegal adoptions. The president of the Stolen and Disappeared Children of Mexico Foundation, Juan Manuel Estrada, said over the last five years, more than 80 minors were handed over by Jalisco officials to foreign families in adoptions plagued by irregularities. Estrada claims in many cases, children were stolen from poor families to be given in adoption.

July 27, 2002

Milwaukee fertility experts may expand options for childbearing (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Milwaukee infertility experts have helped a woman become pregnant through a new way of freezing human eggs, avoiding the ethical baggage that goes with freezing and banking embryos. The new technique could offer an option to couples who, for religious or moral reasons, won't do in vitro fertilization because they don't want to risk creating excess embryos. Freezing eggs allows a couple to thaw and fertilize only what they need for each pregnancy attempt.

July 26, 2002

UK Children Of Sperm Donors Win Court Victory (Cybercast News Service)
The children of sperm donors have the right to obtain more information about their fathers, Britain's High Court ruled Friday. Although the court did not overturn a law that forbids revealing the name of sperm donors to offspring without the father's consent, the case could mark the end of completely anonymous sperm donation in Britain. Currently, British offspring of sperm donors can only receive limited physical information about their fathers - such as height, hair colour and race - and can only access such information after turning 18.

A Loving Home (ABC News)
Adoptions Are on the Rise, But African and African-American Children Still Desperately Seek a U.S. Home

July 25, 2002

Raising children - again (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Number of grandparents raising grandkids in region exceeds state, national average

Woman carries human clone, group says (Boston Globe)
A fringe religious movement's South Korea-based scientific team yesterday said they had implanted a cloned human embryo in a woman, the latest of a string of similar uncomfirmed experiments to emerge from the underground field of human cloning.

July 23, 2002

Life by life, an orphanage reassembled (Providence Journal)
At least a dozen former residents of the old State Home and School for Children return as part of a research project.

White House Launches Adoption Push (CBS News)
(AP) Actor Bruce Willis and the White House are teaming up to recruit more people to adopt the tens of thousands of often older, emotionally bruised children languishing in foster care.

July 22, 2002

Police target Malaysia baby snatchers (BBC)
Malaysian and Indonesian police are discussing ways to tackle the trade in babies sold on the black market. Poor Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia are often the target for what the authorities say is a growing problem. The trade has fallen into the clutches of gangs who lure pregnant women into selling their babies to childless Malaysian couples who find the black market easier and faster than formal adoption.

Vietnam Tightens Adoption Controls (The Guardian Unlimited)
(AP) Vietnam has introduced a new decree which tightens controls over foreign adoptions of Vietnamese children in an attempt to halt fraud and child trafficking, an official said Monday. Under the new decree, which takes effect from January 2, all adoptions must be approved by a special foreign adoption agency in the Ministry of Justice, the ministry official said. Children may be adopted only by foreigners from countries that have bilateral adoption agreements with Vietnam, she said.

July 19, 2002

2.4 million grandparents reported raising grandkids (Houston Chronicle)
(AP) With Michael's parents out of his life, the 59-year-old Owens has joined the more than 2.4 million grandparents found by the 2000 census to be primary caregivers to a grandchild. The closest the census had come in the past to addressing this issue was to estimate the percentage of children under 18 living in a grandparent-headed home. That was 6.3 percent in 2000, compared with 5.5 percent in 1990, 3.6 percent in 1980 and 3.2 percent in 1970.

July 18, 2002

A Foster-Care Tragedy Worthy of Dickens (LA Times)
Los Angeles has a foster-care system driven by what is available, not what is needed. Children receive too few services too late. Thousands are shuttled to ineffective and expensive institutional care. They are poorly monitored, with no consistent, individualized care. Not surprisingly, many deteriorate in county care, populating our jails, homeless shelters and mental wards after they "age out" of a failed system. Many never overcome the effects of the abuse or neglect they have suffered. This is not a problem that can be solved simply by changing the person at the top, as L.A. County has done twice in recent years. It requires a philosophical change at all levels--from a system based on what services are available to a system based on earlier intervention and individualized needs.

