According to authorities in the US and Russia it is too early to tell whether any kind of criminal charges against a US woman who adopted a Russian orphan and then put the seven-year-old boy on a plane alone to Moscow after she determined that he was violent and psychopathic and she could not care for him. Whether she is prosecuted or not, the adoptive mother is clearly guilty of hard-heartedness and indifference. International adoption is generally a well-regulated process with any number of checks and balances in place to safeguard the well-being of the adopted child and to assure parents that any identifiable physical or mental health problem has been disclosed. In the case of the US woman and the seven-year-old boy, something clearly went wrong. So far, we have only the mother's note given to the boy to carry on his flight to Moscow that says that he was “violent” and “psychopath[ic]”. We don't know if the problems she observed were present in the boy before she took custody – such children often suffer from problems adapting to a new environment, especially after being institutionalized in their home countries for years – or did they occur only after the adoption. If the former, then clearly those offering the boy for adoption were at fault. On the other hand, no mother gives birth to any child with a guarantee that the child's physical and mental health will be optimum and entail no worry or discomfort on the part of the parent. Why, then, would an adoptive mother assume that right? An adopted child is not a rented child, not a starter child liable for return if he doesn't meet his mother's standards. He is a child that such an adult has agreed to raise and nurture into an adult. For the most part, international adoptions take place without a hitch. This one is very much an anomaly. But it points out the necessity of both sides in an adoption case looking out for the well-being of the child. Otherwise, it is the child who will suffer more than anyone else. __
