The transnational illegal adoption market Citation for published version (APA): Loibl, E. C. (2019). The transnational illegal adoption market: A criminological study of the German and Dutch intercountry adoption systems. Eleven International publishing. https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20190515el Document status and date: Published: 01/01/2019 DOI: 10.26481/dis.20190515el Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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Letschert, in accordance with the decision of the Board of Deans, to be defended in public on Wednesday 15 May 2019, at 10.00 hours by Elvira Carolin Loibl The_Transnational_Illegal_Adoption_Market_voorwerk.indd 3 08/02/2019 08:58:42 Supervisors: Prof.dr. A.H. Klip Prof.dr. S.W.E. Rutten Prof.dr. E. Wesseling Assessment Committee: Prof.dr. L. Briggs (University of Massachusetts Amherst) Prof.dr. G.R. de Groot Prof.dr. J.M. Nelen (Chair) Prof.dr. M. Pertegás Sender Prof.dr. D.M. Smolin (Samford University) The_Transnational_Illegal_Adoption_Market_voorwerk.indd 4 08/02/2019 08:58:42 This book is dedicated to my parents, Martha and Werner, and to all birth, adoptive and foster parents, who do the best they can for their children. Preface The cover of this book features King Solomon of Israel who rules between two women both claiming to be the mother of an infant son. 1 Kings 3:16-28 recounts that two women living in the same house, each the mother of a baby boy, came to Solomon. The child belonging to one woman had smothered, and its mother had exchanged it for the living one, putting her own dead child in the other woman’s bed as she laid sleeping, and taking the living child to herself. In the morning, the mother of the living child had discovered that the child was not hers, but the woman whose child was dead would not give up the one that she had stolen. The two women stood before the king, each one claiming that the living child was hers, and that the dead child belonged to the other. Solomon called for a sword and declared his judgment: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other”. One mother did not contest the ruling, declaring that if she could not have the baby then neither of them should, but the other begged Solomon, “Give the baby to her, just don’t kill him!” The king declared the second woman the true mother, as a mother would even give up her baby if that was necessary to save its life. How is the story of King Solomon’s judgment relevant for the intercountry adoption system? Just like the woman’s vulnerable state was taken advantage of (being asleep meant that she was unable to protect her child), the extreme powerlessness of numerous birth parents that face poverty and/or discrimination is often being exploited. As several reports have shown, not only children that were given up freely by their parents enter the adoption system, but also children who have been purchased, kidnapped or abducted from their vulnerable families. Also the stealing mother’s role does share some parallels with the role of adoptive parents: Just like the woman in the story, many adopters are driven by the desperate desire to have a child of their own. And although they would not kidnap anybody else’s baby, some might at least facilitate the illegal removal of a child by ignoring the sig- nificance of their money in the adoption system and by turning a blind eye to signs of irregular practices by other stakeholders involved in adoptions. The judgment of Solomon is often referred to as an example of profound wisdom. The king’s verdict has revealed the truth and solved the dispute between the two women in the best interests of the child. In the current intercountry adoption system, such a Solomonic judgement is difficult to render. The different stakeholders involved in international adoptions have to face a myriad of complex questions and dilemmas: Who should care for the numerous children worldwide who have to live and work on the streets? Would it be in the best interests of the child to be placed for adoption if he or she has birth parents that want to keep their child but do not have the financial means to provide proper care? What do `the best interests of the child’ and `proper care’ mean in the first place? Would vii Preface it be right to interpret these terms according to Western standards or would it ultimately lead to an imperialist, neo-colonial outcome? What should happen to children who live in child care institutions? Should a child’s right to identity preservation trump the possi- bility to be placed into a loving adoptive family abroad? Is it legitimate for a Western adoption agency or adopters to donate money or goods to the birth family or the orphanage to help care for the rest of the children, or would it constitute payment for a child? What should a judge decide when it turns out that a child, who has lived with his or her new adoptive family for already quite some time, had actually been obtained illegally from the birth parents? Would it be right to leave the child with the adoptive family or to send him or her back to the country of origin in order to be reunited with the birth family? The present book sheds light on these questions and unearths the factors in the intercountry adoption system which impede a wise judgement by the different stakeholders involved that actually serve the best interest of the children. viii Table of Contents Acknowledgements xvii I Introduction 1 1 Central Focus and Scope 1 2 Methodological Framework 8 2.1 Interdisciplinary Approach 8 2.2 Comparative Approach 9 2.3 Case Study Approach 12 2.4 Data Sources and Analysis 13 2.4.1 Legal sources 13 2.4.2 Policy, academic and media sources 14 2.4.3 Semi-structured interviews 15 2.4.4 Adopters’ autobiographic stories 18 2.5 Ethical Considerations 19 3 Structure of the Book 20 4 Terminology 22 II Child Trafficking for Adoption Purposes – A Criminological Analysis of the Illegal Adoption Market 25 1 Introduction 25 2 The Structural Components of the Transnational Illegal Adoption Market 27 2.1 The Basic Logic of Routine Activity Theory 27 2.2 Demand Component 28 2.2.1 From a humanitarian deed to a remedy for involun- tary childlessness 28 2.2.2 The role of adoption agencies 32 2.3 Supply Component 33 2.3.1 Source countries 33 2.3.2 Illegal practices to secure adoptable children 38 2.4 Social Control Component 41 2.4.1 Child laundering – connecting demand and illegal supply 41 2.4.2 Adoption agencies’ representatives and cooperation partners in the sending countries 45 ix Table of Contents 2.5 Criminogenic Asymmetries between Demand and Source Countries 47 2.6 Displacements Effects of Supply Reduction and ‘Cycles of Abuse’ 50 3 The International Legal Framework on Child Trafficking 52 4 The Prism of Child Trafficking for Adoption Purposes 59 4.1 The Crime Prism 59 4.2 The Prismatic Analysis of Child Trafficking for Adoption Purposes 61 4.2.1 Individual and social harm 62 4.2.2 Invisibility 65 4.2.3 Extent of victimization 69 4.2.4 Lack of public agreement on seriousness 70 4.2.5 Low probability of severe social response 75 5 Conclusion and Discussion 76 III The Rights of the Child and the ‘Best Interests’ Principle in Intercountry Adoption 81 1 Introduction 81 2 Positions on the Legitimacy of Intercountry Adoption 82 2.1 Abolitionists 83 2.2 Promoters 86 2.3 Regulationists 87 3 Background and Development of the UNCRC 89 4 Family and the Rights of the Child 90 4.1 The Definition of