Parents sue after discovering adopted children had been abused (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
When they adopted the three boys in July 1998 — four months after first meeting them — the couple said they were given a packet of information and told by the Department of Children & Families that the children had mild to moderate behavioral problems stemming from physical and sexual abuse. But the abuse was downplayed and they never mentioned what happened at the Rosa foster home. The couple, who filed suit against the department on Wednesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, eventually learned the boys were severely sexually and physically abused by the biological family, were known to act out sexually against each other and other children; and were bounced from foster home to foster home — one where punishment included being caged in a chicken coop.

July 17, 2002

To tell or not to tell (Chicago Tribune)
When kids are conceived through donation, do they need to know? More parents are having to answer the question.

July 15, 2002

ADOPTION (The Oregonian)
Comprehensive national data are difficult to compile because adoption is not reliably documented. Following are widely used estimates: More than 120,000 children are adopted each year in the United States.

Is Florida Bad for Kids? (Time)
Another tragedy — the killing of a 2-year-old — stokes the furor over the state's broken child-welfare system

Foster parents' dilemma (Orlando Sentinel)
Among the biggest problems is that a disproportionate number of foster children suffer from severe health and emotional problems, but DCF does little to prepare most foster parents to deal with them, according to two studies by the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida.

July 14, 2002

DCF's 'take-the-kids-and-run' policy is at the heart of the problem (Orlando Sentinel)
What these cases have in common is the fact that there are a wide variety of proven programs that can keep these children in their own homes and do it with a far better track record for safety than foster care. But as we see it, DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney's answer to every child welfare problem comes down to "take the child and run."

Court Rules That Ontario Must Recognize Same-Sex Marriages (NY Times)
A provincial court has ruled that the Ontario government is obliged to recognize the right of gays and lesbians to marry people of their own gender, a decision that was hailed by gay rights advocates as a major legal victory that would have national consequences. The 3-to-0 ruling by the Superior Court on Friday came in response to a lawsuit filed by a lesbian couple and a gay male couple to compel the provincial government to register their marriage ceremonies as legally binding.

For 'Women Who Waited,' writers ask: Why not adopt? (Seattle Times)
"Women Who Waited" featured essays by seven women who delayed starting a family. The essays were written after we asked readers to respond to the national conversation about having babies after 35 and an awareness campaign reminding women that their fertility declines as they age. We heard from a first-time mother at 46, a woman who was at peace with her infertility, etc.

July 11, 2002

The future of fertility (BBC)
Experts have gathered to debate the latest advances in reproductive medicine at the annual conference of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.

By 2010, AIDS May Leave 20 Million African Orphans (NY Times)
AIDS will leave 20 million children in Africa without one or both parents by 2010, the 14th International AIDS Conference was told here today. That is nearly double the current number, 11 million. The report, which assumes that treatment will not be made widely available soon, also said that by 2010, AIDS will have orphaned five million children elsewhere in the world.

July 9, 2002

21 legislators defend ban on gay adoption (Orlando Sentinel)
A group of Florida legislators defends the state's ban on gay adoptions as "the best interest of children" in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Monday with a federal appeals court. The 25-year-old law "is not unconstitutional merely because self-styled 'child welfare experts' think it is not a good idea," says the brief filed on behalf of 21 Florida House members.

July 8, 2002

Doing it again: Raising grandkids (Associated Press)
Pat Owens smiled and nodded approvingly. With Michael's parents out of his life, the 59-year-old Owens has joined the more than 2.4 million grandparents found by the 2000 census to be primary caregivers to a grandchild. It was the first time the once-a-decade count tracked such living arrangements.

Grand jury raises adoptions concern (Post-Enterprise)
Child welfare officials must do a better job battling a rumor that social workers receive extra pay for rushing children into adoption, the Riverside County Grand Jury concluded. The grand jury said it found that through interviews and media and Internet articles, some people think the law creates a bounty on new adoptions and a disincentive to keep troubled families intact. The grand jury recommends better informing social workers of the laws and regulations so they can better communicate with clients who hold this view.

