As if the turmoil in Haiti could get any worse after the 7.0 earthquake that rattled the country, now comes word that many of the so-called Haiti orphans who were taken by missionaries, weren't orphans at all.
The orphans were instead willingly given up by their parents, in hopes of giving their children a better life.
Nearly a dozen U.S. missionaries were arrested last week for allegedly attempting to take 33 children from Haiti, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The missionaries have said they were merely attempting to help the children, but they could face kidnapping, trafficking and conspiracy charges. Human rights activists, however, have raised the question of whether such practices open the door for child trafficking.
The missionaries, according to published reports, lacked proper paperwork to legally adopt the children.
Diani Boni, Haiti program coordinator for the Kentucky Adoption Services, told the WSJ that it's fair to expect more parents to willingly give up their children.
"Rather than watch your child starve to death, if you love your child the way a Haitian parent does, you are willing to give that child to a stranger so that the child might live," she said.
More than 100,000 people are feared dead after the Jan. 12 quake. Many of the bodies of those killed will never be found.
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Haiti Orphans Controversy Swirls
By Joshua Molina, HispanicBusiness.com
Source: HispanicBusiness.com. All Rights Reserved.
Total Comments: 3 | Pending Comments: 0
wise thinking
2/5/2010 7:35:17 PM PST
these missionaries are definitely in my prayers.
The God who saved Daniel, and his friends, are still alive and performing miracles today.
BE ENCOURAGED, for wherever you are, God sees and knows, and is working it out for you.
CarlitosWay
2/5/2010 5:19:13 AM PST
Wow very sad situation. I applaud these missionaries and send my prays to the parents. To let your child go just like that must be the worse feeling. Yet there's not much they can do.
stella
2/4/2010 10:48:52 AM PST
I understand this will be disregarded as non-ethical thinking, but the missionaries held in Haiti for trying to help what they surely felt were orphans, whether given up by their parents or were orphans, indeed, should be applauded for offering what they considered more valuable than money which often goes through bureaucratic channels and small, if any, fragments go into the hands of suffering humanity. Rather than treating them like criminals, relief monies should be halted until these Americans are brought home without damage. Our American president should make American citizens the utmost priority and bring them HOME.
