ADOPTED RUSSIAN BOY REJECTED, IN SELF DEFENSE

Driver says Russian boy looked normal
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA (AP) " 4 hours ago

MOSCOW " The driver hired to pick up a Russian boy whose adoptive American mother caused an international outcry by sending him back to Moscow says the boy looked cheerful, played with a Spider-man toy, and did not seem to show any of the mental problems the woman claims he has.

Artur Lukyanov told The Associated Press that on the way into town 7-year-old Artyom Savelyev looked like he was on a sightseeing tour, pointing at cars and boasting in English about how big the trucks were in America, opening his arms wide to show how big they were.

"The boy was in a good mood," he said. "He did not seem frightened."

Artyom flew unaccompanied to Moscow last week with a note from his adoptive mother, a nurse from Tennessee, saying she no longer wanted to keep him because he was violent and had severe "psychopathic" problems.

"I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues," Torry Hansen said in her note addressed to Russian authorities.

As a result of the case, Russia's foreign minister and its children's rights ombudsman have suggested that Russia suspend all U.S. adoptions until Moscow and Washington sign a bilateral adoption agreement.

Lukyanov, who speaks good English, said he had no idea the boy was Russian until his identity was confirmed by authorities. During the 90-minute ride into central Moscow, he even tried to teach the boy Russian words and sang an English alphabet song with him.

"He looked as if he was here on a sightseeing tour," said Lukyanov. "He would occasionally get something from his backpack, like a Spider-man toy, and say: 'It's from America. Do you have anything like this in Russia?'"

Lukyanov recalled that at the airport he thought it was strange that the boy had no luggage with him except for a small colorful backpack. But aside from being a bit thin and shy, the fair-haired Artyom seemed like an ordinary kid, the driver said.

"During the time that I spent with him I didn't notice any mental deviation," said the 38-year-old Lukyanov, who spent more than six hours with the boy last Thursday. "But perhaps he behaves differently with strangers " I don't want to pass judgments."

Russian Health Ministry officials said that tests showed the boy has no mental issues.

Nancy Hansen, whose daughter adopted Artyom from Russia's Far Eastern town of Partizansk last September, hired Lukyanov through his Web site and paid him $200 to pick the boy up from the airport, but kept him in the dark about his real mission.

Lukyanov's English-language Web site advertises services as a personal driver and tour guide who can provide visitors help with Moscow's "confusing roads."

"When I got the first e-mail I had no doubt that she was flying herself," Lukyanov said. "I feel deceived. Nancy's actions were inhuman, and she treated me inhumanely, too."

It was only in the last e-mail " the night before Artyom's arrival " that Hansen said that Lukyanov was to pick up a 7-year-old boy called "Artem Justin Hansen" and drop him off at the Education Ministry in central Moscow.

Lukyanov spent the whole day with Artyom at the ministry and then at a police station before leaving in the late afternoon, when the Russian children's rights commissioner arrived to take the boy to a hospital.

According to the driver, Artyom told authorities he did not go to school in the United States and that he cannot write. The boy replied in English to questions in Russian.

Abandoned by his alcoholic mother, Artyom was raised in an orphanage in Partizansk, some 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) away from Vladivostok. Once a rich mining town, Partizansk is now home to a dozen closed coal mines and factories.

Artyom spent the past six months in Shelbyville, Tennessee, a small town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Nashville, set amid rolling farmland in one of the state's top agricultural counties.

A U.S. delegation is heading to Russia next week to discuss a possible adoption treaty. Any adoption freeze could affect hundreds of American families. More than 1,800 Russian children were adopted in the United States last year, according to the Russian Health and Education Ministry.

At the police station, Lukyanov and social workers opened Artyom's backpack to see it was filled with toys, crayons, paper " and one pair of underpants that everyone thought was too big for the boy. "He looked pretty skinny," Lukyanov said.

Artyom was unwilling speak about his U.S. home or family, Lukyanov said, only saying that he lives with his mother and grandparents.

At the police station, social workers opened two big envelopes Artyom was carrying. The boy's passport and other identifying documents were in one of them.

The other contained two smaller sealed envelopes " one with Lukyanov's fee and the other with a note signed by Torry Hansen saying that Artyom is "mentally unstable" and "violent," and that she "no longer wishes to parent this child."

Artyom appeared glad to see so many people around at the station.

"He had lots of toys in his backpack, cars, crayons and paper " and he was giving them away to people around him," Lukyanov said.

"He would pull out stuff from his bag like a magician, very pleased about it. He had two badges from United Airlines and he gave one of them to me."

After a few hours at a police station, Artyom started to doze off on the shoulder of one of the social workers, Lukyanov said.

Meanwhile, Artyom's future remains uncertain.

Officials are looking for new orphanages or foster families for him. A Russian Health and Education Ministry official earlier said Artyom, who turns 8 on Friday, said he would like to go back to the United States.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hdX2aH94-cG6tnHX748IeHKU9oAwD9F2U3OG1

I think it is very significant that the child was not enrolled in school. School provides structure and routine and group interactions, all of which would be helpful to a child who has just come from an orphanage, which is a group living situation with structure and routine. Home schooling, if that was even done, might actually be very stressful for this type of child, and it would not provide the same sort of structure or opportunity for socialization which would be found in school. Not enrolling him in school, might reveal an insensitivity to certain needs this particular child might have.

