Essay/Term paper: International adoption

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Sociology Essays

The birth of a girl has never been a cause for celebration in China, and
stories of

peasant farmers drowning newborn girls in buckets of water have been
commonplace for

centuries. Now, however, as a direct result of the one-child policy, the
number of baby

girls being abandoned, aborted, or dumped on orphanage steps is
unprecedented.


Adopting Internationally

Adoption is procedure by which people legally assume the role of parents
for a
person who is not their biological child. Adopted children become full
members of
their adopted family and have the same legal status as biological children.
Although
the majority of people who adopt are married couples, many single people
also adopt.
Many people seek to adopt when they discover that they cannot give birth to
biological children. Others adopt children to add new members to a family
that
includes biological children. Many people adopt simply to give a home and
family to
children who might not otherwise have them. Likewise, children become
available for
adoption for a variety of reasons. Some children are orphans. Some
biological
parents make arrangements for their children to be adopted because they
cannot care
for them due to illness or personal problems. Other children are abandoned
by their
biological parents (Adoption, CD-ROM).
Adoption is a common practice throughout the world and throughout history.
However, laws regulating adoption vary from country to country. People
seeking to
adopt in a country other than the one in which they live, a process known as
international adoption, should familiarize themselves with the laws of that
country.
Similarly, although every province recognizes adoption, provincial laws
regarding
specific aspects of adoption vary.
INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION
A significant number of people seek to adopt children from other countries,
a
process known as international adoption. People seek to adopt abroad for
many
1
reasons. Many people want to adopt an infant or a very young child. Some
also
hope to adopt children who share their ethnic heritage. Such prospective
parents may
find a shortage of suitable children available for adoption in Canada.
Publicity
regarding the availability of infants in a particular country also
encourages some
people to seek to adopt there. Many people adopt abroad because of
anxieties
regarding domestic adoptions, especially fears that the birth mother will
refuse to
proceed with an arranged adoption after she gives birth to the child. In a
few,
well-publicized cases in the United States, biological parents have
attempted to
reclaim their child years after it was adopted, adding to the worries of
prospective
parents (Adoption Services, Internet).
Three methods can be used for international adoption. The majority of
prospective adoptive parents use an adoption agency. Others consult
adoption
facilitators in Canada. Some prospective parents choose to establish direct
communication with contacts in a particular country. Many
provincial-licensed
adoption agencies place children from other countries. These agencies are
familiar
with the adoption laws of foreign countries and usually maintain contacts in
countries
where many children are waiting to be adopted. Agencies send information
about the
adoptive parents directly to their contacts, who then locate an appropriate
child for
the adoptive parents (Adoption, CD-ROM).
Facilitators in the United States also help prospective parents locate
suitable
children abroad. Facilitators usually have foreign contacts who help
resolve legal
issues pertaining to adoption in a particular country. In some cases,
facilitators travel

2
to other countries and directly assist in adoptions. Prospective parents
can also work
with facilitators in another country or deal directly with foreign
institutions, such as
orphanages (Adoption, CD-ROM).
People who wish to adopt abroad must follow the procedures and requirements
of the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration (CCI). Before an international
adoption
can go forward, the results of a home study and extensive documentation must
be
submitted to both the and the courts in the child's country of origin.
Required
documentation usually includes birth certificates, marriage certificates,
letters of
employment, medical letters, and personal references (Americans Adopting,
Internet).
The legal process in the child's country of origin results in either a full
and final
adoption or a guardianship, in which the prospective parent is granted
custody of the
child until the adoption is finalized. If a full and final adoption has been
approved in
the child's country of origin and the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration
has
permitted the child to enter Canada, parents can usually get a Canadian
birth
certificate and citizenship papers without readopting the child in the
Canada.
However, the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration recommend readopting in
Canada. When a guardianship is established in the child's country of
origin,
prospective parents must complete normal pre-adoption procedures, such as a
home
study, in their local county court in order to obtain a visa for the child.
The adoption
must be finalized when the child comes to live in Canada.
All adoptive parents worry about the health of their adopted children. In
many
developing nations and in some countries of Eastern Europe, poor medical
treatment
can lead to health problems among young children. Medical records may be
3
unavailable or incomplete. Prospective parents should consult a physician
regarding
the health of the child they are seeking to adopt prior to the adoption.
After a child
has been adopted from abroad, parents should try to find a pediatrician who
is
familiar with the medical conditions in the country in which the child was
born. Many
local hospitals in Canada have doctors on staff who are well-versed in this
area.
TRANSRACIAL ADOPTIONS
Additional issues arise when adopted children come from a different culture
than
their adoptive parents. Adoptions in which the adoptive parents and their
adopted
child are of different races, known as transracial adoptions, pose special
difficulties.
When children belong to a different race than either of their parents,
others in the
community very quickly become aware that the children are adopted.
Transracial
adoptive families often face everything from innocent curiosity to outright
hostility
and prejudice. Many adoptive parents educate themselves about their child's
birth
culture so that they can offer their child support and help build
self-esteem (Wong,
Globe and Mail).
Some people believe transracial adoptions should be allowed only as a last
resort or banned altogether. Other groups feel just as strongly that race
should not be
a consideration in the placement of children. In 1994 United States
Congress passed
the Multiethnic Placement Act, which forbid adoption agencies from
establishing
separate waiting lists to match children with adoptive families of similar
ethnic or
racial heritage. However, the act permits agencies to consider ethnicity and
race as
one factor in determining the best home for a child (Frequently, Internet).

4
ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
In 1979 China initiated the "One-Child Population Control Policy". This
meant
that their could only be one child per couple. Women's menstrual cycles
became
publicly monitored, and they had to have there pregnancies authorized. All
unauthorized pregnancies were terminated by abortion when detected
regardless of
what stage the pregnancy was in.. They use forceps to crush the babies
skull, or they
inject a pure formaldehyde into the soft cap of the baby's head during or
upon birth.
These are their means of "aborting" fully developed babies. Drowning or
smothering
occurs in rural areas. All women with one child have a mandatory insertion
of an
IUD. A one size large steel "O" ring IUD is used. There is mandatory
sterilization of
couples with two or more children (One-Child, Internet).
This policy created a high rate of infanticide and abandonment of female
babies,
because in accordance with Chinese tradition, daughters join the families of
their
husbands upon marriage and are seldom able to offer support or care for
their parents
in old age. By 1990 thousands of ultrasounds machines were being imported
to
China. Domestic factories in China began manufacturing at the rate of 10
000 a year.
In 1993 authorities banned the use of ultrasound for the purpose of sex
selection, but
the ban seems to be virtually unenforceable. Reports of sex ratios at birth
for some
areas has been 300 males to 100 females. A 1991 article in a Shanghai
journal
warned that if the sex ratios continued to rise, by the end of the century
China would
have an army of bachelors numbering some 70 million strong (One-Child,
Internet).
Official data on abortions show the annual number of abortions increased
between 1985 and 1990. Official data on birth control surgeries after 1990
are not
5
available. In 1983, the all-time peak year, family planning work teams
carried out 21
million sterilization's, 18 millions IUD insertions, and 14 million
abortions (79
percent of the 21 million sterilization's performed were performed on women)
(One-Child, Internet).
Women who resist abortions for unauthorized pregnancies are harassed,
visited
repeatedly, and sometimes held by family planning workers until they comply.
Night
raids have occurred to capture women hiding or trying to flee from the birth
planning
workers. If a couple does have an unauthorized child the fines are so big
that they
often exceed the family's total income. The illegal children (unauthorized
births) are
not entered on the population register so the child receives no medical
benefits, no
grain rations, no opportunity to attend school, and no chance for employment
(One-Child, Internet).
A man and his child stand in front of a billboard that advocates a policy of
one child
per family in China. The Chinese government's campaign for one-child
families, along
with its promotion of birth control and late marriages, has slowed the
growth of
China's huge population (China, CD-ROM).