July 6, 2002

Grandparent caregivers seek help from rest of the 'village' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
A new state study shows that kinship caregivers -- relatives caring for kids in place of drug-addicted, incarcerated, abusive, neglectful or in some cases deceased parents -- are far from alone. There are more relatives caring for children without involvement in the foster care or child welfare system than policymakers realized.

July 5, 2002

Adoption (The Oregonian)
Comprehensive national data are difficult to compile because adoption is not reliably documented. Following are widely used estimates: More than 120,000 children are adopted each year in the United States. The number of children adopted from other nations rose from 8,102 in 1989 to 16,369 in 1999. In 1999, the majority of international adoptions were of Russian children, followed by Chinese and South Korean. At least 6 million American children and adults, or 2 percent of the population, are adopted. In Oregon, 1,071 adoptions were finalized in 2001 through the state child-welfare system. Of those, adoptions annually of children 14 and older reached a record 48.

July 1, 2002

Children smuggled into U.S. for adoption, prostitution (The News Mexico)
Authorities say Mexican infants and children are being smuggled into the United States to be given in illicit adoptions or, in some cases, handed over to prostitution rings. Unscrupulous attorneys forge adoption papers for childless U.S. couples for hefty fees, according to Mike Smith of the FBI field office in Phoenix.

Sperm bank clients hear clock ticking (Beacon Journal)
More than two-thirds of single women who choose to have a baby using donated sperm do so because they fear they are running out of time to find a man they would want to have a child with, new research found.

June 30, 2002

Shoddy records called threat to kids (Miami Herald)
A yearlong investigation by a group charged by the governor with overseeing the Department of Children & Families has concluded that abysmal record keeping constitutes a ``threat to the health, safety and welfare of the children placed in foster care.''

Black babies from U.S. highly sought in Canada (Chicago Sun-Times)
Over the last decade, hundreds of African-American children have been adopted by Canadian couples who have given up on finding a healthy baby through their own country's system. But increasingly, critics charge that Canadian couples are buying into the most insidious form of racism since the abolition of slavery--the "pricing" of American babies according to the color of their skin. A black baby goes for about a third the cost of a white child.

Egg Freezing Becoming an Option for Women (Reuters)
As more women delay motherhood, some fertility doctors are offering them an alternative before age-related deterioration sets in: the option to "bank" eggs, a method long used to preserve sperm. But critics say that freezing, or cryopreservation, of delicate single-cell eggs is still in the experimental stages, and success rates do not warrant its promotion as a viable choice for healthy women.

June 27, 2002

Many Grandparents Take On An Additional Role: Parent (Washington Post)
At age 71, Gwen Lightfoot is parenting again. This time, she's raising her 12-year-old grandson, Alton Moses. Seven years ago, she took custody of him after realizing her own daughter wasn't able to care for the boy. In Howard County, Lightfoot is one of 1,220 grandparents who are primary caretakers for their grandchildren, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Figures released recently show that more than 50,000 grandparents in Maryland and roughly 2.5 million nationwide bear the same responsibility.

June 26, 2002

Call to end sperm donor anonymity (BBC)
The public is in favour of giving the children of sperm donors more information about their biological parents, according to a survey. More than three-quarters of people questioned in a MORI poll thought children born using donated sperm or eggs should have a right to know their genetic history at 18. And 83% of the 1,000 surveyed believed children over 18 should have access to their biological parents' health and medical histories.

Embryo screening can tell whether an aging woman's fetus will be normal -- sometimes. (Orange County Register)
Genetic screening is still a new, controversial science, fraught with ethical land mines: What does it means to "discard" embryos that are prone to Tay-Sachs disease, Alzheimer's disease, sickle cell anemia? Will such screening lead to gender selection, the selection of physical traits? But an increasing number of women over age 38 are choosing to screen their embryos to find out why repeated attempts at pregnancy have failed. They want to know whether they can carry their genetic children or whether so many of their embryos are chromosomally abnormal that they should probably stop trying.