Quick legal question, David: if one of the parties to an agreement (viewing adoption as a contract) can be shown to have grossly misrepresented relevant facts, or at the very least lied by omission, isn't the contract in question ipso facto rendered null and void?

It's certainly hard to believe that all the several witnesses to that boy's behavior are suddenly in cahoots to lie about iy. I read a statement by the US ambassador to Moscow, btw, which mentions his embassy is indirectly involved as legal adoption in the US automatically grants US citizenship to the adoptee - would that be reversible as well if outright fraud on the Russian part can be proven? Thanks.

Torrey probably woudn 't either,
but Art is likely smarter and more articulate than your dog.

No, it was for Torrey 's sake (and her unburned family).

Permit me to suggest:
for those of u who have shown the greatest degree
of interest in his well being, Y not find out his address
and send him some presents in Russia, for his happiness ?

Quote:

Permit me to suggest:
for those of u who have shown the greatest degree
of interest in his well being, Y not find out his address
and send him some presents in Russia, for his happiness ?

Sounds like he may get a family who will stand by him through thick and thin - that'd be the best birthday present.

But that's a good suggestion - if any little boy would appreciate a birthday card right now- it'd probably be this one.

Where do you think I could find his address?
Seriously - I LOVE buying little kid presents- my kids are big and I never get to do it anymore.

Where do you think I could find his address?
Seriously - I LOVE buying little kid presents- my kids are big and I never get to do it anymore.

What makes me wonder - and this is really a serious question - is why those Russian adoption seem to make such difficulties in the USA.

Why am I willing to believe her?

Because two doors down from me is a 6 year old girl, adopted from Russia, who is on anti-psychotic medication.
This child's mother is a good friend of mine. I know what happened to that family. I know that people on the outside would have never guessed. I know that at one point they felt that the adoption was going to fail.

Toys are probably safer gifts than cash.
I 've given cash to children in the past
only to have them subsequently complain to me that their parents robbed them.

Russian Adoption: What Happens When a Parent Gives Up?
By Kate Pickert

It's hard for people to comprehend Torry Hansen's desperate act. It was troubling enough to hear that she'd sent her adopted son back to his native Russia, arranging for 7-year-old Artyom Savelyev to fly to Moscow by himself, arriving on April 8 with a note from Hansen saying, "I no longer wish to parent this child." She was giving him up, the note explained, because he was "mentally unstable." But she wasn't giving up on her desire to be a mother. According to ABC News, Hansen, a registered nurse in Shelbyville, Tenn., was trying to adopt a child from another country at the same time she was hiring a driver over the Internet to shuttle Artyom from the Moscow airport to Ministry of Education authorities in Russia.

But exactly what made Hansen snap " and why she didn't seek help or pursue other avenues, like putting the boy up for adoption in the U.S. " is still a mystery. Hansen reportedly consulted a psychologist but never took her son in for a session. There's no evidence she sought help from her adoption agency, child-welfare authorities in Tennessee or even the well-regarded International Adoption Clinic at Vanderbilt University in nearby Nashville. The media that have descended on Hansen's home have not gleaned much insight. The boy, whom Hansen renamed Justin, did not attend school in the six months he spent in Tennessee, and some neighbors said they barely knew the family.

"All of that shows you a picture of a kid and family in isolation," says Jane Aronson, an adoptive parent and pediatrician in New York City who specializes in international adoption. Isolation, adoption experts know, spells trouble " especially for a single woman adopting an older child from abroad. "You can make a great family as a single parent, but you have to have your ducks lined up."

By Russian law, Hansen would not have been able to adopt Artyom without making at least two trips abroad, first to meet the boy and then to pick him up. She would also have been required to complete a home study, in which a social worker would have entered her house and interviewed her extensively about her reasons for adopting and her preparations for parenthood. Social workers in these circumstances also typically educate would-be parents about the challenges that are likely to emerge post-adoption " all of which makes the notion that Hansen could have been blindsided by her son's difficulties almost as shocking as the difficulties themselves.

Violent outbursts and emotional detachment in older children adopted internationally are "very familiar to those of us in the field, as sad as it may be," says Michael Goldstein, an adoption attorney in Rye Brook, N.Y. Older adopted children often arrive in their new homes after being taken away from or abandoned by abusive parents. In the case of Russian adoptees, children have to spend at least a year in an orphanage before the country deems them eligible for international adoption. It can take years for older adopted children to fully integrate into their new families; some never do, and require a lifetime of therapy and extra care.

"This woman had alternatives," says Debbie Spivack, an adoption attorney with offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who has helped facilitate placement of children given up by their adoptive families. "She really endangered the child and did something exceptionally damaging for everybody else."

