Kid Dumping in International Adoption

Celebrities like Madonna and Angelina and Brad have apparently caused a rise in the number of children in international orphanages. Psychologists at the University of Liverpool have found the highest rates of children living in institutions are in Eastern European Countries.

The study reveals that in countries like Spain and France that families are choosing to adopt healthy, white children from international countries instead of children from their own countries, mainly of ethnic minorities.

The media, as well as the study, have labeled this the “Madonna-effect” after the singer’s high profile adoption from Malawi in 2006.

“Some argue that international adoption is, in part, a solution to the large number of children in institutional care, but we have found the opposite is true,” said child psychologist Professor Kevin Browne.

“Closely linked to the Madonna-effect, we found that parents in poor countries are now giving up their children in the belief that they will have a ‘better life in the west’ with a more wealthy family,” Browne said.

“Some celebrities have unwittingly encouraged international adoption, yet it has been shown that 96 per cent of children in orphanages across Europe and probably across the globe are not true orphans and have at least one parent, often known to local authorities,” he added.

Do you think this is true or is this just media frenzy? Will children have better lives in other countries?

Do we SAVE them?