June 25, 2002

Family ties (Baltimore Sun)
The state's foster care program often places brothers and sisters in different homes. For one week each summer, Camp Connect brings them together again.

June 24, 2002

Agency succeeds in finding homes for 'unadoptable' (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Kidsave International brings orphans between the ages of 5 and 13 here for a six-week summer camp called Summer Miracles. The program has operated here for three years. The goal is to find permanent homes for the children in the United States. This year, the nonprofit, nationwide program wants to place 300 children with families. Johnson said 95 percent of kids in the program end up being adopted.

June 23, 2002

A worthy gift, a difficult task (Boston Globe)
Carla and Marc Duffy traveled a long, difficult road to parenthood that included in vitro fertilization. The process left them with eight frozen embryos and a difficult decision: what to do with the extra embryos. After considerable soul searching, they decided to donate the embryos to medical research. They had no idea how challenging that would be.

June 21, 2002

Helping foster kids get ahead (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
For America's foster children, a college degree or even a high school diploma are as rare as lofty expectations for their futures. Studies show that 37 percent to 80 percent of children leaving foster care have not completed high school, compared with 16 percent of those not in foster care. In addition, a 1998 study by the University of Wisconsin found that only 1 percent of youths exiting foster care would attain a four-year degree.

June 20, 2002

Public warms to adoption (The Washington Times)
Americans' view of adoption is growing more favorable as more people experience it among their families and friends, said a survey released yesterday by two adoption groups.

June 19, 2002

Poll: Race, age aren't big issues in adoptions (USA Today)
Nearly 40% of Americans have considered adoption, but many, particularly white adults, back off because they fear adopted kids will have behavioral or medical problems, suggests a poll out today.

June 18, 2002

ABC Comedy Angers Adoptive Parents (San Antonio Express-News)
(AP) The mother of twin toddlers adopted from China, Nancy Kennon was excited when she heard that an ABC comedy, "My Adventures in Television," was going to feature a Chinese adoption. What she saw earlier this month appalled her. Character Lindsay Urich adopts because a therapist says she has a lot of love to give, then gives the baby away after finding motherhood inconvenient. A fictional TV executive begs her to give the baby as a gift to a vain star. Urich tells a friend who holds the baby, "you break her, you bought her." And when one woman muses that the baby looks cute enough to eat, a man says he doesn't eat Chinese babies "because a half hour later I'm hungry and have to eat another."

June 17, 2002

When parents fail, grandparents step in (The Journal-News)
This is the first time the Census Bureau has tracked the number of parenting grandparents in the United States. Although the arrangement still represents a small segment of the types of families found in the county and across the nation, experts say the grandparent-as-parent is becoming more common.

June 16, 2002

Where Do Babies Come From? (NY Times Magazine)
16 Cambodian orphanages that work with American adoption agencies, have become the focus of a U.S. investigation of adoption practices in Cambodia, one that questions whether adoption has morphed from an altruistic pursuit into a highly lucrative industry.

June 15, 2002

Couples, ACLU mobilize after adoptions blocked (Ann Arbor News)
Last week, Washtenaw County Chief Trial Court Judge Archie Brown ordered an end to the nearly 7-year-old process that allowed unmarried couples, whether gay or heterosexual, to adopt children. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which opposes Brown's decision, filed eight motions in the juvenile division of Washtenaw County's Family Court, where adoptions are heard.

June 14, 2002

Foster care advocates fear scaled-back group home visits (The Mercury News)
With California's budget deficit at $23.6 billion, advocates worry the state will stop funding the monthly visits that ensure safety and protection for some 10,400 troubled youth.

June 13, 2002

Australian woman charged over Net baby sale (CNN)
An Australian woman who tried to sell her unborn baby over the Internet for $5,600 (Aust. $10,000) is facing two charges over the incident.

