Abstract
According to Oak Mani as cited by Agbor, Maria C. stated that, “Child adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than biological ones. In this case, the adopted child is permanently separated from his biological parents and becomes the legitimate child of his or her adoptive parents with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that are attached to the relationship” (1). Defines child adoption as a legal procedure that makes the birth child of one man and woman the legal child of someone else. Highlighting more on the concept of child adoption, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) explains that it is a process whereby an individual assumes the parenting for another, and in so doing, permanently transfers all the rights and responsibilities along with filiation from the biological parent(s) to adoptive ones. The process of adoption therefore effects a permanent change in status and requires societal recognition either through legal or religious sanction.
Open and closed adoptions are the two main categories of child adoption. In an open adoption, the birth and adoptive parents exchange identifying information such as names and addresses, while in a closed adoption the adoptive and birth parents remain anonymous and so do not exchange any identifying information. There is also domestic adoption where adoptive parents adopt a child within the city or country in which they reside. It can be interstate where both adoptive and birth parents live in different states, or intrastate adoption where both of them reside within one state. International adoption is where the birth mother and adoptive parents live in different countries. Private adoption is a type of adoption that is arranged through an individual who may be a physician, clergy or an attorney or even a referral service. There is also Agency child adoption where adoption is arranged through child adoption agency which can be private or public with or without religious affiliation (1). Therefore, this document highlights a systematic report of studies on literatures with respect to challenges of child adoption and its services in Africa.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The word adoption, by Encarta dictionaries, is synonymous to acceptance, espousal, taking on, approval, agreement et cetera. Its definition by Oxford dictionaries states as the act of adopting a child; and to adopt as relating to a child means to take somebody else’s child into your family and become its legal parent(s).
Across borders nationally, the adoption of children started to progress faster at an amazing rate in the early 1990s. Notwithstanding global adoption or transnational adoption stemmed more than fifty years ago in the consequences of World War II and the Korean War. Immigration and Naturalization Services issued Immigrant orphan visas multiplied by three between 1991 and 2001- from 7,093 to 19, 237. 139,000 children and more have been adopted internationally in the last ten years in the United States alone. Most of these children were born in Russia or China (2). Adoption gives way onto the interaction between nations, inequalities between rich and poor within nations (3) even without nations, the antiquity of ethnic group, race and racialization since the end servitude in Europe’s colonies and the United States, and the associations between native and non-native groups in the Americas and Australia. One of the outcome of war was transnational adoption. It has now become an essential way of growing family for those who cannot have children instead of an occasional practice (3).
As stated by Aries 1962 and Zelizer 1985 in Marre D. Briggs L. 2009 article, that, “Adoption has become a reflection of the horror and the generosity of our history in part because in the twentieth century we came to see children as innocent and particularly vulnerable to victimization, in contrast to earlier periods when they were regarded as like miniature adults” (3).
A dissimilar medical specialty- pediatrics, stemmed at the beginning of the twentieth century; a book published by the Swedish feminist Ellen Key proposing new attitude towards children in 1909; the idea of “children’s rights” was written by Polish-Jewish physician Janus Korczak; which also involves a group of physicians from Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil initiated a series of American Child Congress in 1916. Over the twentieth century adoption was changed from an institution of labour parallel to apprenticeship, or in a way of inheritance involving the appointment of a legal heir, by the unequal or disproportionate emergence of this new concept of childhood (3).
Adoption assistance subsidy rates stand out as the most important determinant of adoptions from foster care, accompanied by use of alternatives; since 1996 Federal initiatives in United States of America have intensified the efforts of states to achieve adoption for children in foster care while many children that are waiting, the path to adoption is long (4).
Challenges as being seen globally as related to adoption. Particularly to Americas, it has been seen that intercountry adoption can fulfill both the needs of homeless children and the desires of adoptive parents, although the American Academy of Paediatrics cautions that children from other countries may arrive with issues related to health. Diseases such as intestinal parasites, tuberculosis, anaemia, malaria and hepatisis B virus (HBV) infection are the common illnesses indigenous to the country of origin (5). Parallel and other challenges are common in most African countries, which will be stated in this document.
