This internal
memo summarized the questions that many potential adoptive parents
(known as PAPs) had about international
adoption.
1. PAPs often ask what are the qualifications needed to adopt a
foreign child: Explain that the qualifications are the same as for
adopting a local child. Also explain the role and way of working
of ISS as an international agency, working through local agencies
and through its Branches abroad. Applications should be made in
writing giving the basic information (names, age, address, occupation
and religious denomination, and stating what kind of child the PAPs
have in mind in terms of nationality). Point out that the agency’s
aim is to find a suitable home for a child, rather than a suitable
child for the client’s home. Religious qualifications and
special problems such as personality defects, or sickness, have
to be handled by the local agency since the regulations vary from
state to state.
2. Jewish Applicants: Ninety per cent of the telephone calls come
from Jewish parents. There are no Jewish children available in Europe
or Israel. Israeli government appeals in behalf of children in orphanages
but will not release them out of the country. It is necessary to
explain the situation in a positive way, pointing out the strong
family ties in the Jewish culture. Explain the need for homes for
Korean-American children who are available and could be considered
since they have not been baptized and the father and mother in most
cases are unknown. Wording of such suggestion has to be careful
since it might be felt as discrimination by those Jewish people
who themselves, feel that a half-Asian child is somehow regarded
as “inferior.”
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