After all the controversy, custody and adoption battles, Madonna could finally welcome her adoptive daughter Mercy this weekend in London, according to the Independent UK. The three-year old girl from Malawi has hit the headlines earlier this year when she was chosen by the pop diva for adoption, only to be turned down by a Malawi court in April on the grounds that according to the country’s adoption laws, an adoptive parent must have lived in Malawi for at least a year. However, the singer didn’t give up and appealed, which resulted in the original ruling being overturned on June 12. Mercy’s mother, a teenager, died at childbirth. Her father filed an objection to the adoption but has also withdrawn his case.

Mercy’s case opened up again the controversy about celebrities adopting children from impoverished countries. Inter-country adoption has become popular in recent years and some social scientists believe this is actually counterproductive and that celebrities like Madonna and Angelina Jolie and their well-publicized adoptions are clouding the issue.

Some of the objections brought forward by the critics are:

• It gives false hopes to people, sometimes leading parents to deliberately abandon their children in orphanages in the hopes that some rich celebrity would pick her/him out to enjoy a life of comfort.

• Children are uprooted and cannot grow up in familiar cultural and religious surroundings.

However, adoption advocates, especially those who have adopted children from other countries defend their choice: they can’t help every child in this world but at least they could help one or two escape poverty and disease. Surely, this is a worthy cause.

So what do you think? Are you for or against inter-country adoption? Celebrity adoption?

In the last 10 years, inter-country adoption has become popular, much more so because of well-publicized adoptions by the likes of Angelina Jolie and Madonna. Madonna was especially involved in a controversy way back in 2006 when she adopted little David from Malawi because the said child wasn?t an orphan at all. David was placed by his father (his mother had passed away) in the hope that the child gets a better life.
There is currently a heated debate going on on the ethics of inter-country adoption and how adoptions by celebrities are affecting this issue. The so-called ?Madonna-effect? has affected inter-country adoption as follows:

? A recent report by psychologists at the University of Liverpool claims that more and more families from the West are opting more and more for inter-country adoption rather than adopting children from their home country, possibly following the example that celebrities such as Madonna has set.

? The same report claims that ?Madonna-style? inter-country adoptions are increasing the number of children in orphanages in developing countries. It seems that more and more parents are giving up their children to institutions with the hopes that some rich Western family will adopt their child and provide for her/him a better life. It is estimated that about 96% of children across Europe (most in less developed Eastern Europe) are not orphans at all but have at least one living parent.

The Liverpool researchers recommend more stringent guidelines for monitoring inter-country adoption policy and practice.

Philip Ball, a columnist at Nature, and one who has opted for inter-country adoption, thinks that the report by the Liverpool researchers are full of ?gross simplifications and misleading conclusions? which actually do not help clear up the issue. It is true that inter-country adoption can lead to problems like coercion and child trafficking (remember the French aid workers who tried to smuggle ?orphans? out of Africa?)

However, these issues should not invalidate the real purpose of inter-country adoption. This controversy is rather sad because either way, it?s the children who will suffer. A December 2007 paper in Science reported that children who are moved from orphanages to foster homes showed better cognitive development than those who stayed in orphanages. The question is whether the children?s plight in orphanages is any worse than if they had stayed at home. But clearly there is a need for getting children out of orphanages as early as possible. In the end, it?s the children that matters.

Related posts on adoption:

Orphanages Impact IQ Development?

Adopting? Tax Credit Increases for 2008 and Beyond

Adoption: Laughter and Tears