07.30.08 International Adoption Becoming Difficult Amid Treaties, Regulation
From PBS.org
"JUDY WOODRUFF: Since the early '90s, Americans have adopted more and more children from overseas. In fact, international adoptions in the U.S. have tripled over that time, to more than 20,000 a year.
But over the past three years, that growth has begun to slow down, and it may drop even more. That's partly due to disputes over a global treaty known as the Hague Convention on International Adoption. It creates new protections against child trafficking and stricter requirements for adoption agencies.
The U.S. has signed on to the treaty, but since then has reached an impasse with Vietnam. As of today, Vietnam is not accepting new adoption applications from the U.S.
That's not the only problem: Troubles have arisen with adoptions from Guatemala, Russia, and a few other countries. All of this is of great concern to the thousands of American families looking to adopt from overseas."