6


(China, CD-ROM)
Because of this policy there are an exceptional numbers of children in
orphanages
waiting to be adopted.
THE DYING ROOMS OF CHINESE ORPHANAGES
The birth of a girl has never been a cause for celebration in China, and
stories of
peasant farmers drowning newborn girls in buckets of water have been
commonplace for
centuries. Now, however, as a direct result of the one-child policy, the
number of baby
girls being abandoned, aborted, or dumped on orphanage steps is
unprecedented.
It is impossible to overstate both how crucial the one-child policy is to
China's
stability and how rigidly it is enforced. Everyone agrees that if the
population, already at
1.2 billion, is allowed to grow, the result will be economic collapse,
environmental ruin,
famine (Hilditch, World Press Review).
7
But while most Chinese citizens can accept the mathematics of the problem,
the
population continues to rise. Every year, some 21 million children are
born. In March,
President Jiang Zemin was forced to set new, tougher population control
policies and
tougher punishments for those who ignore them (Driedger, Maclean's).
According to author Steven W. Mosher, coerced abortions, sometimes just
days
before the baby is due, are now commonplace, as are reports of enforced
sterilization and
of hospitals fatally injecting second babies shortly after their birth.
This means, Mosher
says, that "however overcrowded China's orphanages are now with baby girls,
the problem
is going to get worse. Very much worse."
For Kate Blewett, producer of The Dying Rooms, the investigation was a
journey
into the heart of darkness, "I did not know human beings could treat
children with such
contempt, such cruelty. Some of the orphanages we visited were little more
than death
camps." (Hilditch, World Press Review).
To protect the Chinese who helped the team that gained access to orphanage,
the
documentary does not name any of the orphanages. In one, a dozen or so baby
girls sit on
bamboo benches in the middle of a courtyard. Their wrists and ankles are
tied to the
armrests and legs of the bench. A row of plastic buckets is lined up
beneath holes in their
seats to catch their urine and excrement. The children will not be moved
again until night,
when they will be lifted out and tied to their beds.
They have no stimulation, nothing to play with, no one to touch them. In
one
scene, a handicapped older boy walks up to one of the girls tied to a bench
and begins
head-butting her relentlessly. The girl doesn't move or make a sound.
Such is the lack of

8
stimulation for the children that few of them will ever learn to speak. An
endless rocking
is the only exercise, the only stimulation, the only pleasure in their
lives.
An official of the orphanage says the orphanage had some 400 inmates last
year.
They were kept five to a bed in one airless room. The summer temperatures
soared to
around 100 degrees. In a couple of weeks, 20 percent of the babies died.
"If 80 children
died last summer, there should be 320 left," Dr. Blewett says to one of the
assistants, "but
there don't appear to be more than a couple of dozen children here. Where
are the others?"
The girl replies: "They disappear. If I ask where they go, I am just told
they die. That's all.
I am afraid to ask any more." (Driedger, Maclean's).
Brutal neglect is the common theme of many of the orphanage scenes. In
one
sequence, a lame child sits on a bench near the orphanage pharmacy. It is
full of
medicines, but none of the staff can be bothered to administer them. The
child rocks his
skinny body listlessly back and forth. .
The worst orphanage is in Guangdong, one of the richest provinces in China.
When the documentary team arrived, there were no children to be seen or
heard. Then
from under one of the blankets laid over a cot, there was the sound of
crying. Lifting the
blanket and unwrapping a tied bundle of cloth, their was a baby girl. The
last layer of her
swaddling was a plastic bag filled with urine and feces. The next cot was
the same, and
the next and the next. Many of the children had deep lesions where the
string they were
tied with had cut into their bodies. One child, described by staff as
"normal," was
suffering from vitamin B and C deficiencies, acute liver failure, and severe
impetigo on her
scalp. All the non-handicapped children were girls.

9
The Chinese government was approached several times, both in Beijing and at
its
London embassy, to provide comment or an interview for the film.
Eventually, the
documentary's producers received a two-page letter from the London embassy.
"The so-called dying rooms do not exist in China at all," the letter read.
"Our
investigations confirm that those reports are vicious fabrications made out
of ulterior
motives. The contemptible lie about China's welfare work in orphanages
cannot but
arouse the indignation of the Chinese people, especially the great number of
social
workers who are working hard for children's welfare."(Adoption, CD-ROM).
The day after the program was shown, questions were raised in the House of
Commons about China's one-child policy and its dying rooms. Predictably,
however, no
one has raised the subject of providing massive aid for a collapsed and
famine-ridden
China in the event of its population rising to, say, 2.4 billion if this
generation is allowed to
have two children per family.
"We don't want to criticize the one-child policy," says Dr. Blewett. "But
we want
to focus on the problems it is causing which can be solved." The documentary
features a
tour of a privately run, locally funded orphanage where the children are
happy, healthy,
and loved. "We were very keen to show what can be done with the right
attitude," says
Blewett. "No child should suffer the kind of neglect we filmed." (Hilditch,
World Wide
Press).
The birth of a girl has never been a cause for celebration in China, and
stories of

peasant farmers drowning newborn girls in buckets of water have been
commonplace for

centuries. Now, however, as a direct result of the one-child policy, the
number of baby

girls being abandoned, aborted, or dumped on orphanage steps is
unprecedented.


Adopting Internationally

Adoption is procedure by which people legally assume the role of parents
for a
person who is not their biological child. Adopted children become full
members of
their adopted family and have the same legal status as biological children.
Although
the majority of people who adopt are married couples, many single people
also adopt.
Many people seek to adopt when they discover that they cannot give birth to
biological children. Others adopt children to add new members to a family
that
includes biological children. Many people adopt simply to give a home and
family to
children who might not otherwise have them. Likewise, children become
available for
adoption for a variety of reasons. Some children are orphans. Some
biological
parents make arrangements for their children to be adopted because they
cannot care
for them due to illness or personal problems. Other children are abandoned
by their
biological parents (Adoption, CD-ROM).
Adoption is a common practice throughout the world and throughout history.
However, laws regulating adoption vary from country to country. People
seeking to
adopt in a country other than the one in which they live, a process known as
international adoption, should familiarize themselves with the laws of that
country.
Similarly, although every province recognizes adoption, provincial laws
regarding
specific aspects of adoption vary.
INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION
A significant number of people seek to adopt children from other countries,
a
process known as international adoption. People seek to adopt abroad for
many
1
reasons. Many people want to adopt an infant or a very young child. Some
also
hope to adopt children who share their ethnic heritage. Such prospective
parents may
find a shortage of suitable children available for adoption in Canada.
Publicity
regarding the availability of infants in a particular country also
encourages some
people to seek to adopt there. Many people adopt abroad because of
anxieties
regarding domestic adoptions, especially fears that the birth mother will
refuse to
proceed with an arranged adoption after she gives birth to the child. In a
few,
well-publicized cases in the United States, biological parents have
attempted to
reclaim their child years after it was adopted, adding to the worries of
prospective
parents (Adoption Services, Internet).
Three methods can be used for international adoption. The majority of
prospective adoptive parents use an adoption agency. Others consult
adoption
facilitators in Canada. Some prospective parents choose to establish direct
communication with contacts in a particular country. Many
provincial-licensed
adoption agencies place children from other countries. These agencies are
familiar
with the adoption laws of foreign countries and usually maintain contacts in
countries
where many children are waiting to be adopted. Agencies send information
about the
adoptive parents directly to their contacts, who then locate an appropriate
child for
the adoptive parents (Adoption, CD-ROM).
Facilitators in the United States also help prospective parents locate
suitable
children abroad. Facilitators usually have foreign contacts who help
resolve legal
issues pertaining to adoption in a particular country. In some cases,
facilitators travel

2
to other countries and directly assist in adoptions. Prospective parents
can also work
with facilitators in another country or deal directly with foreign
institutions, such as
orphanages (Adoption, CD-ROM).
People who wish to adopt abroad must follow the procedures and requirements
of the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration (CCI). Before an international
adoption
can go forward, the results of a home study and extensive documentation must
be
submitted to both the and the courts in the child's country of origin.
Required
documentation usually includes birth certificates, marriage certificates,
letters of
employment, medical letters, and personal references (Americans Adopting,
Internet).
The legal process in the child's country of origin results in either a full
and final
adoption or a guardianship, in which the prospective parent is granted
custody of the
child until the adoption is finalized. If a full and final adoption has been
approved in
the child's country of origin and the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration
has
permitted the child to enter Canada, parents can usually get a Canadian
birth
certificate and citizenship papers without readopting the child in the
Canada.
However, the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration recommend readopting in
Canada. When a guardianship is established in the child's country of
origin,
prospective parents must complete normal pre-adoption procedures, such as a
home
study, in their local county court in order to obtain a visa for the child.
The adoption
must be finalized when the child comes to live in Canada.
All adoptive parents worry about the health of their adopted children. In
many
developing nations and in some countries of Eastern Europe, poor medical
treatment
can lead to health problems among young children. Medical records may be
3
unavailable or incomplete. Prospective parents should consult a physician
regarding
the health of the child they are seeking to adopt prior to the adoption.
After a child
has been adopted from abroad, parents should try to find a pediatrician who
is
familiar with the medical conditions in the country in which the child was
born. Many
local hospitals in Canada have doctors on staff who are well-versed in this
area.
TRANSRACIAL ADOPTIONS
Additional issues arise when adopted children come from a different culture
than
their adoptive parents. Adoptions in which the adoptive parents and their
adopted
child are of different races, known as transracial adoptions, pose special
difficulties.
When children belong to a different race than either of their parents,
others in the
community very quickly become aware that the children are adopted.
Transracial
adoptive families often face everything from innocent curiosity to outright
hostility
and prejudice. Many adoptive parents educate themselves about their child's
birth
culture so that they can offer their child support and help build
self-esteem (Wong,
Globe and Mail).
Some people believe transracial adoptions should be allowed only as a last
resort or banned altogether. Other groups feel just as strongly that race
should not be
a consideration in the placement of children. In 1994 United States
Congress passed
the Multiethnic Placement Act, which forbid adoption agencies from
establishing
separate waiting lists to match children with adoptive families of similar
ethnic or
racial heritage. However, the act permits agencies to consider ethnicity and
race as
one factor in determining the best home for a child (Frequently, Internet).