1.1 Literature Search Strategies
The search engines include:
– African Journal Online
– GoogleScholar
– Pubmed
2.0 GLOBAL CHILD ADOPTION
2.1 Adoption in Africa
Sterility, childlessness and Infertility remain a worldwide health challenge with destructive psycho-social outcomes in many African communities. Adoption that may serve as a substitute strategy for the affected couples is not broadly exercised. The barriers mentioned were cultural practices, stigmatization, financial implications, and procedural bottle-necks. Measures suggested to curb these negative attitudes were advocacy, community mobilization and enactment of supportive law that will
protect all parties involved particularly in Nigeria (6).
2.1.1 A case study of Kwara State, Nigeria.
The access point between the northern and southern Nigeria is Kwara state. Issa FY, Awoyemi AO aimed at a study to evaluate the state of fostering and adoption services in Kwara State. That determines the major reasons for child placement, common kindred cases as well as common medical conditions seen amongst the children under care. Between 1995 and 2005 a comparative retrospective of case records in government owned family welfare institutions in the state was done. Verbal interview was carried out for officer's in-charge of these institutions. The cases of child abuse and neglect are the major reasons for child placement in foster care as reported by the study, and a steady rise has been noticed in spite of the existence of protective laws and regulations. This has led to an overwhelming of the available family welfare services in the state (7).
2.1.2 Adoption Practices in Enugu, Nigeria.
In Enugu the pattern and consequences of adoption was studied, in Nigeria in order to ascertain the challenges in the emerging adoption practice in the state. A retrospective analysis of adoption practices in Enugu Nigeria based on data from the National women's Commission. The features of adopters and adoptees, types of adoption, prevalence and outcome of the adoptions between January 1991 and December 2001 were observed. There were sixty-one adoptions in the eleven-year period giving a prevalence of 5.5 adoptions per year. Eighteen (29.5%) kinship adoptions and 43 (70.5%) adoptions of abandoned babies and children were recorded. The mean age of the adoptees was 4.2 years and 33.3% of them were 5 years and above. All adopters were Nigerians but 32.0% of them resided overseas. The commonest age range at adoption was 4-49 years and the peak duration of marriage prior to adoption was 15-19 years. Most adopters (84.9%) had at least secondary school education. No adoption was annulled and there was no recorded death of adoptees. Post care monitoring was found to be incomprehensive. The growing practice of adoption in Enugu is laudable but post adoption care is poor. Emphasis on post adoption care is vital in developing countries where complex social and logistic factors militate against it. In infertility management early institution of counseling on adoption would allow couples ample time for decision making and preparation for adoption, as well as encourage adoption when couples are still young (8).
2.2 ADOPTION IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2.2.1 Adoption of Korean Children
The involvement of the United States in antiquity of adoption of Asian children dates to the Korean War period. Though the war ended a long time past and Korea has since become prosperous, increase in the number of Korean children adopted by American families and other nations has been persistent. During this period, Korean children adopted by American families amounted to about 20% of all foreign adoptions in the United States which estimates into 4,162 children. The proportion of Korean adoptees in the United States (U.S) rise to about 50 percent of all foreign adoptions in the U.S. The adoptees in 1986 representing 59 percent of all foreign children adopted in the United States, which was according to the annual report of the U.S Immigration and Naturalization Service (9).
2.2.2 Adoption Experience of Men and Women in United States
About a decade ago, adoption remains occasional in the United States. Among all women aged 18-44 in 2002, only 1.1% had adopted a child and 1.6% were currently seeking to adopt. Women were more likely to be currently looking to adopt, to have ever sought to adopt, and to have actually adopted a child if they had used infertility services or had impaired fecundity. Aged women and women who were in their second or later marriage were also more likely to have adopted a child. Hispanic (latin America people) and non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt compared with non-Hispanic white women. More men than women have adopted children in their lifetimes. Among adopters, 17% of women and 6% of men were never married (10).
