International Adoption: The Most Logical Solution to the Disparity between the Numbers of Orphaned and Abandoned Children in Some Countries and Families and Individuals Wishing to Adopt in Others [Note]

Abstract

Throughout the world there are millions of children who lack families, homes, and basic care.' This problem is especially pronounced in countries where war or national disasters have taken a devastating economic toll on families.2 Many families who cannot afford to provide for their children are left with no choice but to abandon them out of need or shame.3 As a result, many children are left to the streets. For example, up to seven million "meninos da rua" (Portuguese for "children of the street") live on the streets in Brazil's large cities.4 Non-economic factors also contribute to children becoming orphans. Social and political circumstances have left children without families. In China, for instance, the One-Child Policy, coupled with Chinese culture's preference for male children, leads families to abandon or give up for adoption thousands of first-born female children.' The Korean War left thousands of children in that country homeless.6 Confucian beliefs that emphasize continuance of the family through an unbroken bloodline dissuaded Koreans from adopting children unrelated to them.' Under the Ceausescu regime in Romania, women were forced to have five children for the State.' This mandate resulted in healthy children being placed in crowded state-run orphanages while physically- or mentallydisabled children were placed in state-run asylums where they received inhumane care.