Commercial Surrogacy: Womb exploitation and baby commodification

Posted on May 20, 2015 by apologyalliance

A member of the Alliance wrote a letter to the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald which was not published – because of the important issues it raises I have published it on the Blog … Dr. Christine A. Cole

To: letters@smh.com.au

“I sent the letter below to the SMH in response to an article in the SMH titled “Should surrogacy be legalised in Australia published 15th May.  The case for commercial  surrogacy was expounded by Sam Everingham.  The case against was presented by Bernadette Tobin, Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincents Hospital and the Australian Catholic University – she presented the case well but no mention of the psychological damage to women lured in to this exploitation.

Disappointed there were no letters published in relation to the surrogacy article”.

Many of us mothers who lost our babies to the adoption epidemic in the 1950’s & 1960’s are still stricken by it in old age.  It is therefore unbelievable that practices such as commercial surrogacy are now being publicly advocated (Should commercial surrogacy be legalised in Australia 15th May).
Who will be the surrogates?  Young Australian women who are attracted to the remuneration without an understanding of the risk of being deeply psychologically scared by the experience. Consequently many of these mothers will be unable to reach their potential and just as in adoption the long term economic costs will be born by the mother, her family and the Australian community generally.
The Government has the responsibility to protect the physical and mental well being of all Australians not to provide a framework in which one section can deeply exploit and harm another.
There is no need for a national enquiry on the matter.  There were enquiries way back in the 1980’s and the outcomes of these enquiries was that commercial surrogacy was not a practice that was compatible with a civilized cohesive and compassionate society.
In Australia altruistic surrogacy is permitted so if the judges named in the article as being in favour of commercial surrogacy feel strongly on the matter it is open to them to encourage the female members of their own families and own social circles to make their bodies available for this purpose.

 

 

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Brief History of the Apology Alliance

Posted on May 6, 2015 by apologyalliance

I was asked to write a brief overview of the history of the Apology Alliance for the Without Consent Exhibition currently on show at the National Archives in Canberra.

The Exhibition is  amazing and something that I never dreamed I would see in my lifetime:  the truth finally being presented to the public. To see the cruel, barbaric and previously hidden history of the theft of thousands of newborns from their young healthy mothers for the purpose of adoption finally exposed is one more step in our healing process . Our story is truly one of a stolen generation of White Australians.  As was stated by an Aboriginal Elder at a National Adoption Conference held back in 1994: “No wonder they did it to us (the Stolen Generations) they did it to their own”!

You can access the history at the following URL  https://apologyalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/overview-of-the-apology-alliance-australia-3.pdf

 

The Exhibition came about because of the Federal Apology and was opened to coincide and commemorate its 2nd anniversary.

The PM with my granddaughter: Bella & Apology Draft Working Grorup

The Federal Apology was truly remarkable and a turning point for many of us.  I was very proud to be part of the Working Group that was involved in drafting the formal part of the apology given by the then Prime Minister Julia Gillard to the nation on March 21, 2013.  The above photo features the Working Group and my granddaughter is standing beside the former PM

Dr. Christine Cole

Convenor  – Apology Alliance Australia

 

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Coroners finding support pro adoption lobby agenda

Posted on April 9, 2015 by apologyalliance

http://indaily.com.au/news/2015/04/09/chloe-inquest-scathing-coroner-calls-for-massive-legal-overhaul/

The above article details a case of child abuse that was reported, but shockingly nothing was done to protect the child.  The Coroner blamed a “family preservation” ethic within SA Child Protection as the cause of the child’s death.  A conclusion that  is at odds with the findings of an earlier inquiry conducted into SA Child Protection Services (2009). Findings that were scathing about the over reporting, lack of funding, inadequate training, the failure to remove children in harm whilst removing others that were not.  Interestingly it found that far from there being a family preservation ethic there was a quick rush to take some whilst other children in real danger slipped through the cracks.

I believe the Coroner’s findings as well as contradicting those of the earlier Inquiry are simplistic and do not provide a solution to a complex problem and purposely feed into the pro adoption campaign that is presently  under-way in Australia.  The damage done to the many stolen generations of white and black children permanently removed and adopted have taught us that utilising this as a default child protection measure  is not the answer.

Another alarming fact is that the Coroner quotes how few adoptions there are in Australia compared to the UK and the US. He obviously has not researched the myriad of problems there in in the out of home care industry — and that includes adoptions – in those countries. Continually comparing Australia’s low adoption rates with that of the UK and the US has been an ongoing tactic utilised by the pro adoption lobby to argue their case for increased adoptions in Australia for a number of years.

The article does not mention kinship care, which is surprising,  considering it was the grandparents who were key players in bringing the abuse to the attention of authorities and repeatedly asked to take custody of their granddaughter for her protection. Considering the severity of the complaints and the fact there were two people who were related to and had the best interests of the child at heart why where the grandparents ignored?  Why was the Department’s failure to place the child with her loving grandparents not flagged as a systemic problem within the system by the Coroner?  The earlier Inquiry (2009) had certainly stated disregarding grandparents concerns and failing to place their at risk grandchildren with them was a systemic failure in the SA child protection system.

