The vast majority of domestic and international adoptions turn out satisfactorily, but not all do. That was made clear earlier this month when a Tennessee woman put her adoptive son, then 7, on a plane, alone, to Russia with a note saying that she “no longer wishes to parent the child” and asking that he be returned to the orphanage from which he was adopted.
Torry Ann Hansen, from Shelbyville, says that her adopted son, had severe psychological problems and that officials at the Russian orphanage misled her and her family about his condition. Orphanage officials deny that is the case. Whatever the truth, Ms. Hansen’s act — sending the youngster back to Russia by himself — is not acceptable, even if it was an act of desperation.
The facts about the boy and his adoption might never be fully known. His adoptive family says the boy was prone to bouts of rage that included hitting, screaming and spitting at his mother, threatening to kill other family members and to burn down his new home. Ms. Hansen’s adoption agency and orphanage officials say the conduct should not have been a surprise. Both say they offered extensive information about the possibility of problems that can affect adoptees from institutionalized settings. Sadly, those problems occur more frequently than the general public knows.
Indeed, the blaze of publicity about the Hansen case has brought attention to the fact that not all adoptions end with a happy family. Some — a very few, adoption experts are careful to say — go horribly wrong with terrible consequences for the child and parents. Ms. Hansen’s action also prompted international outrage.
Russia, the third largest source of adoptions to the United States following China and Ethiopia in 2009, immediately suspended all U.S.-Russian adoptions after the young boy arrived from Tennessee. That leaves many U.S. families and thousands of Russian kids in limbo. Russian officials say adoptions currently underway will not proceed until a new pact about adoption is negotiated. That make sense.
The talks to do so were supposed to begin this week, but U.S. officials were unable to fly to Moscow on Monday because of volcanic ash. When the talks do start next week, both countries should acknowledge faults in the current system.
The United States should tighten rules governing international adoptions. That should include mandatory preadoption conferences to discuss possible problems in detail. Post-adoption follow-ups and easy access to information about available help in stressful situations should be mandated as well. Surely, such resources would have aided Ms. Hansen and others like her whose problems seem intractable.
Russia should acknowledge that its orphanages and adoption agencies sometimes fail to provide vital information to prospective parents about a child’s emotional and physical health. It should agree to provide assistance and oversight to help mitigate the problem.
A new U.S.-Russia pact on adoption could be beneficial. It could address obvious woes in the current system, allow families already engaged in the process to move forward, and, perhaps, serve as a template for broader international pacts on adoption. If that came to pass, it would be a happy outcome of the callous act of putting a young, adopted boy on a plane to fly alone from Tennessee to Russia.