Families in the midst of adopting children from Russia have been thrown into terrifying limbo. The country has been a popular choice since the mid-1990s for Americans hoping to adopt. But the Russian government has recently been promoting adoption domestically, spurred perhaps in part by a handful of high-profile abuse cases involving adoptees in the U.S. From 2004 to 2009, the number of Russian children adopted by American parents dropped by two-thirds. Families trying to adopt Russian children are bracing now, hoping the number will not drop to zero as a result of Hansen's reckless act.

"This is not a failure of the system. It's a failure of the parent," says Tom DiFilipo, president and CEO of the Joint Council on International Children's Services. "If someone's setting fire to your house, you call the police, not a travel agent."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981872,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0l6voS2jS

Firefly,
do u have an opinion
of whether he 'd be happier in America or in Russia ?

it may very well be a reasonable question dave but it doesn't really matter
what the answer is. children are, by law, property and their happiness
or well-being are really of no interest to legislators who enact law pertaining to children.

International Adoption " A Market in Babies?
Michele Goodwin

More than 30 years ago, Elisabeth Landes and Prof. Richard Posner, now a federal appellate court judge, warned that there was “a considerable amount of baby selling” happening in the United States. Not surprisingly, this daunting assessment attracted strident criticism. Lawyers, social workers and others claimed that the article, which became euphemistically known as the “baby-selling article,” overstated the case and surmised that what they observed were necessary transaction fees attached to adoptions and nothing more. But the article’s observation sheds light on the case of Justin Hansen, the little boy who was adopted by an American woman and then returned to a Russian orphanage last week.

The case of Justin and his adoption by an American woman living with her mother has caused considerable controversy and evoked scrutiny from many countries. Some commentators claim that the boy simply had attachment disorder and that his adoptive grandmother, Nancy Hansen, and mother, Torry Hansen, should have tried harder with therapy. Others are sympathetic with the Hansens, who claim that the boy was violent, often had tantrums and threatened to burn down their home.

But this case is far more complicated than what many people understand. International adoptions have become a cottage industry. Americans are the leading importers of children in need of adoption. As the American demand for children from abroad has grown, the supply has been provided by a range of agencies " some legitimate and others quite questionable. At the same time, the costs and special transaction fees associated with international adoptions have risen.

In effect, the dynamics of law and economics are at play, with the costs of adopting children from abroad rising each year. Some critics of international adoption point out that adoption has become a cottage industry, where children are exploited and sometimes are not truly surrendered for adoption.

David Smolin, a law professor, counts himself as being in this unusual space. When he arranged to adopt two girls from India in the late ’90s, he believed that his new daughters were orphaned. After they arrived, he soon discovered that the girls were never surrendered for adoption, but were basically trafficked " stolen from their mother. In addition, the most painful part for his daughters was that the agency lied about their ages. As it turned out, they were older than the documents claimed they were.

But Smolin’s case is not unique. Other families face similar traumas and uncomfortable revelations. Maria Melichar of Mayer, Minn., spent $30,000 to adopt two girls from India, Komal and her sister, Shallu. After they arrived, the girls, who had been described as ages 12 and 11 respectively, had difficulty adjusting to their new American surroundings. Komal was often violent and angry. The family soon learned why, but not before spending tens of thousands of dollars and expending considerable energy to support their new daughters. In a shocking revelation, the parents learned that their new daughters were actually 21 and 15.

Everyone had been exploited; the girls and the Minnesota couple. In that case, too, the girls were sent back home.

Adoption fraud makes international adoptions a far more complicated zone. For decades, psychologists and others have described the tensions and unhappiness that children experience after their placement as “attachment disorder.” Surely in many cases they are right. But there are times when the label does not apply and can be misleading. This is compounded by language barriers; Americans adopt children from Russia, China, Korea, Guatemala and other countries without any language proficiencies in their children’s native tongues and therefore cannot communicate effectively.

Conflating all cases of adoptees not adapting well as “attachment disorder” obscures the fact that agencies and orphanages with very murky practices have rapidly developed in places like Russia, Guatemala, India, and other countries " to ship kids to the United States because it is profitable.

For children stolen from their parents, or trafficked for some other reason, the anxiety displayed may be because they feel victimized, not rescued from their circumstances. In fact, Guatemala, a country that ranks among the top four in the number of children sent to the United States for adoption, recently clamped down out of fear that children were being stolen from their parents, exploited in sex rings and trafficked for their organs. This was a powerful statement coming from a nation where one child for every hundred ends up in a United States home.

The case of Justin Hansen and his would-be American family highlights contemporary fault lines in international adoptions. Sometimes not all adoptions are exactly what they appear to be.

Michele Goodwin is the Everett Fraser professor of law and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of “Baby Markets: Money and the New Politics of Creating Families.”

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http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/questioning-international-adoptions/?pagemode=print

David wrote:

Toys are probably safer gifts than cash.
I 've given cash to children in the past
only to have them subsequently complain to me that their parents robbed them.

You crack me up- although I wouldn't doubt it...parents these days - what're ya gonna do?

boomer, do u think there 's any chance
that your friend woud be interested in posting to this thread ?