Adoptions in Hong Kong fall, with few children listed and adoptive parents ‘wary of taking those with complex profiles’
- Most children up for adoption have special needs, and that puts off potential adoptive parents
- Fear of being labelled ‘bad parents’ stops mums from giving up their babies for adoption
Negative attitudes are keeping down the number of babies available to adopt in Hong Kong, while couples willing to do so are wary about the children they choose, experts say.
The number of adoptions fell from 71 in 2016 to 59 last year. There was also a drop in how many Hong Kong children were taken in by foreigners, from 13 in 2016 to 10 last year.
Alia Eyres, CEO of Mother’s Choice, a charity which helps pregnant teenagers and children without families, says part of the reason for the decline in adoptions is the growing number of children with complex profiles.
For example, the charity has seen more babies exposed to drugs in their mothers’ wombs. This makes it harder to place the children with families willing to adopt.
She says there are three “common myths” surrounding adoption in Hong Kong.
The first is that mothers who give up their babies are “bad people”, the second is that adoptive parents cannot possibly love an adopted child like their own biological child, and the third is that adopted children will grow up longing for their birth parents, rejecting their adoptive ones.
She says this partly explains why there are so few children available for adoption, although there are 3,877 in residential care until they turn 18, unless they return to their parents or are adopted, according to official data.