Black families heed call to adopt (Orlando Sentinel)
Although blacks make up 12 percent of the population in Central Florida, they account for a much higher proportion of the region's foster children. The program One Church, One Child premiered in Florida in 1989 and has been responsible for about 6,000 adoptions.

June 11, 2002

Court tightens rules for foster children (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Washington's Court of Appeals has ordered the state to stop the "unsafe" practice of housing foster children overnight in office buildings when emergency homes can't be found.

Foster care overused, say critics of agency (Orlando Sentinel)
As Florida's social-services agency officials seek to improve a troubled child-protection system, some children's advocates say that any reforms should start with the goal of keeping families intact and making foster care obsolete.

June 9, 2002

The colors of love (Sacramento Bee)
Adoptive parents who cross racial lines start by opening their hearts. They must open minds.

Children lost despite pacts among states (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Across the nation, public officials have made formal agreements to send foster children across state lines to live in treatment centers or with relatives. Like good neighbors, the states promise to watch over each other's children, to see that they are not harmed. But the compact has serious flaws. It can take months for the paperwork to be completed. Sometimes, states ship children away without signing documents, which means no one is legally bound to check on the children.

June 6, 2002

Lawsuit: Foster care system imperils Georgia kids (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Two child advocacy groups sued Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, the state and Atlanta foster care officials Thursday, saying that the area's child protection system is out of control, overburdened and putting thousands of children at risk.

June 5, 2002

Help here for grandchild adoption (The Press-Enterprise)
HEMET: A group informs about funds and services available to get past legal blocks.

June 4, 2002

1,237 foster children not accounted for by state workers (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
More than 1,200 children living under state supervision did not receive a visit from a Department of Children & Families worker in May, despite the governor's order that every child be seen.

June 3, 2002

18,000 Kansas grandparents raising children (Wichita Eagle)
Almost 18,000 Kansas grandparents are the sole providers for their grandchildren, based on U.S. Census Bureau figures released recently. That means they're not only buying shoes, clothes and food for their grandkids, but they're turning their lives around to raise children at a time when many of their friends are nearing or already enjoying retirement.

Two states have led way in reforming child-welfare agencies (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Illinois has been there. The state suffered through the shame of gruesome child deaths, wrestled with class-action suits and court-ordered decrees, staggered under the weight of massive child welfare caseloads and struggled to find places for the scores of children taken into state care.

Giving life (Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Infertile couples helped by women who sell their eggs.

June 2, 2002

Governor vows to reform DCF (St. Petersburg Times)
He backs some ideas proposed by the panel he formed in light of the Rilya Wilson case, but rejects its call for a special session.

Older kids face uphill battle on road to adoption (Jackson Citizen Patriot)
Age is one of many special needs that can make adoption more challenging.

As the Need Grows, Foster Homes Dwindle (Los Angeles Times)
Ventura County has mounted a campaign to recruit parents, especially Spanish speakers, to meet the demand.

May 31, 2002

State's foster care system may come under court oversight (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
A Whatcom County judge intends to issue an order within a week that could mark the first time in the nation that a state's foster-care system has come under the direct supervision of a court.

Adopting abroad (Washington Times)
More and more Americans are trying to adopt overseas. International adoptions totaled 19,237 in the United States last year and show no signs of abating. The drama of personal adoption stories is the focus of a new cable-TV series. However, several trends are shaping would-be parents' decisions, such as China's decision not to allow homosexuals to adopt.

Houston couple, donor in power struggle over frozen embryos (Houston Chronicle)
A Harris County lawsuit may require a judge of King Solomon's wisdom with the knowledge of modern genetics to resolve who is entitled to four remaining frozen human embryos.

May 30, 2002

Message of 'Hope' (Contra costa Times)
Woman's documentary focuses on various aspects of Korean adoption, with an emphasis on the positive.