3.0 FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION
There are various reasons why people adopt children (1). Oladokun et al 2009 stated that, “A myriad of factors hindering/militating against the adoption process were enumerated. Topping the list was Yoruba cultural belief, followed by attitude of health workers, poverty, non-acceptance by the family of husband or wife who would prefer their son or daughter marrying another person rather than adopt a child as well as disagreement between couples (6).
A descriptive study survey carried out at the Department of Educational Psychology, Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu Enugu State, Nigeria gives the result tabulated below (Tables 1 & 2). The data collected was analyzed using mean scores and standard deviations. The criterion for mean score of 2.50 and above was acceptable.
Table 1: Challenges of child adoption in Eastern Nigeria
Item No. Item Description
1. Cultural norms/beliefs that an adopted child is not a biological child and should not be accepted 3.67
2. The sale of babies by teenage mothers due to poverty, which confuses people about anything adoption 3.13
3. The denial of an adopted child‘s inheritance from his adoptive parents 3.22
4. The belief that an adopted child is born outside wedlock and so is not a real child of the family 2.52
5. The adoption of babies when the adoptive parent is too old to cater for the child 3.00
6. The belief that child adoption is an abomination and against the culture of the land 2.84
7. The establishment of baby factories where babies are sold for adoption and for rituals 2.54
8. High level of corruption in the country 2.35
9. Political instability 2.00
10. Lack of adequate knowledge about process of child adoption 3.04
11. Poor law enforcement in the country which allows the illegal sales of babies 3.00
Cluster mean X 2.85
From the results presented in table 1, it can be seen that nine out of the 11 items in the cluster have mean scores above 2.50. This implies that they have been rated positive as the socio-cultural challenges of child adoption in the Eastern Nigeria (1).
Table 2: Reasons for child adoption in the Eastern Nigeria
Item Item Description
1 To help childless couples get children of their own
3.22
2 If there is no male child in the family 3.20
3 For expansion of family size 3.08
4 To select a particular gender
3.16
5 To provide a home for a child in need 3.11
6 To provide a play mate or companion for the only child in the family 2.66
7 To help a child with a special need 2.76
8 If one is pressurized by a spouse or relatives 3.07
9 To rescue a child that is in danger
2.54
Cluster mean X 2.98
The mean ratings of the respondent on all the items in this table are above 2.50, adopted as the bench mark for the acceptance of the response as positive. This means that the respondents accepted all the items as the reasons for child adoption in Eastern Nigeria.
4.0 CONCLUSION
The world at large being a global village, so interwoven with globalization with cultures and traditions trending over time; child adoption is essential to meet individual, family, community and national needs and to improve the total health of the child being adopted.
5.0 RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendations are made according to Agbo, Maria C., 2015;
1. There is urgent need to reform any culture that is against a global change which is beneficial to humanity such as adoption.
2. Though most of the Eastern states have laws guiding adoption, in most cases, the laws are not enforce. The government should ensure that these laws are obeyed and that defaulters should be punished severely.
3. Non-governmental organizations and the church should organize seminars, workshops and talks both in rural and urban areas about the process of adoption and its benefits.
4. There should be employments for the youth to reduce the level of poverty in the state. By so doing many teenage girls and boys will be absorbed to minimize their waywardness or promiscuity.
5. More motherless babies homes should be built, equipped and extended to rural areas to cater for motherless babies, the abandoned and the unwanted in the society.
6. In the area of baby factory, this should be discouraged by all means. It is evil. The church and the public should create awareness about the ills of baby factory.
7. The government should punish any unauthorized person running maternity homes, or orphanage homes. Individuals should be banned from running any orphanage home.
8. People should help the police by reporting any strange movement which indicates that baby factory is in the neighbourhood to law enforcement agents.
9. There is need for other adequate mechanism to check these baby factories and protect the lives and rights of children (1).