LilMtnCbn
03-09-2004, 06:51 AM
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/commentary/story/0,4386,239082,00.html
EDITORIAL
All for the little baby
COINCIDENCE or no, the government-sanctioned regulating of adoptions from
China, announced last week, highlights the extent of Singapore's low-birth
problem. The arrangement between the governments of Singapore and China is
meant to ensure that adoption procedures are above board, as they can be ruined
by mishandling and exploitation. The emotional pain for both adopter and
adoptee can be lasting if it happened. To the extent the agreement will remove
even the hint of impropriety or incompetent evaluation of the two parties, this
is welcome as adoptions are never a straightforward matter but often
emotion-laden. But there can be no suggestion - and none should be inferred -
that making adoptions easier and less expensive, even from a variety of
countries other than just China, is a feasible method of bumping up Singapore's
population numbers. The same reservation would apply to immigration, not unless
Singapore stands ready to admit more foreign nationals for eventual settlement
than it can comfortably absorb. The solution, or the greater measure of it at
any rate, is to be found here at home, in the home. But the bilateral agreement
may well be a case of every little bit helps. Figures from the Ministry of
Community Development and Sports (MCDS) show that Singaporean families adopt on
average 700 children a year. Only six in 10 were from abroad, the others being
local adoptions. Based on last year's total resident births of 36,000,
foreign-born adoptions would make up 1.2 per cent of total births.
But China has such an embarrassment of riches the common assumption among
Singaporean couples thinking of adopting a child is that it is the place to
look to, as it has margin to spare. Its 1.8 fertility rate is miles ahead of
Singapore's 1.3. Its huge population, despite a strict one-child policy, has
unwittingly bred a certain level of discrimination against females, although
the evidence is more anecdotal than verifiable. Even if not widespread, the
social attitude thought to be prevalent in rural provinces does create a
readier acceptance for the giving up of girls for adoption. It is no secret
that Chinese babies (as well as Indochinese and later, Russian infants and
children after the Soviet Union's disintegration) are prominent in legal
cross-border adoptions. Moreover, hundreds of entire Chinese families pay
snakeheads and risk arrest to be taken to a foreign land, usually in the West.
However, all that would not negate the principle that no nation, not even one
with a billion-plus population, would give up its citizens. Worse still would
be the proposition that babies are being sold in black-market trafficking. So,
this is a matter of acute sensitivity for the adoptee nation. The Chinese
government is to be commended for entering into an arrangement with another
sovereign state that upholds the dignity of its citizens, and seeks to
regularise the process.
Only two non-profit welfare organisations - Fei Yue Community Services and
Touch Community Services - would be authorised to handle adoptions in
collaboration with a China entity approved by Beijing. If requests for China
infants grow on the confidence engendered by government endorsement, MCDS will
need to study the need for more approved agencies. There will be little regret
at commercial adoption agencies being closed out of the China option, even if
these had operated responsibly. Adoptions in most nations which have developed
mechanisms for them are usually confined to non-profit organisations anyway, to
prevent exploitation.
-------------------------
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
EDITORIAL
All for the little baby
COINCIDENCE or no, the government-sanctioned regulating of adoptions from
China, announced last week, highlights the extent of Singapore's low-birth
problem. The arrangement between the governments of Singapore and China is
meant to ensure that adoption procedures are above board, as they can be ruined
by mishandling and exploitation. The emotional pain for both adopter and
adoptee can be lasting if it happened. To the extent the agreement will remove
even the hint of impropriety or incompetent evaluation of the two parties, this
is welcome as adoptions are never a straightforward matter but often
emotion-laden. But there can be no suggestion - and none should be inferred -
that making adoptions easier and less expensive, even from a variety of
countries other than just China, is a feasible method of bumping up Singapore's
population numbers. The same reservation would apply to immigration, not unless
Singapore stands ready to admit more foreign nationals for eventual settlement
than it can comfortably absorb. The solution, or the greater measure of it at
any rate, is to be found here at home, in the home. But the bilateral agreement
may well be a case of every little bit helps. Figures from the Ministry of
Community Development and Sports (MCDS) show that Singaporean families adopt on
average 700 children a year. Only six in 10 were from abroad, the others being
local adoptions. Based on last year's total resident births of 36,000,
foreign-born adoptions would make up 1.2 per cent of total births.
But China has such an embarrassment of riches the common assumption among
Singaporean couples thinking of adopting a child is that it is the place to
look to, as it has margin to spare. Its 1.8 fertility rate is miles ahead of
Singapore's 1.3. Its huge population, despite a strict one-child policy, has
unwittingly bred a certain level of discrimination against females, although
the evidence is more anecdotal than verifiable. Even if not widespread, the
social attitude thought to be prevalent in rural provinces does create a
readier acceptance for the giving up of girls for adoption. It is no secret
that Chinese babies (as well as Indochinese and later, Russian infants and
children after the Soviet Union's disintegration) are prominent in legal
cross-border adoptions. Moreover, hundreds of entire Chinese families pay
snakeheads and risk arrest to be taken to a foreign land, usually in the West.
However, all that would not negate the principle that no nation, not even one
with a billion-plus population, would give up its citizens. Worse still would
be the proposition that babies are being sold in black-market trafficking. So,
this is a matter of acute sensitivity for the adoptee nation. The Chinese
government is to be commended for entering into an arrangement with another
sovereign state that upholds the dignity of its citizens, and seeks to
regularise the process.
Only two non-profit welfare organisations - Fei Yue Community Services and
Touch Community Services - would be authorised to handle adoptions in
collaboration with a China entity approved by Beijing. If requests for China
infants grow on the confidence engendered by government endorsement, MCDS will
need to study the need for more approved agencies. There will be little regret
at commercial adoption agencies being closed out of the China option, even if
these had operated responsibly. Adoptions in most nations which have developed
mechanisms for them are usually confined to non-profit organisations anyway, to
prevent exploitation.
-------------------------
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