Cancer, childbirth no longer mutually exclusive (TwinCities.com)
In the first report on reproductive issues from the University of Minnesota Medical School, 25-center study, soon to be published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the researchers found that while higher rates of miscarriage and lower birth weights were observed among the offspring of former cancer patients, "there are a large number of live births, births of healthy children, a lack of congenital abnormalities and very low cancer rates."

May 29, 2002

Same-sex custody ruling overturned in landmark case (The Journal News - Westchester)
A state appeals court has overturned a landmark custody ruling in which a Westchester woman became the first person in New York to win child visitation rights in a same-sex partnership. The unanimous decision by the Appellate Division, Second Department, reverses the right of Janis to visit two children she helped raise with her former live-in lover, Christine.

Adoption settlement gets OK'd (Cincinnati Enquirer)
A federal magistrate on Tuesday approved a landmark settlement that will change the way children are placed with adoptive parents in Hamilton County. The lawsuit, pending since 1999, claimed widespread use of race in the county's adoption practices. The suit alleged those practices were illegal and caused African-American children to linger in foster care and have their adoptive placements delayed longer than white children.

May 28, 2002

Condo rule could force grandmother to give children up to foster care (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
To a condominium association in the retirement community of Century Village East, little Matthew is at best an intruder — a 2-foot-tall, walking violation of condo rules — and at worst a nuisance who needs to go. Not after a year, not after a month, but by June 10, or they’ll fine his grandmother $25 a day.

Supreme Court agrees to consider system for taking foster children's benefits (Newsday)
(Associated Press) The Supreme Court said Tuesday it would decide if states can control the federal benefits of orphaned and abused children. Justices will review Washington state's practice of applying for benefits on behalf of foster children, then using the money to reimburse foster parents for things like food and clothing.

Gene Therapy Corrects Male Infertility in Mice (Reuters)
Researchers have used gene therapy to correct a type of male infertility--in mice. After treatments with the gene, mice that had previously made no sperm were able to produce healthy offspring with some high-tech help, according to a report published in the May 28th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Advocates take a 'village' to task (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
A long-awaited "village" for children in foster care in Milwaukee County has come under attack by various child advocacy groups who say that if the project ever becomes a reality, it would likely harm the children it is designed to serve.

May 27, 2002

Census 2000: Grandparents step up to raise children (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
As their own children struggle with divorce, debt, early death of a spouse or addictions, grandparents of all ages are increasingly likely to take in the youngest and most vulnerable in their families. In some cases, parents and kids move in together with the grandparents; in others, the parents just visit or are completely absent.

Florida panel: More children may be at risk (CNN)
(Associated Press) A review panel looking into the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl found that despite the attention given to the child's case, flaws in Florida's child welfare agency still exist and more children could be at risk.

Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Protection (CNN)
On April 25, 2002, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) revealed that one of its Miami wards, 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, had disappeared 15 months earlier from her custodial home and had not been seen since. This revelation, and others subsequently, engulfed DCF in scandal.

Adopted Fears Can Take On a Life of Their Own (Washington Post)
A Stray Kitten Leads One Family Down A Long-Obscured Path

Foster care up despite high adoption rate (The Oklahoman)
Oklahomans are adopting state-custody children at twice the rate as a few years ago, but the number of those in foster care continues to increase. Child advocates blame an overburdened system and an ever-increasing number of children removed from homes because of drug abuse, physical abuse and neglect.

Adoptive parents often face many challenges (The Oklahoman)
So how different is adopting a child through the state from adopting privately? Much depends on the child, but one thing is clear: Nearly all of these children come with problems. They have endured abuse and neglect, or worse, and are usually old enough to show the scars.

May 26, 2002

Parents denied custody of twins (Phildelphia Inquirer)
(Associated Press) The parents of twin girls caught in an international adoption dispute last year will not be granted custody and the toddlers will remain under state care, a judge ruled Friday.Two years ago, a California couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, said they paid an Internet broker $6,000 to adopt the twins. The twins were subsequently adopted by a Welsh couple, Judith and Alan Kilshaw, who said they paid the same broker $12,000.

