Emotional Hearing from Mother and Baby Homes Delegation

[me b zola]

~snip~

Illegal adoption practices including forced separation of mothers from children, vaccine trials on children without consent, and forced labour in terrible conditions were just some of the human rights abuses highlighted at today's hearing.

Several women present were able to give affecting first-hand accounts of their experiences. Particularly disturbing were descriptions of children being forcibly "kidnapped" from their mothers and sold on what was essentially an "adoption market"


~snip~

The audience also heard from individuals who had been born in to "Mother and Baby Homes". Despite having mothers who wanted them they were treated as orphans and spent the early years of their life in some of Irelands Industrial Schools, many being subjected to both physical and sexual abuse. Others from the Bethany Home Group told of being "farmed out" to work as child labourers.

The Irish State has also been putting many barriers in place for those who wish to track down their parents and siblings whom they were separated from at birth. The documents and records necessary are currently being held by the HSE yet victims are being told they will have to wait 4-8 years before they will have access.

~more @ link~
http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/31417

THIS is women's history. This is NOT a thing of the past, it just has a happier face slapped on it now. Poor and at risk mothers deserve to mother their children, not be preyed upon by a multi-billion dollar adoption industry.

[beam me up scottie]

1. Thank you for being a voice, me b zola.

[me b zola]

2. You are welcome, BMUS

Silence continues the cultural wrongs. So often it really hurts to speak out, but to remain silent is more painful.

Adoptee rights and First Mother rights are intertwined. We must break through the "hush" and tell our stories and speak our truths.

[beam me up scottie]

3. It costs you, I know.

But I have learned much from you, your courage is inspiring.

[me b zola]

4. Eddie Vedder is not an adoptee, but he is an honnored member of our tribe

[me b zola]

5. Sarah Mclachlan & Darryl McDanniels are both adoptees. Yuppers.

[me b zola]

6. I love that DMC begins this video with a photo of Brother Malcolm

We want our original birth certificates. We want our history and our heritage.

Just a side note: even if I were granted my original birth certificate~fofl~it would likely be as nasty a lie as my adopted name. You see, on my adoption records with my non-identifying information was the name supposedly given to me by my mother. Well, those clever lying nuns thought it cute to exchange my middle name for my first. Fortunately, when I called my mother for the first time she knew who I was and cried my true & real name over and over. I knew my name when it was called.

[me b zola]

7. I knew my name when it was called...

[beam me up scottie]

8. kick

[Lost In America]

9. Where does Ireland stand on adoptions by gay and lesbian couples?

Just asking.

[me b zola]

10. Why is that when adoptees post about things that effect us...

...so many comments are concerns for adoptive parents (or those who wish to be adoptive parents)?

I don't know Irish laws regarding who of their citizens can adopt. I know that for a while because of their atrocious history of baby snatching they had banned adoptions to foreigners (unless of course you are a Romney).

[beam me up scottie]

11. That's a really good question.

I wanted to know too, here's what I found:

From Wiki's LGBT rights in the Republic of Ireland page:

Irish adoption law currently only allows for applications to adopt children by married couples or single applicants. It is therefore not possible for a gay couple to jointly apply to adopt, but a single gay person or one partner of a couple may apply. Even though joint-adoption by a gay couple is not possible, a same-sex couple may submit a joint application to foster children. Additionally, lesbian couples can get access to IVF and assisted insemination treatment. In January 2014, Government Minister for Justice and Equality Alan Shatter announced that the government intends bringing in laws by the end of the year to extend guardianship, custody, and access rights to the non-biological parents of children in same-sex relationships and children born through surrogacy and sperm and egg donation.

and this from The Irish Examiner

Equal parent rights for gay couples
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
By Caroline O’Doherty

Gay couples will get equal parenting rights regardless of whether the referendum on same sex marriage is passed.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter intends bringing in laws by the end of the year to extend guardianship, custody, and access rights to the non-biological parents of children in same-sex relationships and children born through surrogacy and sperm and egg donation.

However, he also said the more controversial issue of adoption by same-sex couples and civil partners would be legislated for no matter how the outcome of next year’s referendum goes.

“There is a simple message about this referendum. This isn’t a complicated issue. It’s about one very simple issue which is whether people of the same sex should be allowed celebrate a ceremony that’s called marriage as opposed to celebrate a ceremony that’s called civil partnership. I think it’s very simple. I don’t think it’s any more complex than that. There’s no other issues that arise because much of the issues that will arise will have been addressed.”

A draft Children and Family Relationships Bill will be discussed by Cabinet shortly and considered by Oireachtas committee by Easter, he said. It will be finalised by July and be ready for Dáil debate by September with the intention of enacting it by December.

While adoption is not currently in the bill, the minister said it would also be tackled. “Since 1952 an individual can adopt regardless of his or her sexual orientation. It makes no logical sense where an individual who is gay can individually adopt that a couple in a civil partnership should not be able to adopt. These are issues to be addressed whether or not we have same-sex marriage.”

[LiberalAndProud]

12. Can you tell me why Susan Lohan believes that this was a

"systematic social engineering policy devised by Church and State." To what end?

I'm not challenging the assertion. I would like to better understand the political and religious underpinnings.

[me b zola]

13. Many of our Irish and UK counterparts speak about the collusion of church and state when

discussing how the practices of adoption came to be able to bestow such pain on their citizens. In the US we speak more about the billion dollar adoption industry.

Not really being able to speak from the Irish voice let alone for a person whom I do not know, I found this dissertation on-line. I hope it helps some:

Overall the dissertation argues that adoption is often used as a form of State social engineering to
attempt to produce better, more functionally acceptable families. It maintains that
contested adoption is linked to patriarchal and class based social control. The
dissertation also argues that birth mothers who have experienced contested adoption
face increasing disempowerment, inequality and social injustice within the legal
process and through institutional, professional involvement and government policy. It
contends that such birth mothers suffer social and cultural disadvantage through social
exclusion, social stigma, identity issues and lack of independent support during and
following the adoption process.

http://www.fassit.co.uk/pdf/Contested%20Adoption%20-%20The%20Social%20Engineering%20of%20Families.pdf

While the catholic church in Ireland was responsible for its reprehensible adoption practices there, here in the US the changes in adoption law came in the early 20th century largely due to a woman named Georgia Tann~and the motives were pure profit.