On July 14, 2010, Senator Leahy from Committee on the Judiciary filed the Committee’s written report on the International Adoption Simplificiation Act. The report, No. 111-220 can be found on the Library of Congress website: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=sr220&dbname=111&
PEAR supports Senate Bill 1376, the bill to restore immunization and sibling age exemptions for children adopted by United States citizens under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. This act allows waivers of the immigration immunization requirements for children adopted from Hague partner countries. It also allows children up to the age of 18 to be adopted and admitted into the US if they are siblings of previously adopted children. This bill addresses oversights in the drafting of the Hague Regulations and brings those regulations into parity with existing international adoption law and policy on immunization waivers and sibling adoptions in non-Hague programs.
We encourage prospective and adoptive parents to read the report and actively support this legislation.
Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
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I saw this morning that the legislation went through. I'm interested in why PEAR believes this is a good idea. I do too, but, on the surface, it doesn't seem to have a lot to do with adoption ethics. Obviously, I could be wrong.
My understanding is that this bill will allow orphans who are 16 or 17 years old to be adopted as long as a younger sibling from the same family either has been, or is in the process of being adopted. This is a very important bill to us personally because we are adopting a 14 year old from Latvia but without this bill passing her 16 (soon to be 17) year old sister will be left behind. We feel certain that we are not the only people who wish to adopt teen siblings but are being stopped by the lack of provision to do so due to the Hague Treaty. Please support this bill.