May 24, 2002

A Foster Care Nightmare (ABC News)
The story of five brothers and their sister who stuck together in the face of what is described as almost perverse cruelty, without an adult in sight to save them. The story describes life in the home of Jacqueline Lynch, who collected $150,000 as a foster mother, even though one of her own children had previously been taken away from her by the state of Florida because of allegations of physical and sexual abuse in her home.

Records Released on Missing Girl (Washington Post)
An appeals court Friday released the remaining documents from the case file of a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance went unnoticed by the state's child welfare agency for 15 months. More than 700 pages of documents made public late Friday detail the Department of Children & Families work in Rilya's case, including that of caseworker Deborah Muskelly.

Agency reports 21 kids missing in Miami-Dade (South Floriday Sun-Sentinel)
Since child welfare officials admitted they lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson last month, caseworkers have reported at least 21 other Miami-Dade County children under state care as missing, some for as long as seven years.

May 22, 2002

Plea from sperm donor children (BBC News)
Children conceived with donated sperm have a right to know about their biological fathers, the High Court has been told.

May 23, 2002

INS wants to start trial program for international adoptions (Houston Chronicle)
Americans who want to adopt a child abroad could get government confirmation that the child is an orphan under a program the top immigration official wants to begin in July.

May 21, 2002

Keep foster-care siblings together, experts maintain (Orlando-Sentinel)
Caseworkers told Salter the separation was the best way to ensure a permanent home for the little brother, he said. The two were separated, but Salter's brother wasn't adopted. He ended up institutionalized at a center for kids with behavioral problems, angry at what he perceived as a selfish move by Salter to look out for his own interests.

Once-Invisible Sperm Donors Get to Meet the Family (The New York Times)
Bob's experience - reversing his status as an anonymous donor - is unusual but it is becoming more common. Though most of the country's 150 sperm banks offer only anonymous donors, increasing numbers are coming up with ways, sometimes highly creative, to assure that children born with donated sperm can meet the men who fathered them. Other sperm banks are at least considering the option.

May 20, 2002

Gay adoption a step closer (BBC News)
Gay couples have moved a step closer to being allowed to adopt children with the defeat of a last Commons move to block the change.

May 19, 2002

Reform eludes troubled system (Sun-Sentinel)
Floridians have known for years about foul-ups in the state's child welfare and foster care system. Yet the public never quite musters up enough outrage over the morale and money woes, flashes of bureaucratic incompetence and dangerously high caseloads to demand radical change.

May 16, 2002

DCF shift to private agencies under fire (Sun-Sentinel)
Florida's child advocates are calling on Gov. Jeb Bush to slow down or halt the privatization of child protection services following the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl who was in foster care.

Do not rush to hand kids at risk to private system, critics urge Bush (Orlando Sentinel)
Florida's child advocates are calling on Gov. Jeb Bush to slow down or halt the privatization of the state's child-protection services after the disappearance of a 5-year-old Miami girl while in foster care. The state's privatization experiment is the largest of its kind in the country. And no one knows for sure whether kids will be any safer.

Law: DCF workers must not fake records (Orlando Sentinel)
Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Wednesday making it a felony to doctor child-welfare records, but critics say the new law ignores conditions that can drive overwhelmed workers to lie.

Adoption shake-up debated by MPs (BBC)
A debate on whether unmarried couples, including gay couples, should be able to adopt children is taking place in theHouse of Commons.

Parental rights of gays bolstered (Indianapolis Star)
Custody or visitation can't be denied solely because gay parent lives with partner, court rules.

A Prison of Shame (Hartford Advocate)
Pressured to give up their babies, women recall the St. Agnes Home for Unwed Mothers

May 15, 2002

And Baby Makes Three (Newsday)
The Moriches couple say the ceremony on May 2 in which Cambodian authorities officially gave them custody of the little girl they've named Gloria was grueling but exhilirating. But for three other Long Island families and scores across the nation, the battle is not over. While the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has partially lifted a suspension on adoptions in Cambodia for some families, many who were in the process of adopting in the Southeast Asian nation are still stranded.

