Adoption is for children, not adults

ALTHOUGH Bulgaria has signed the Hague Convention for the Protection of Children in Intercountry Adoption (Irish Examiner, March 25)) and therefore Irish couples are within their rights under Irish law to seek adoptions from there, we fear that in the effort to find “available” children to adopt, that the principles of Hague are often forgotten about.

The Hague Convention quite rightly sees intercountry adoption as a measure of last resort that can only happen after every other avenue has been explored to ensure the child can remain within his/her country of origin.

Other countries, including Ireland, could learn a lot from the Japanese who have recently told Americans to cease making requests to adopt their children who may have been orphaned after the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami.