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Adoption differences
Israeli urges B.C. to adopt new baby adoption law
ROBERTA STALEY STAFF REPORTER
One of the architects of Israel's new adoption law says British Columbia should adopt a similar model.
"In this province, you have a total monopoly of government," said Eliezer JaJBTe during a recent stopover in Vancouver. The Hebrew University sociology professor was on a tour of North America, attending conferences on adoption and the Israel Free Loan Association program, a group he chairs in Israel which gives interest-free loans to immigrants and citizens.
Prof Jaffe helped draft Israel's new "Law for Adoptions — In-tercountry Adoptions" which came into effect Sept. 1.
The Israeli government is now "totally out of the adoption process, said Prof. Jaffe. Instead, licensed, professionally staffed agencies, with sister offices in foreign countries, will seek healthy children for Israeli couples wanting to adopt. The Israeli government legislates guidelines and monitors the agencies, said Prof Jaffe, who estimated total adoption expenses could run as high as $10,000.
This new system will help eliminate up to a seven-year waiting period for babies in Israel. And it will help stem a worldwide black market in babies where infants, some of whom are kidnapped, are spirited into countries using forged documents, said Prof Jaffe.
In Israel, which has a population of more than 5.2 million, only 73 babies were available for adoption in 1995, said Prof Jaffe, author of Intercountry Adoptions: Perspectives from the Sending Countries.
The sociology expert said Israel, like other Western countries, is facing a baby cnmch due to readily accessible abortion services and birth control, as well as a growing infertility rate estimated to afflict up to 20 percent of couples.
B.C. agencies "should push for similar legislation," he said. But Prof. Jaffe's recommendation isn't popular here.
Highest bidder
Spokesman Tim O'Connor, of
the B.C. Ministry of Social Services, said department officials have looked into private, for-profit adoption agencies and found them wanting. "It turns children into a commodity and morally, that's not right," he said.
Mr. O'Connor said the ministry fears for-profit private agencies, who have more clients than tots, will end up giving "the child to the highest bidder. It is not an
Dr. Eliezer Jaffe of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, one of the architects of Israel's new adoption law.
environment which responds to the best interests of the child. It responds to the financial interests of the birth parent," Mr. O'Connor said.
Ironically, the province allows non-profit adoption agencies to exist now without licences. However, with the implementation of The Adoption Act 1995 on Nov. 4., these businesses will have to be licensed and follow strict government guidelines.
This includes ensuring birth parents are informed about their choices before consenting to adoption. There is no obligation now in a private arrangement to advise birth mothers about alternatives to adoption. Birth fathers must also be involved in planning the child's fiature with adoptive parents under the new act.
In the 1994-95 fiscal year in B.C., 99 special-needs children were adopted in B.C., said Mr. O'Connor. The children included infants to 18-year-olds with mental and physical disabilities. Some had fetal-alcohol syndrome or drug-addiction problems. Only 43 healthy infants were available for adoption