Child-welfare workers say state agency plagued by deceit (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Some current and former state child-welfare workers say their colleagues lied about visiting foster homes, covered up mistakes and worked amid a culture that reward overburdened employees for leaving children in dangerous situations.

Method may aid in vitro success (Chicago Tribune)
British scientists have developed a new technique that could improve the chances of having a baby for thousands of couples undergoing fertility treatment.

May 14, 2002

Call to end sperm donor anonymity (BBC)
Children conceived with donor sperm may be able to trace their biological fathers, if a change in the law proposed by leading fertility expert Baroness Warnock comes about.

Technique Helps Repair Damaged Frozen Embryos (Reuters)
Italian scientists have developed a technique to improve the implantation rate of frozen embryos, giving new hope to couples undergoing in vitro fertilization.

Panel chief scrutinizes guardian plan (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
The head of a blue-ribbon investigative panel focused Monday on the program that provides volunteers to look out for children's welfare in the court system, seeking answers on whether the program's effectiveness can be improved. The guardian system uses non-lawyers to act as children's representatives in court proceedings. The adversarial relationship between DCF attorneys and guardians ad litem often gets in the way of helping children, Goodman told the panel.

US Studies Foster Parent Attrition (Newsday - Associated Press)
Burned-out foster parents have little voice in decisions about kids they care for, are forced to spend hundreds of dollars on unexpected costs and too often are stung by false accusations of child abuse, government auditors say. The report helps explain why the number of foster families has fallen even as the need rises.

Bishop joins critics of gay adoption plan (Daily Telegraph)
A PROPOSAL to allow homosexual couples to adopt children has been criticised by a leading contender to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Sperm donors could lose their right to anonymity (Daily Telegraph)
MINISTERS are willing to change the law to enable children conceived with donor sperm to trace their biological fathers.

May 13, 2002

Cutbacks hobble child services (Des Moines Register)
A worsening state budget crisis has meant the emergency service and 17 other child-welfare programs in the area will lose roughly $200,000 during the state's next fiscal year. At least 30 other programs in the community can expect to help fewer youths, as other pools of state money for intervention and prevention programs dry up.

Politicians' solution to child-welfare crisis: Create study panels (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
During the last two decades -- and again this month after the disappearance of a 5-year-old foster child in Miami -- governors and legislative leaders have reacted to highly publicized cases of child abuse and neglect in much the same way: They form commissions, task forces, blue-ribbon panels and study groups. Task force conclusions have a familiar theme: Caseloads of investigators and foster workers are too high; abuse prevention and early childhood development efforts are too scarce.

Child Advocates See Many Floridas (Tampa Tribune)
Florida's system for safeguarding children - the same system that lost track of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson 16 months ago - is among the nation's most expensive, overburdened and neglectful, child welfare experts and advocates say.

Foster Mom Says DCF Failed Before (Tampa Tribune)
Nancy Younger figured the father of a young boy temporarily placed in her home by child welfare workers should know that the state had taken custody of his son. Caseworkers failed to notify John Greiner, who had been making regular child support payments and by state rules should have been contacted. So she informed the boy's father herself, then complained to the Department of Children and Families that caseworkers were ignoring the rules.

May 12, 2002

Growing together: Mother's Day takes on special meaning for transracial adoption family (Boston Herald)
Dymski and her husband, David Boyce, are part of a growing movement toward transracial adoption, according to the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange. About 15 percent of the 36,000 adoptions of foster children nationwide in 1998 were transracial or transcultural adoptions, according to a 2000 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, compared with 8 percent in 1987, according to the National Health Interview Survey.

Losing baby K. (Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
Foster parents blame adoption policies for an infant's death and worry that other ill or disabled children may be at risk