Returned Russian child spotlights international adoption problems

“Russia and other countries could say, ‘We are not sending children to the US anymore,' ” says Rita Simon, an international adoption expert at American University’s Washington College of Law. “This could be very hurtful to the thousands who will now remain in orphanages and temporary care facilities instead of stable homes.”

Many who have already been through the adoption process with Russia have come forward to give the story context.

“I was amazed that someone could return a human being like they were the latest sales item on Ebay,” says Donna Bergenstock, an economics professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., who adopted a 4-month-old Russian boy in 2004.

Russian regulations 'extremely tough' and getting tougher

She says the Russian regulations were “extremely tough” then and have only tightened since.

A social worker was sent to their home for four hours, examining every room in the house. Dr. Bergenstock and her husband were fingerprinted and submitted to criminal background checks. Then, they went to Russia on two different trips, the latter to spend three weeks with the child to see if they bonded.

“There has to be hundreds or thousands of irate parents whose adoptions have been halted because of this, and that is heartbreaking,” says Bergenstock. “I am now looking over at my 6-year-old who is beautiful and has become the center of our world.”

In the current case, the adoptive boy’s grandmother – who delivered him to his direct flight from Washington to Moscow, handing him over as an unaccompanied minor – told Associated Press: “He drew a picture of our house burning down, and he’ll tell anybody that he’s going to burn our house down with us in it.”

Russian officials have suspended the license of the World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), the Renton, Wash., agency that facilitated the adoption. WACAP said in a statement that it was "saddened to learn that a child adopted from Russia traveled to Moscow without his parent."

The agency has declined to comment beyond its statement.

Mr. Pertman says that in general, institutionalized children have higher rates of behavioral disorders. There are about 600,000 orphans in Russia right now.

“We have to learn the lesson that this aberration should not drive us, but inform us,” says Pertman. “We must conclude that we adults have to do a better job, not that these kids have to be left in orphanages.”

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