4
ONE CHILD POLICY IN CHINA
In 1979 China initiated the "One-Child Population Control Policy". This
meant
that their could only be one child per couple. Women's menstrual cycles
became
publicly monitored, and they had to have there pregnancies authorized. All
unauthorized pregnancies were terminated by abortion when detected
regardless of
what stage the pregnancy was in.. They use forceps to crush the babies
skull, or they
inject a pure formaldehyde into the soft cap of the baby's head during or
upon birth.
These are their means of "aborting" fully developed babies. Drowning or
smothering
occurs in rural areas. All women with one child have a mandatory insertion
of an
IUD. A one size large steel "O" ring IUD is used. There is mandatory
sterilization of
couples with two or more children (One-Child, Internet).
This policy created a high rate of infanticide and abandonment of female
babies,
because in accordance with Chinese tradition, daughters join the families of
their
husbands upon marriage and are seldom able to offer support or care for
their parents
in old age. By 1990 thousands of ultrasounds machines were being imported
to
China. Domestic factories in China began manufacturing at the rate of 10
000 a year.
In 1993 authorities banned the use of ultrasound for the purpose of sex
selection, but
the ban seems to be virtually unenforceable. Reports of sex ratios at birth
for some
areas has been 300 males to 100 females. A 1991 article in a Shanghai
journal
warned that if the sex ratios continued to rise, by the end of the century
China would
have an army of bachelors numbering some 70 million strong (One-Child,
Internet).
Official data on abortions show the annual number of abortions increased
between 1985 and 1990. Official data on birth control surgeries after 1990
are not
5
available. In 1983, the all-time peak year, family planning work teams
carried out 21
million sterilization's, 18 millions IUD insertions, and 14 million
abortions (79
percent of the 21 million sterilization's performed were performed on women)
(One-Child, Internet).
Women who resist abortions for unauthorized pregnancies are harassed,
visited
repeatedly, and sometimes held by family planning workers until they comply.
Night
raids have occurred to capture women hiding or trying to flee from the birth
planning
workers. If a couple does have an unauthorized child the fines are so big
that they
often exceed the family's total income. The illegal children (unauthorized
births) are
not entered on the population register so the child receives no medical
benefits, no
grain rations, no opportunity to attend school, and no chance for employment
(One-Child, Internet).
A man and his child stand in front of a billboard that advocates a policy of
one child
per family in China. The Chinese government's campaign for one-child
families, along
with its promotion of birth control and late marriages, has slowed the
growth of
China's huge population (China, CD-ROM).






