Sun, Mar 08, 2009 page2

• FEATURE : More parents mull giving up children

  • By Flor Wang / CNA
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  Last December, a couple who made their living as scavengers in Changhua County were accused of trying to sell their baby boy, the youngest of their eight children, for NT$500,000 on the street.

  Although the couple denied doing so to police who rushed to the scene, the baby was placed in a foster family after social workers intervened.

  Experts say the case in Changhua was not an isolated incident, but an example of a worrying trend in the country — parents considering or actually “disposing of” their children in the midst of the current economic downturn.

  Falling incomes, unstable earnings, unemployment and debt pressures have hit many households — leading more parents to think the once unthinkable — giving up their children.

  “The situation has never been so severe,” said Ray Lee, project manager in the Resources Planning Department of the Child Welfare League Foundation.

  Lee said the foundation, charged by nine city and county governments with the task of arranging adoptions of unwanted kids, now receives an average of more than two telephone calls per day from parents seeking advice because they are considering putting their children up for adoption. The foundation received 770 such phone calls last year, up from 680 in 2007, 619 in 2006 and 583 in 2005. Callers generally faced dire economic straits, accounting for 80 percent of the calls received by the foundation over the past two years.

  But what has changed from previous years is that where single mothers used to comprise the majority of those pondering giving up their children, “since the second half of last year, a larger number of laid-off parents have begun making such calls,” Lee said.

  To give up one’s child is not easy, but Lee said most of the parents said they would rather let their kids be adopted than have them “suffer” in their birth families.

  “If I got a job and could earn some money, I would not let the child in my wife’s belly be given away,” a 37-year-old jobless worker surnamed Chang (張), who was considering putting the baby up for adoption once it is born, told foundation workers.

  A single 38-year-old mother identified by her surname Lin (林) told social workers she wanted to put her child up for adoption because she had not had a job for months.

  “The child will be hopeless if he stays with me, although I really love him,” she said, according to transcripts of their counseling sessions with her.

  While children given up for adoption in the past have generally been under three years old, parents are now trying to turn over children who are as old as seven or eight, social workers said.

  “To parents, it is even more heartbreaking to let older children leave their arms, but it is apparent that the economic crunch has also taken its toll on kids of these ages,” foundation researcher Ho Yu-ning said.

  Despite the fact that the number of kids actually put up for adoption has not increased, child welfare experts said the fact that so many more parents were pondering doing so was troubling.

  At the same time, adoptions have become less common in Taiwan over the past decade because of lack of interest. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the number of adopted children fell for seven consecutive years, from 3,988 in 2000 to 2,540 in 2007. The number rose to 2,889 last year, in part because of more generous government incentives, senior foundation workers said.

  Social workers believe, however, that the long-term trend in Taiwan toward smaller families — driven by the high costs and amount of time adults need to devote to children — and today’s sluggish economy will conspire to once again reduce the number of adoptions this year, leaving abandoned children in an even more precarious state.

  Exacerbating the problem is that while the demand for the services of charities that help children are rising, donations have shrunk amid the economic slowdown. Lo Yi-cheng, secretary-general of the Daniel A. Poling Memorial Babies’ Home, feared the financial squeeze would directly take a toll on the shelter’s children.

  Government officials meanwhile urged desperate parents to seek help from the government or private sectors instead of giving up their children.
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