Response to Romania and Adoption Laws

A great response to Romania not changing their Adoption Laws. Submitted by a source working hard to open adoptions.

Please remind Mrs. Bertzi that the reason there are not enough children eligible for adoption in Romania to fullfill the requests of Romanians who want to adopt is due to the new legislation. Prior to the current legislation there were thousands of available children who had been declared legally abandoned and eligible for adoption. Sadly, their legal abandonment decrees were declared null and void in January of 2005 and they must go through the process of tracking biological relatives in attempt to place them - again, go to court for a legal abandonment hearing - again, and then go on a list of available children for adoption - again. Since Romania lacks enough social workers, juvenile judges, and funding to accomplish this, the abandoned children of Romania will continue to wait years to even be eligible for a permanent family. Meanwhile, the high rate of abandonment will continue, babies will continue to languish in hospitals, and the abandoned children who are older, disabled, or Roma (or all three) will rarely - if ever - be domestically adopted and find permanent families. And many social workers, who are now being paid 20 euros for every abandoned child they "reunite" with a biological family member, will do whatever it takes to place a child in situations of extreme neglect, abuse, and lack of interest of any biological family member - all to lower the statistics of abandoned children in state care. But as government officials have said in the past, "Why are you concerned about these children? They are worth nothing." Just 20 euros and the perceived price of admission to the European Union.