6


(China, CD-ROM)
Because of this policy there are an exceptional numbers of children in
orphanages
waiting to be adopted.
THE DYING ROOMS OF CHINESE ORPHANAGES
The birth of a girl has never been a cause for celebration in China, and
stories of
peasant farmers drowning newborn girls in buckets of water have been
commonplace for
centuries. Now, however, as a direct result of the one-child policy, the
number of baby
girls being abandoned, aborted, or dumped on orphanage steps is
unprecedented.
It is impossible to overstate both how crucial the one-child policy is to
China's
stability and how rigidly it is enforced. Everyone agrees that if the
population, already at
1.2 billion, is allowed to grow, the result will be economic collapse,
environmental ruin,
famine (Hilditch, World Press Review).
7
But while most Chinese citizens can accept the mathematics of the problem,
the
population continues to rise. Every year, some 21 million children are
born. In March,
President Jiang Zemin was forced to set new, tougher population control
policies and
tougher punishments for those who ignore them (Driedger, Maclean's).
According to author Steven W. Mosher, coerced abortions, sometimes just
days
before the baby is due, are now commonplace, as are reports of enforced
sterilization and
of hospitals fatally injecting second babies shortly after their birth.
This means, Mosher
says, that "however overcrowded China's orphanages are now with baby girls,
the problem
is going to get worse. Very much worse."
For Kate Blewett, producer of The Dying Rooms, the investigation was a
journey
into the heart of darkness, "I did not know human beings could treat
children with such
contempt, such cruelty. Some of the orphanages we visited were little more
than death
camps." (Hilditch, World Press Review).
To protect the Chinese who helped the team that gained access to orphanage,
the
documentary does not name any of the orphanages. In one, a dozen or so baby
girls sit on
bamboo benches in the middle of a courtyard. Their wrists and ankles are
tied to the
armrests and legs of the bench. A row of plastic buckets is lined up
beneath holes in their
seats to catch their urine and excrement. The children will not be moved
again until night,
when they will be lifted out and tied to their beds.
They have no stimulation, nothing to play with, no one to touch them. In
one
scene, a handicapped older boy walks up to one of the girls tied to a bench
and begins
head-butting her relentlessly. The girl doesn't move or make a sound.
Such is the lack of

8
stimulation for the children that few of them will ever learn to speak. An
endless rocking
is the only exercise, the only stimulation, the only pleasure in their
lives.
An official of the orphanage says the orphanage had some 400 inmates last
year.
They were kept five to a bed in one airless room. The summer temperatures
soared to
around 100 degrees. In a couple of weeks, 20 percent of the babies died.
"If 80 children
died last summer, there should be 320 left," Dr. Blewett says to one of the
assistants, "but
there don't appear to be more than a couple of dozen children here. Where
are the others?"
The girl replies: "They disappear. If I ask where they go, I am just told
they die. That's all.
I am afraid to ask any more." (Driedger, Maclean's).
Brutal neglect is the common theme of many of the orphanage scenes. In
one
sequence, a lame child sits on a bench near the orphanage pharmacy. It is
full of
medicines, but none of the staff can be bothered to administer them. The
child rocks his
skinny body listlessly back and forth. .
The worst orphanage is in Guangdong, one of the richest provinces in China.
When the documentary team arrived, there were no children to be seen or
heard. Then
from under one of the blankets laid over a cot, there was the sound of
crying. Lifting the
blanket and unwrapping a tied bundle of cloth, their was a baby girl. The
last layer of her
swaddling was a plastic bag filled with urine and feces. The next cot was
the same, and
the next and the next. Many of the children had deep lesions where the
string they were
tied with had cut into their bodies. One child, described by staff as
"normal," was
suffering from vitamin B and C deficiencies, acute liver failure, and severe
impetigo on her
scalp. All the non-handicapped children were girls.

9
The Chinese government was approached several times, both in Beijing and at
its
London embassy, to provide comment or an interview for the film.
Eventually, the
documentary's producers received a two-page letter from the London embassy.
"The so-called dying rooms do not exist in China at all," the letter read.
"Our
investigations confirm that those reports are vicious fabrications made out
of ulterior
motives. The contemptible lie about China's welfare work in orphanages
cannot but
arouse the indignation of the Chinese people, especially the great number of
social
workers who are working hard for children's welfare."(Adoption, CD-ROM).
The day after the program was shown, questions were raised in the House of
Commons about China's one-child policy and its dying rooms. Predictably,
however, no
one has raised the subject of providing massive aid for a collapsed and
famine-ridden
China in the event of its population rising to, say, 2.4 billion if this
generation is allowed to
have two children per family.
"We don't want to criticize the one-child policy," says Dr. Blewett. "But
we want
to focus on the problems it is causing which can be solved." The documentary
features a
tour of a privately run, locally funded orphanage where the children are
happy, healthy,
and loved. "We were very keen to show what can be done with the right
attitude," says
Blewett. "No child should suffer the kind of neglect we filmed." (Hilditch,
World Wide
Press).