China toughens rules on foreign adoptions

BEIJING — China is imposing new restrictions on foreign adoptions, barring applicants who are unmarried, obese, older than 50 or who take antidepressants, according to U.S. adoption agencies.

The restrictions are meant to limit adoptions to "only the most qualified families," said the Web site of one agency, Harrah's Adoption International Mission, in Spring, Texas. The agency said China has pledged to try to make more children available to those who qualify.

Lillian Thogersen, chief executive of WACAP, a Seattle agency that has been arranging adoptions from China since 1990, said the restrictions aren't out of the ordinary. Officials in China "want to make the choices that they think will be the best for the children," she said.

The move comes amid a surge in foreign applications to adopt Chinese children. The United States is the No. 1 destination for children adopted abroad, but the number going to Europe and elsewhere is rising.

Many Chinese children adopted abroad are girls given up by couples who, bound by rules that limit most urban families to one child, want to try for a son. Others are left at orphanages or by the roadside by unmarried mothers or poor families.

A sharp increase in foreign applications for adoption has led to a backlog in approvals, with waiting times increasing from six months in early 2005 to up to 15 months now, according to adoption agencies.

Chinese adoption


Americans adopted 7,906 children from China in 2005, increasing the total since 1989 to 48,504, according to the Joint Council on International Children's Services in Alexandria, Va.

Keith Wallace, head of Families Thru International Adoption, said the new rules likely will narrow the pool of applicants for adopting Chinese babies but would only shorten the waiting period because demand far outstrips supply.

"It will have an impact. I don't think it will necessarily have a major impact because there are still a lot of people wanting to adopt," he said. "There is a positive aspect, the wait will not be as long for families who do meet the criteria."

Wallace said he has received some questions about the new rules. "We explain that it's China's right to set restrictions," he said. "You and I might not agree with a particular one, but we will respect it.

New rules


Only people who have been married for at least two years will be eligible to adopt. China previously allowed adoptions by unmarried foreigners.

Couples must have a body mass index — a measure of obesity — of no more than 40.

Adopters must be aged 30-50, with people up to 55 considered for children with special needs.

Parents who take medication for psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety, would be barred.

Having a "severe facial deformity" would disqualify others.

Sources: Harrah's Adoption International Mission, the New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, of Mineola, N.Y., and Families Thru International Adoption, of Evansville, Ind.

"A lot of people are trying to portray this as a negative thing, but I don't see it that way. All states have criteria. China is not doing anything that is out of the ordinary."

An employee of the government-run China Center of Adoption Affairs, which oversees foreign adoptions, said it issued new guidelines but would not confirm the details released by the U.S. agencies. He would not give his name.

Under the new rules, only people who have been married at least two years will be eligible to adopt, according to Harrah's; the New Beginnings Family and Children's Services, of Mineola, N.Y.; and Families Thru International Adoption, of Evansville, Ind.

China previously allowed adoptions by unmarried foreigners. Thogersen said that under the current system, single applicants can make up no more than 8 percent of an agency's clients.

The agencies said Chinese officials told them about the rules at a Dec. 8 meeting in Beijing.

Wallace said he is advising families that the rules go into effect for all applications submitted after May 1 and that those already in the adoption process should be exempt.

Even without the new rules, people with significant mental or physical health problems would have been screened out by the U.S. agency arranging the adoption, said Thogersen, of the Seattle agency.

Seattle Times staff writer Maureen O'Hagan contributed to this report.