There is a lot to learn from this tragedy.  Many caseworkers are poorly trained, inexperienced and over worked.  The sector is underfunded.  The answer however is not adoption.  There needs to be  a system set up  that is adequately funded so there are enough properly trained child protection workers to adequately investigate cases such as these. Kinship care needs to be part of alternate care arrangements, properly funding supportive services for at risk families and if all else fails then removal under a Permanent Placement or Parenting Order.

The following are some extracts from  the SA Inquiry that I published on the Blog more than 12 months ago  – See http://atomic-temporary-63284407.wpcomstaging.com/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-3/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-4/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-6/:

The Select Committee on Families advised the South Australian Government that the culture within SA Child Protection was “rotten”.  The Committee was scathing in its findings.   Goward’s claims that an ineffective and abusive system existed within NSW child protection equally applied to its counterpart in South Australia.  The Select Committee found that “immature, inexperienced, badly trained” workers were “vindictive and abused their powers with impunity”. They were totally inept at protecting children or engaging with their families. There was no attempt to assist families stay intact. When grandparents offered to provide kinship care for grandchildren with whom they had a connection, care workers not only ignored them, but were obstructive. As was the case in NSW families who applied for respite care or support services had their children removed.  Families SA policies for family preservation and reunification were ignored.   They covered their mistakes by falsifying files and failed to reunify families that had their children unnecessarily removed.  In other occasions they did not remove children who were in danger. Since 1997 SA Child Protection has worked in partnership with NGOs such as Anglicare SA, Aboriginal Family Support Services, Anglicare Community Care, Port Pirie Central Mission/Centcare Whyalla. All of which are collectively known as ACSPs.  When children require alternative care the Department refers them to the Central Alternative Care Unit (CACU) which liaises with the ACSPs to obtain appropriate child placement. They were also supposed to assist families whose children were in care. The ACSPs are also responsible for recruiting, assessing and training carers.  The Committee stated that the SA out-of-home care is in crisis, failed in its duty of care to protect vulnerable families and instead caused them harm. Further that it has failed a key initiative to preserve and reunify families.

Family preservation SERVICES need to be implemented. This was also  the recommendation of the Queensland Inquiry into their Child Protection system.

(Extracted from an article published on this Blog over 12 months ago:

The Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry found that the Department, even after two previous inquiries into its child protection system, one of note being in relation to abuse in foster care, still did not ensure the safety, wellbeing and best interests of children. It concluded that the system focused on coercive strategies of removal rather than supporting families to stay together and that too little money was spent on early intervention to support vulnerable families. Of a budget of $2.6 billion only $90 million was allocated to preventive or supportive services. This resulted in intake of children into foster care growing 185% from – 40, 202 in 2002-2003 to 114,503 in 2011-2012.

Commissioner Carmody stated the:

The symbiotic link between supporting families and having fewer children in the system is irrefutable and has been ignored and underestimated by government for too long. I am also firmly of the view that better rehabilitative and therapeutic family support for parents under stress – especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities plagued with chronic neglect – is the key to stronger Queensland families AND SAFER CHILDREN. It may seem simplistic to say ‘prevention is better than cure’, but it is an undoubted reality that without preventive strategies the cycle of intergenerational abuse will continue to infect successive generations.  There is little point in tearing a family apart just to try to put it back together.  To children, a loved parent is much more than the worst thing the parent has ever done them: most children are better off being cared for haphazardly by a loved parent than in some else’s family or a state-run facility … The risk-averse ‘better safe than sorry’ culture that has sprung up over the last 10 years has been only too evident during this inquiry.  This overly timorous attitude pervades child protection decision making at all levels of government and across the entire system.  It is  the root cause of over-reporting, resource wastage and an overcrowded out-of-home care system struggling to provide safe and stable placements for children with multiple and complex needs who could, with proper support, be cared for safely at home by a still-loved parent.  The best way for government to help children is to support their parents and communities.

According to Commissioner Carmody not to act now will mean that the system will become even more ineffective with an increase of 40 percent of children entering the system in the next decade. He suggests redirecting more of the Departmental budget of $2.6 billion into family support services.  If  family preservation methods are implemented he projects rather than the welfare budget blowing out in the next decade the number of children in the statutory system will have fallen by more that 25%.  Hence the implementation of the reforms will have recovered the new money in the first five years, plus be better off by $578 million in the next five.

Significantly he stated:

Child protection is about more than economics. It is an ethical imperative. The cost of repair may not be cheap — but the cost of doing nothing would be much more, measured both in dollars and human suffering … failure to learn the lessons of history will guarantee that they are repeated. It is time for us to break the cycle of intergenerational abuse by addressing the drivers of abuse and refocusing our attention on parents and families. The new child protection system must be one that encourages and enables everyone to take responsibility for protecting children.(Extracted from: http://atomic-temporary-63284407.wpcomstaging.com/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-3/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-4/a-stolen-generation-in-the-making-part-6/

Adoption has not proven to be panacea that pro adoption proponents stated it would be in the past but instead proved to be a failed social experiment that damaged hundreds of thousands of mothers, fathers children and extended family members. To link the abusive system of historic forced adoption with current child protection issues obfuscates the illegal and immoral treatment of survivors of Forced Adoption and we learn nothing from this very shameful part of our history.

A child has a whole extended family: siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and of course grandparents.  Adoption permanently cuts off the child’s access hence their connection to their entire family.   We do not do this if there is a divorce.  A child does not get a new birth certificate that obliterates its biological history.  It does not get legally constrained from having contact with non-offending biological family members. It is not taken possession of by one side of the family whilst all connections to the other are permanently extinguished.

The pro adoption lobby has done an exceptional job of confounding historical Forced Adoption – which was not conducted on the grounds of child abuse but purely because of the parents unwed status, with child protection issues.  The mantra being the more adoptions there are the less child abuse there will be (See http://atomic-temporary-63284407.wpcomstaging.com/2014/07/25/politicising-foster-care-abuse-to-promote-forced-adoption-call-for-adoption-targets/ ).   This is evidenced in the Coroner’s remarks:

Johns also suggested that “permanent removal to adoptive parents must have a place in South Australia’s child protection system”, noting that “only 114 Australian children were adopted in 2009-10 compared to more than 8,500 in the early 1970s. If Australian children in care were adopted at the same rate as in England, there would have been 1,700 adoptions in Australia …if at the same rate as in the United States, there would have been 4,800,” he said

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A White Stolen Generation? Comments published on Mamamia Blog

Posted on April 8, 2015 by apologyalliance

 I selected a sample of comments that reflect the hurt, damage or mindset of those affected as opposed to those who benefit from Forced Adoption.  They are up on the Mamamia Blog and follow a short article on Forced Adoption and the current exhibition  Without Consent running at the National Archives– I have not edited them so unfortunately many posts use the derogatory term “birthmother”. 

https://www.facebook.com/mamamiablog/posts/10152834809690945

 The Pro Adoption Lobby

Note: The following comments epitomise sentiments  commonly found on adoptive parent or pro adoption sites.  When I interviewed a former consent taker she was still enunciating the same stereotypical nonsense to justify her participating in the kidnap of thousands of newborns in the late 1960s – 1970s

 Kelly Nash I too, was one of these babies…. And I thank God everyday for the courage, care and love my BM showed by consenting to my adoption, wether forced, coerced or otherwise. My adoptive parents have loved and treasured me my whole life. When I see the many, very young teenage mothers our society encourages and indeed funds, to keep their babies, my heart breaks for those babies and the parents desperate to adopt them. Given, Most of those babies will be raised in loving caring homes, but there is a percentage of those babies that have become “a career option” for their mothers. Crucify me if you will, but I would bet my last dollar, if their was no government funding for these young parents, they would think long and hard about keeping their babies.

Maybe society didn’t have it so wrong all those years ago. Cruel -yes, but wrong……I am not so sure……
Go your hardest haters!!!!

 Andrea Taylor I’m thankful that I’m one of those babies that was adopted out in 1967. I’ve since met some of my natural family and although nobody’s life is perfect at least back then authorities were attempting to act in the best interest of the child. There will be a whole new range of apologies to today’s children that have been left in the appalling care of feral parents because now their rights are more important than their children’s access to CRC (rights of the child)!

Note: Additionally the above comments echo a mindset articulated by Dr. Jeremy Sammut of the Centre for Independent Studies and Tony Abbott who have both stated at various times adoption needs to be quicker, cheaper and easier for infertile couples particularly for  children whose  “parents are not effective”.  How does one determine effectiveness and who is given the power to make such a determination?

 The ignorant that deny there are any stolen generations

Ian Harris This is another urban myth. Mothers did not have ‘forced adoptions’. They were offered alternatives. In every single case they had to consent to their babies being adopted. “Without consent” and “forced adoptions” are just a load of crap. Stop it.  Its like the ‘stolen” generation. Today almost 20,000 Australian children are living in foster care, removed from their biological parents for their own safety. Not stolen. Stop the lies.

 The growing realisation that another stolen generation exists in Australia 

 Ally Breitkopf I was one of these mothers. I was 15 when my son was born in 1972. I remember nothing of the actual birth waking up 2 hours later. I was sent back to the home for unwed mothers and received no help of any kind. It was never spoken of by anyone for 20yrs. My son was adopted only a few weeks later so even if i had changed my mind with in the allowed time it would have been too late. I met my son in 1992 and we have a great relationship. I also have a great relationship with his adoptive parents. The whole thing was disgusting… talk about a stolen generation. This is no different.

Margaret Oakhill Hamilton Your story could have been mine except that the adoptive parents were possessive. My son died last year. He knew of his genetic heart problems but didn’t fully understand it. He would be alive today if he had lived with me and saw the heart problems in our family. He would have had a better understanding of, not smoking, exercise more and better eating habits. I don’t know how to forgive those who stole him from me.

Barbara Hansen Ally my thoughts exactly I am part of the stolen generation. I was adopted in the 60’s. Such a awful traumatic event you girls went through. How can anyway think you would get over giving birth, not seeing your baby, being sent back to home not to ever bring the event up. Reading my documentation my heart just broke. Such a sad situation yet again controlled by the churches.
I am glad you found your son.

Aimee Pracy They talk about the stolen generation with the Aboriginal community but never about the unwed mothers that had their babies taken away … Lovechild got people taking about it … I’ve grown up with hearing about this as my family lived it luckily the baby wasn’t taken.

Melissa Hill It wasn’t ‘forced adoption’, it was government sanctioned, obstetric rape, child kidnapping and falsified birth records. You can choose to listen to survivors’ testimonials, read the Commonwealth Senate Inquiry – Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices and learn from the horrific human rights abuses and inter-generational harm caused. …or you can continue to listen to multi-billion dollar global child trafficking industry ‘called adoption’.

 Kirra Ruth Joan Twiner My Mum was one of the babies taken from her birth parents. The small, quite apology that went through parliament is crap. Where was the song and dance apology like the aboriginal stolen generation got? We have a generation of stolen children from that era.

Now Mum can access records etc. she is looking for her birth parents but it may be too late. They could of past. Think she said her birth mother’s name is Barbette Joyce (maiden name).

Annabel Gleeson It’s awful to realise that Australia’s social policies of that time also put young disadvantaged (by pregnancy) women in the same position as the Aboriginal peoples stolen children. It’s a shameful reminder and I’m so glad my girls will grow up in a more sensitive and understanding world.

Kat Forner-Reardon And where is their compensation? constant apologies? and decades of screaming stolen generation?  Welcome to the reality that it didn’t just happen to aboriginals!! 

Note: During the 1994 National Adoption Conference a group of Aboriginal mothers were listening to some White Australian mothers speaking out about their stolen babies. A member of the stolen generation obviously quite shocked stated loudly: “No wonder they did it to us – they did it to their own!”

 Theft of white children occurred from colonisation – (See Stolen Babies Broken Hearts: Forced Adoption in Australia 1881-1982)

Michele Taylor My Nan had to be given up as her mother was unwed and that was long before those times. She never knew either of her biological parents and grew up in foster homes.

Kerry Ellery My father and his sibling were taken in 1938…..

 Note:– However numbers of newborns taken for adoption grew exponentially after World War II and again after the Model Adoption Act was introduced into all State during the 1960s. The three forces driving the adoption industry was 1  Economic: To save the State welfare dollars;  2. Ideology: An unmarried mother irrespective of race was inferior and therefore  unable to care for her newborn;  3. The demand by infertile married couples for perfect, white/light skinned, healthy newborns.

Adoptees speaking out about the damage caused to them

 Brenden Creese I was one of those children… I was born in Hobart in 1972… In 2015 I am still struggling with it psychologically, still having to see psychs weekly… I would have preferred that my birth mother had aborted me rather than gone through with the pregnancy, that’s how much of a struggle being adoption has been for me.

Leanne Carpenter I too was one of these babies… Eventually adopted for the second time into a house with an alcoholic parent – my life was a roller coaster of fear of the outburst. In my case, it was not for the better, I suffer depression & anxiety as an adult, now aged 50. There is no turning back the clock & undoing the damage caused to me – it’s been a long hard journey. I’ve heard beautiful stories & similar outcomes to mine, which by some standards is not so bad.

Heidi Chisholm The babies were just a money making scheme by these organisations. I know 2 people who’s adoptive parents were told that their babies could be returned if they were sick or not suitable. There were also loads of children taken from the UK during and after the war and shipped to Australia and placed into work house style orphanages.

Lyn Macchetta I was adopted at two weeks of age and consider that myself and other adoptees to be part of our own “stolen generation”. The home I was born in for “unwed mothers” alone saw over 11,000 adoptions in a 12 year period, all “forced adoptions” as far as I can see, the mother didn’t necessarily have to be drugged, if they had no support, either financial or family, the adoption was forced – there was no other way the birth mother was going to be able to support herself and her baby. My story is a long and complex one but I’ve always said blood belongs with blood and babies belong with their mothers

The Ripple Effect: Adoption trauma echoes across and down the generations

Kaysey Deacon My Brother was adopted out…..still looking for him…..born 4th July 1964 in Nsw

Barbara Hansen I was born to a unwed mother who was sent away to a single mothers home so as not to bring shame to the family.  My biological father was on the scene but this had no impact on the decision to allow my birth mother to keep me.  I have all my documents and it makes me quite sad to read how my birth mother was treated. It was a very cold and clinical process. My mother was young and possibly not able to look after me and at no stage would I ever say my parents have been awful. I love my parents very much and have had a great life and they will always be my mum and dad.

What is sad is the way these girls were treated. For me in 2013 Anglicare found both my biological parents…..they had gone on and got married and I have two full blooded sisters but unfortunately only my birth father made contact with the agency not my birth mother. I subsequently do not know either of my birth parents or my sisters. My concern is what did this whole situation do mentally to my birth mother. I do not blame her for anything that happened.

The Importance of the Federal Apology for adopted persons

Leonie Gray I lived with the pain of rejection for most of my life (I was born in 1965) until I stumbled upon a late night telecast of the National Apology last year. I realised then my pain and anger was misdirected, as I had always *assumed* my birth mother had rejected my very soul before my first breath.
That led me to start reading the written accounts of some of the mothers. I wept, for hours. And I began to understand. I have not yet tracked down my mother, but reading these stories has helped me begin to heal. And just the brief accounts of mothers on this post has moved me and helped me to understand. If any mothers who had their babies forcibly stolen are able to share their account on the Forced adoption website I strongly urge them to do so. The truth is healing. Even though I have yet to read the account written by my mother, hearing the stories of others helps me.
There is a ‘contribute your experience’ button on the website I have linked.
Barbara McCulla Dandridge – this could be the place to share your account.
http://forcedadoptions.naa.gov.au/experiences

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Former PM Julia Gillard seeks legal advice re our apology being linked to a Christian Rights marriage agenda

Posted on April 4, 2015 by apologyalliance

Hi Everyone,

Our former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is seeking legal advice about our historic apology being taken out of context and linked to a Christian rights agenda being run by The Australian Marriage Forum. How ironic that a marriage forum wants to hijack our apology for political gain when it was lack of marriage that was used to justify the theft of our newborns.

I was approached by the Canberra Times on Thursday to respond to the Marriage Forum’s use of our apology. I was asked:

“I’ve been sent a link to a video produced the Australian Marriage Forum and placed online –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U0e66iyVI8

The video starts with an exert of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s apology to victims of forced adoption. They then link this to gay marriage and what they refer to as a future “Motherless Generation”. How does Apology Alliance feel about former Prime Minister Gillard’s apology being taken out of context and applied to the same sex marriage debate?”

My response:

It is deeply traumatising that what was for us a profoundly moving and historical moment, the apology given to us by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013, is used out of context and for a particular agenda. Only a few days ago our former PM opened up an exhibition in Canberra at the National Archives exposing the real history of, and the damage caused by, past forced adoptions in Australia.  Two hundred and fifty thousand newborns were forcibly taken from their mothers, sight unseen, and given to strangers purely because of our unwed status. Many unmarried fathers who wanted to be included were  excluded from any consent process – because of their lack of marital status.  The argument used by adoption agents to justify the theft of thousands of newborns was that the child would be better off with a white, married Christian couple. It was for this policy and these dreadful past practices and the damage done to mothers fathers and adopted persons that we received a Federal apology.

Regards

Christine

Following is the link to the Michael Inman’s article in the Canberra Times

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julia-gillard-seeks-legal-advice-after-forced-adoption-apology-linked-to-same-sex-marriage-debate-20150403-1me5r2.html

The article is being featured in a number of other publications

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julia-gillard-seeks-legal-advice-after-forced-adoption-apology-linked-to-same-sex-marriage-debate-20150403-1me5r2.html

http://www.bunburymail.com.au/story/2990111/julia-gillard-seeks-legal-advice-after-forced-adoption-apology-linked-to-same-sex-marriage-debate/?cs=12

http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2990111/julia-gillard-seeks-legal-advice-after-forced-adoption-apology-linked-to-same-sex-marriage-debate/?cs=8

regards

Dr. Christine Cole

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Apology Alliance: Mr Patrick Rogan, former Labor MP East Hills died 10/2/2015 – a great campaigner for justice for mothers and our stolen infants

Posted on February 16, 2015 by apologyalliance

Following is an email I forwarded around the Apology Alliance email list and to various politicians:

Hi Everyone,

I have some very sad news – Mr. Patrick Rogan, former Labor MP for East Hills died last Tuesday and his funeral will be held tomorrow 17/2/2015. Following the funeral a  wake is being held in the Whitlam Room at the Revesby Workers Club at 12.30.

I have been friends with Pat since 1994 when as Chair of an activist group: Mothers for Contact I brought to his attention the plight of the white stolen generation.  Over the next 3 years I furnished Pat with  copious research, much of which had been originally unearthed by Judith McHutchison and presented in her 1986 Masters thesis. Later after I formed the original Origins group – no affiliation with the one that exists today – Pat in a private members’ statement brought the issue of forced adoption firmly into the political arena – you can read his speech at http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA19971112038?open&refNavID=HA8_1   – titled: Stolen White Babies.

Without Pat’s activism there would have been no NSW Inquiry.  Pat had successfully gained a Royal Commission for victims of the horrors of the Chelmsford Private Hospital Deep Sleep Therapy, so he and his personal assistant: Ms Margaret Como, had a wealth of expertise in successfully knowing their way around gaining inquiries.  Many do not realise that only a handful of MPs have such expertise.  I informed Pat that the infamous Drs. Bailey and Herron who ran Chelmsford were also consulting psychiatrists at Crown St Women’s Hospital hence many mothers, such as myself, had been given the same cocktail of barbiturates as those intravenously given to Chelmsford deep sleep victims – only we were given them in pill form.  Judy McHutchison provided me with the information about the linkage between Crown St and Chelmsford via Bailey and Herron and when I passed it on to Pat he was immediately aware that grave injustices had been perpetrated on unwed mothers in the government’s attempt to get babies for the infertile.  Pat had always been a fighter for the underdog.  He explained to me later that his hate of injustice was the outcome of  “the Irish in me”!

When I met Pat he had been in state politics for 25 years and was extremely well respected.  When he stood up and called for an inquiry his friends, Jill Hall, Bryce Gawdry,  and Deirdre Grusovin added their support in their own private members’ statements’.  Pat told the then Minister for Community Affairs, Ms Faye Lo Po, that if she did not agree to an inquiry he would continue fighting until he got a Royal Commission. Lo Po knew that Pat was a man of his word and in April 1998 she announced that there would indeed be a NSW Upper House Inquiry into past adoptions. For the first time what really happened to unwed mothers and the theft of our babies was put on the public record.  The Inquiry provided the opportunity for psychiatrist Dr. Geof Rickarby and former head of the Law Reform Commission: Justice Richard Chisholm to identify the illegal practices and put them onto the public record.

I owe a lot to Pat. He has been a part of the Apology Alliance since I set it up, to gain apologies from all state and federal governments,  in February 2008.  In September 2008 Pat launched the Mothers’ book I edited and wrote: Releasing the Past: Mothers’ Stories of their Stolen Babies at the ninth National Adoption Conference.  It was at the launch of the book I had the opportunity to announce officially our fight for these apologies had begun.  There is some amateur footage of Pat’s speech that can be accessed on the Apology Alliance Blog  at  https://apologyalliance.wordpress.com/

Under links:  Launch of Forced Adoption book and campaign for justice Pt, 2

There are 3 links to the launch of the book up on youtube :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeLt06ftNUU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K486CcAxROc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEbsONRHQoA

Pat you are loved and will not be forgotten.

PS I have not generated an updated list of current MPs so please pass on the above to your relevant MPs – Pat’s speech is certainly worthy of a read

Regards

Chris

Dr. Christine Cole

Convenor

Apology Alliance Australia

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Please say NO to the question: Should adoptions be made easier?

Posted on December 12, 2014 by apologyalliance

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/12/10/11/29/australian-adoption-rates-hit-record-new-low

At present the poll is 76 % for  the YES  vote and and only 22% for the NO

The pro adoption lobby  spend their time trolling websites and participating in such polls to create an impression that everyone thinks adoption is the preferred welfare option  to help them push their case for the expansion of adoption under the guise of a child protection issue.

I am aware that many thinking Australians now see through the smoke and mirror campaign that those “desperately  wanting babies” are engaged in, but many do not have the time, motivation or are paid to spend hours creating a particular perception of adoption on social media

Please say NO to making adoption easier for adults.  Please think of the children who lose their identity, have their birth certificate altered to reflect a false reality and the many who lose all ties with  and knowledge about their original families.

 

“The long-term fall in numbers can, in part, be attributed to legislative changes, such as the increased use of alternative legal orders in Australia, and improvements in local adoption practices in countries of origin,” the report read.

Alternative care arrangements can be made for children who truly cannot remain with their family or extended kin – they do not need to have their biological ties severed completely nor have their identities changed to suit the demands of adults who want to own babies.

 

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Is Furness’s obsession to ‘save the world’s orphans’ actually creating them?

Posted on November 17, 2014 by apologyalliance

The following is an excellent article containing the themes of my two earlier posts.  Wealthy and powerful persons, like the Furness’ of the world,  getting their own needs met by “saving” one child or orphan at a time whilst in the process creating black markets and child trafficking rings so causing harm to thousands of vulnerable children.

Every child has a distinctive family culture and heritage, whether born within or without a particular country.  Many adoptees say they always feel like an outsider whether they have been adopted domestically or from overseas. If anyone wants to read the litany of mental and physical health problems from which adoptees suffer whether or not they have had loving parents please read my article: The Broken Bond – under the heading  About on this Blog.

Therefore adoption should never be used to manufacture families for those who for whatever reason cannot have their own child or want the kudos of adding a little orphan to their biological troupe .  As the article states the many thousands of dollars it costs to adopt one child from overseas would be far better used to support the child’s family or village so he or she never has to suffer  loss of identity, culture and homeland and what’s more that community does not lose its most precious possession – its next generation.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/inter-country-adoption/

A short extract:

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott stood beside celebrity advocates, vowing to make the inter-country adoption system quicker, easier and cheaper. “The idea is we will make it easier and significantly less costly for Australians to adopt from overseas,” Mr Abbott said, announcing a new agency that will be designed to reduce adoption waiting times.

But while fast, easy and cheap adoptions may be in the best interests of prospective parents, it is not necessarily in the best interests of children. In fact, a faster, easier and cheaper system could actually put vulnerable children at even greater risk.

To that you might say: surely a child is better off in Australia than in the dire conditions of their own country? Yes, that child may be able to access a better education, a stronger healthcare system and greater physical comforts with a new family in Australia. But this was the same explanation that was given to justify the theft of Aboriginal children and the babies of unwed mothers that resulted in the lifelong damage endured by the Stolen Generation and children of forced adoption. …

Many adopted children are not orphans. A study by Save the Children found that as many as four out of five children in orphanages have at least one living parent. There are stories of children placed in orphanages temporarily during tough times whose parents have returned to find that their children have been adopted out.

 

 

 

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Furness: an advocate for kidnapping babies at birth and then trafficking them is the NSW Australian of the Year.

Posted on November 13, 2014 by apologyalliance

A very personal and painful response to the tragedy of awarding Furness NSW Australian of the Year:

 

It is barely 18 months since the Apology for Past Forced Adoptions.
This was when, after over 50 years, my family was made aware of the crime that was committed and the government cover up that followed to protect all of those involved in that crime ( the kidnapping of a newborn baby from his mother and father)
This revelation has caused unimaginable pain to our family knowing of the appalling way a young woman, her partner and their baby were treated.
The lie that their baby was “unwanted”.
The lie that the mother did not know who the father was when she had been in a relationship with him for 12 months.
The lie that the adoptive “parents” saved this baby.
The lie that the baby would have a better life with total strangers.
The lie of the original birth certificate which DELIBERATELY omitted the father’s name to keep him out of the adoption process.
The lie of the amended “birth certificate”.
The truth is this baby was kidnapped from his parents at birth and most likely sold to an infertile couple.
A couple who were owed eternal gratitude for “saving” him.
I am DISGUSTED that an advocate for kidnapping babies at birth and then trafficking them is the NSW Australian of the Year.
DLF is a the very epitome of selfish.
All of those who support and encourage her are just as disgusting as she is.
She actually stood at the end of a bed and watched as a woman gave birth and then felt ENTITLED to take that woman’s flesh and blood and claim another human being as her property.
She justifies her kidnapping of a baby because the mother was 22 and this was her 4th baby.
And of course she is “saving the baby and giving it a much better life”. What rubbish !!!!
DLF is a pathetic excuse for a human being.
I pity those two poor children who she and her despicable husband took.
There is something very odd to me about both DLF and Jackman

 

Rob

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Deborra-lee Furness child saver or child trafficker?

Posted on November 12, 2014 by apologyalliance

 

The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan sounded as if he’d had his fill of the child savers

http://www.liftingtheveil.org/special-reports/australian-inquiries-continue-review-of-abuses

Deborra-lee Furness has been nominated as NSW’s Australian of the Year.  I am outraged! Furness an adoptive mother who has pushed her own agenda and used her power and media prestige to do so – in my opinion has done nothing to promote the real interests of the most vulnerable children in either Australia or  overseas.  I focus on the children because that is Furness’ ploy. Furness wants to be known as an “orphan saver” – last century she would have been called a “child saver”,  but  what about the families, the mothers of the children she is supposedly “saving” – what about their exploitation?  In fact they are rendered invisible –  how many in the main stream media,  know or care about what happened to her adopted son’s mother?  She committed suicide.  But I never hear any discussion of the terrible outcomes for the mothers whose baby’s are saved by the Furness’ of the world –

Just like the 250,000 babies stolen from their white unwed mothers over last century – only they were labelled “unwanted” and the Furness’s of the time their saviours. How many of the child savers of last century were rewarded for their services to children.  Those that run institutions were children were routinely brutalised, those like Dr. Barnardo that shipped children to the back blocks of Canada where they were supposedly adopted and where many just disappeared – unable to be traced. They were the children of the poor rounded up off the streets of London,  labelled orphans and sent overseas  to be “saved”. How much money changed hands in the adoption trade? According to one British Report I read one privately run adoption agency made over 100,000 pound – in today’s money that equates to  many millions of dollars.

In the last month we have had some powerful documentaries exposing the very ugly side of adoption.  For instance how adopting  orphans, who turn out not to be orphans,  from orphanages in developing countries not only causes black markets in children to develop but another phenomena  called “orphan shopping” and “orphan tourism” to emerge –  where strangers are given unsupervised access to young children in these institutions.   The unfortunate reality of saving orphans  are that in many cases the people that  Furness represent are actually making the problem worse.  Wealthy foreigners going into developing countries with weak laws and corrupt officials  is having the unintended consequence of  creating more orphanages so unscrupulous middle men can take advantage of  an expanding economic market – a market in children. Hence more orphanages are springing up –  some describe them as “child supermarkets” –  and these middle men make millions from  “stocking” these institutions with borrowed or stolen children. They use the children as fund raising tools or in some cases make large profits by selling children to wealthy westerners.

Just this week ABC 4 Corners exposed the barbarity of the unwed mother and baby homes and the cruelty inflicted on the thousands of babies stolen from their Irish mums  – many being sold to wealthy Americans – these children were sent to America as Irish orphans  – how many Furness’ received awards for saving these stolen children?

The history of Forced Adoption in Australia is in essence a history of the development and implementation of modern day slavery.  A newborn treated as if a commodity is transferred via a dubiously acquired or fraudulent contract  from their mother to a more powerful class of strangers who want/need are desirous of children. The newly acquired human beings have their identities changed and ownership confirmed through   a certificate of entitlement given to the adopters. It is not a birth certificate but a certificate of entitlement because it does not reflect the true birth details of the baby – the real parents are obliterated and the adopters are referred to as the only parents – and misrepresents the birth by inferring that they were the ones who gave birth.  The original name is changed and the newly acquired infant must take on the name of the adopters. So as this document in no way reflects the reality of the birth it cannot be called a birth certificate.  It merely reflects a legal transaction whereby the person so transferred has taking on a new identity and now belongs to its  new owners. No longer allowed  knowledge of  or any access or contact with any member of his or her original family.  The child had absolutely no rights in this transaction and if anyone thinks that the mothers’ did they are deluding themselves. The mothers were treated as unpaid surrogates and were expected to carry their infant for the benefit of a white, middle class married couple.   And just like slavery of old these children are expected to be grateful to the strangers who have acquired them.

Please read the following short history of the failure of the state to care for children – whether via institutionalisation, foster care or adoption – they are all failed social experiments that have served a number of highly dubious purposes  –  providing babies for the infertile powerful;  saving the state money;  assimilating children considered inferior to a “class above their own”; the “whitening of Australia” and a tool of social control. It is a sad fact that Australia has acknowledged that the removal or threat of removal of one’s child has been  a most effective form of social control since at least the late 1800s.  Abbott’s recent reference to the quick removal of children from “ineffective parents” is certainly a veiled threat to parents on welfare that they best become “effective” very quickly or risk the removal of their child/ren –

http://www.liftingtheveil.org/special-reports/australian-inquiries-continue-review-of-abuses

A short excerpt

Australian Inquiries// <!– apparently unsupported –> // //

At the time that Justice McClellan was making his opening remarks, barely three weeks had passed since Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered her historic apology to an estimated 250,000 mothers for the coerced adoptions they had endured at the hands of social workers, hospitals, and the clergy.

“Friends, as the time for birth came, these babies would be snatched away before they had even held them in their arms,” Prime Minister Gillard said during her apology.

“Sometimes, consent was achieved by forgery or fraud. Sometimes women signed adoption papers whilst under the influence of medication.

“Most common of all was the bullying arrogance of a society that presumed to know what was best.

“The hurt did not simply last for a few days or weeks. This was a wound that would not heal.”

pic

Veteran journalist Dan Rather conducted an extensive investigation into coerced adoptions, finding them to be a phenomenon with global reach. In a recent article on the subject, Rather explains: “From Australia to Spain, Ireland to America, and as recent as 1987, young mothers say they were ‘coerced’, ‘manipulated’, and ‘duped’ into handing over their babies for adoption. These women say sometimes their parents forged consent documents, but more often they say these forced adoptions were coordinated by the people their families trusted most… priests, nuns, social workers, nurses or doctors.”

With respect to coerced adoptions in the United States, Rather explains: “We have interviewed numerous women in the U.S. who told us that they were sent to maternity homes, denied contact with their families and friends, forced to endure labor with purposely painful procedures and return home without their babies. Single, American mothers were also denied financial support and told that their children would be better off without them.” According to some estimates, Rather explains, approximately 1.5 million women in the United States may have been pressured or coerced into relinquishing their babies shortly after birth.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s apology followed the recommendations of a Committee established to investigate the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices. The Committee’s report provided a stunning indictment of practices that were frequently engaged in by social workers, maternity homes, hospitals, and religious institutions. These practices had gone largely unchallenged for decades.

The Committee noted that while there may have been a difference of opinions between professionals regarding the issue, at least one prominent professional had a specific view. In 1959, Dr D. F. Lawson of the Royal Women’s Hospital gave the R.D. Fetherston Memorial Lecture. In his address, the Committee notes that he “made some startling remarks that carry particular significance when viewed through the lens of the experience of the women who gave evidence” to the inquiry:

The prospect of the unmarried girl or of her family adequately caring for a child and giving it a normal environment and upbringing is so small that I believe for practical purposes it can be ignored. I believe that in all such cases the obstetrician should urge that the child be adopted… The last thing that the obstetrician might concern himself with is the law in regard to adoption.

Laws were broken and Australian mothers, just like their Irish counterparts had their babies stolen for adoption because of their unwed status.  Yet how many Australians know that this happened in Australia?  How many Australians are aware that we were even apologised to by the former Prime  Minister Julia Gillard for having our children brutally torn from us?

The media has given more focus to the cruelty to animals in the live export trade than to the theft of a quarter of million babies from their mothers.   There was such a public outcry after 4 Corners exposed  the cruelty to cows shipped to Indonesia the trade stopped – until provisions were put in place to protect the animals.  Maybe people care more about cruelly to animals that the barbarity of tearing a newborn from its mother?  Abbott and those that wish to reward Furness for continuing this trade in children and exploitation of mothers and their families have learnt nothing from the past. The mainstream Australia media is clearly on the side of Furness and Abbott.  If the Australian government had been serious about our apology it would have abolished the institution of adoption and would not be rewarding a woman who wants to continue to promote the tearing apart of families.

So our apology has come and gone and still so few Australians know of this very dark, and shameful history of Forced Adoption.   If they did I doubt if Furness, a modern day child saver,  would be receiving a reward for promoting an institution like adoption that has caused so many mothers their children and other family members such enormous pain and inflicted so much physical and mental health damage. Not just here in Australia but globally.

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