Adoption Under Fire

'International adoption is under assault. In 2013 a rash of negative stories with sensational titles, such as “Evangelicals and the Fake Orphan Racket” and “Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession,” have made their way into print, and Kathryn Joyce’s The Child Catchers has spawned articles about child trafficking and corruption. The attacks are propelling questions: What’s in the best interest of children? How important is cultural continuity? Should children have a right to a stable family, even if the family is in a different country? Do children belong to the state?

Although intercountry adoption has many prominent supporters, the hostile-to-adoption side is winning: In 2012, only 8,668 children found families in the United States through intercountry adoption. Eight years earlier, 22,884 orphans did. Even at its peak, intercountry adoption provided families for a mere trickle of the 17.9 million double orphans—those without mother or father—in the world'

My guest on the program today will be Susan Olasky who wrote the cover story for the latest edition of World Mag.