http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,253539-1-9,00.html

Adoption crackdown in Marshalls


Feb 05, 2004


A new adoption authority has been set up in the Marshall Islands to crack down
on illegal agencies and enforce the government's adoption law.

The Central Adoption Authority will open an office in Majuro at the end of the
month. The law requires the compulsory registration of all adoption companies
and makes facilitation of adoptions illegal.

Lawbreakers face fines of up to $US1000 and a maximum of three years jail.

This comes after many Hawaii-based agencies were soliciting Marshallese women
to put their child up for adoption, and charging thousands of dollars.

Authority director Michael Jenkins says adoptions need to be an option for
families that desire or need it.

"But the coercion that's happened and the persuasion that's happened with
promises of money and opportunities has really violated every known ethical and
professional standard that governs the field," he says.

"And so those incentives and those coercions have to come to a complete stop."

Jenkins says he expects a local facilitator to be prosecuted this month and the
CAA are pursuing legal recourse with at least two agencies in the US who are
getting pregnant women out of the Marshalls and into Hawaii.

He says there is also a forum this month in Hawaii to educate people as to
their response to the crackdown of illegal adoptions.




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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown