Pere Vegés, 1, planta 11, despacho 8 Tel. 93-31334959   Fax: 933146505 08020 Barcelona

EXTRACTS of Infancia y adopción , number 4, july-december 1998
 

In the beginning...

One of the main elements of adoptive fatherhood and filiation is, no doubt, what from the psycho?social field is known as coupling. At present, adoption is, for the most part in our country, international adoption. Therefore, in contrast with what happens in the cases of national adoption, the meeting and the progressive coupling between the child and the family take place in a strange environment, unknown, and also among strangers. In addition, in each country of origin there is a different way of proceeding, of approaching these first moments. Due to this fact, the existing circumstances surrounding the coupling of a family are in fact completely different for each case. The lack of an agreed criterion among the very same professionals responsible for the various adoption processes, national as well as international, also leads to a great diversity of actions and attitudes.
 
 
 

Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez, on behalf of children

Very recently, Joaquín Ruiz?Giménez celebrated his tenth anniversary as the leader of the Spanish Committee of the Spanish UNICEF Committee. He continues fighting for dialogue, social justice, de?mocratic participation... as values to transmit and practice among the children of the world. An essential reference as defending counsel of the democratisation of  Spanish society, he still advocates for the strength of dialogue among the people and the peoples, now from the standpoint f children. Below, we reproduce some of his answers to this interview.

“I believe that very important changes have taken place in recent years, above all in everything concerning international adoption. Until the Convention on the Rights of Children in 1989, the idea of international adoption aroused objections and prejudices. It was considered that international adoption was in the hands of purely profit?making Mafias or organisations ignoring any code. But the International Convention on the Rights of Children provided an important support for the idea that international adoption was good and healthy for the interests of many children all over the world. This development of a normative type was really decisive in overcoming the prejudices. But all of it had to be put into practice and at this point it has, no doubt, run into many obstacles. In this sense, a second main point of progress has been the creation of entities and organisms officially authorised to process the pro?cedures for international adoption. At present, I be?lieve that we should avoid those channels for inter?national adoption that move away from the paths that have finally been officially marked. We have to put an end to trading in children.”

“In order to act in the best interest of the child, the collaboration of the authorities and the training and education of the adopting parents is necessary. To overcome prejudices, because they exist, we require a pedagogy addressed at the adoptive parents. The adopting couple requires extra training and education for it assumes a great responsibility with adoption. The formative and the educational aspects of the candidates adopting is, for me, a basic element. Later on, during the evolution of adoption, they have to be assisted, supported, helped by specific orga?nisations specialised in children. One cannot enter into an adoption process, even for charity... One has to do it with love, with the vocation to serve the development of the child.”

“To help Homes that shelter abandoned children can never be recriminated; however, to help Homes for children who will never be adopted is more praiseworthy as it silences any suspicion that the help is carried out in order to have a kind of _cradle’ of adoptable children; this is something which must be avoided by all means. In this sense, the The Hague Agreement clearly specifies that the couple who adopts a child will have to defray the costs adoption implies; however, under no circumstances will the couple have to pay any money to obtain the adoption.”
 
 
 

The revelation and the search  of the origins. Conference of Pere Amorós, pedagogue

At present, and generally speaking, the adopting parents know that it is essential to inform their children on the adoption. But there are elements and aspects when informing the children of their condition of adopted persons that should especially be taken into account and that many families do not know. On everything concerning this subject, Professor Pere Amorós spoke last March, as part of the yearly agenda of conferences which take place in Barcelona by the Association ADDIA.

According to Amorós, to inform on adoption implies to inform on the condition of adopted child and on the origins: is simply, two sides of the same coin. “The information on the condition of adoted child implies the knowledge of one’s origins”, states Professor Pere Amorós. This need to know the origins, which expresses itself specially during adolescence and the adult age, does not necessarily mean to wish to contact the biological family. According to Pere Amorós, the wish for information and the wish for contact are two different things which do not always coincide in the same individual.

“All parents”, asserts Pere Amorós, “are obliged to educate their children in all those elements which favour their personal development. Adoptive parents play a distinctive role: in addition to what has been previously said, they have to add a specific educational task in relation to adoption, one of whose elements is, precisely, the information of the condition of adopted child”. Pere Amorós bases this information on two kinds of reasons: ethical or moral (the child has the right to know the truth and the fact that the relationship with his/her parents is based on mutual trust, on sincerity and honesty) and psychological reasons (it is essential that the gradual building of personal identity and self?esteem integrates in a natural and positive way in this important element of their personal biography; to the contrary, its concealment or its silence, may imply a rejection of the adopted child and this will enormously harm his/her own self?esteem and, consequently, the relationship with his/her adoptive parents).
 
 

Recent developments in the field of international adoption? Alegría Borrás

In a short time, various announcements have been made in relation with developments concerning international adoption. These developments are related to problems which have arisen regarding the recognition of adoptions constituted in foreign countries. The problem derives from the diversity of situations in which adoption takes place abroad and from the problems originated from the regulations, Art. 9 of the Civil Code.

The problem is that an objective and general revision to improve the legislative framework has not been carried out. Instead, specific solutions are pro?vided for specific subjects, which is a bad answer from the point of view of the legislative technique and also from a practical point of view.

The real difficulty is found in bad and insufficient regulation of the acknowledgement of the adoptions constituted abroad. Frequently modified in recent years, it has never been the object of enough attention and includes too many problems in the narrow framework of Art. 9, Paragraph 5 of the Civil Code. Regarding this aspect, we have to remember that in the process of elaborating the Organic Law of the Minor, there was a proposal of the Catalan Parliamentary Group which substituted the existing rule on acknowledgement for one that stated that «except for what has been provided for in the international agreements, the adoption constituted in a foreign country will produce the foreseen effects in Spain if it has been constituted by the state authorities of the citizenship or of the habitual residence of the adopting and of the adopted person and the required consents have been obtained. In addition, were the adopting person or one of the adopting persons be a Spaniard, the requirements of capacity and consent will have to be met, requirements equivalent to those foreseen in Spanish Law and if thisadoption is not openly against public order, taking into account the best interest of the child». In this way, a global regulation would be provided which would be more suitable in the majority of cases, instead of providing specific answers case by case. In juridical matters, unlike Impressionist painting, making little brush?strokes of various colours does not give good results.