About 1,000 Haitian children have been handed to families in America, since the January 12th earthquake. According to the Associated Press, these families had filed adoption applications before the quake hit, and it can be presumed that, without the chaos and urgency of a calamity, families were vetted in an orderly and, hopefully, thorough manner. But the pressures of caring for the likely tens-of-thousands of orphaned Haitian children have revealed a strong rift between those who believe that it should now be easier for Haitian children to be adopted by Americans and those who believe that strengthening child welfare programs inside Haiti should take top priority:

...There are sharp divisions over how vigorously and quickly to seek an expansion of adoptions.

A prominent leader of the campaign to bring more orphans to American homes is Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who believes some of the major aid organizations active in Haiti - including UNICEF - are not sufficiently supportive of international adoption.

"Either UNICEF is going to change or have a very difficult time getting support from the U.S. Congress," Landrieu said in a telephone interview.

Landrieu and a few other members of Congress visited Haiti last week, meeting with top Haitian officials to discuss the plight of the devastated nation's orphans.

"There is great support in the United States to begin to open up opportunities for adoption as soon as possible," Landrieu said. "There are thousands of children who don't have parents or even extended families to be reunified with."

UNICEF says a time may come when large-scale foreign adoptions would be appropriate - notably for older children and those with disabilities. But the U.N. agency and like-minded groups are asking for patience, saying the next priorities should be to register vulnerable children and try to improve conditions for them and their families in Haiti.

"It's complicated," said Susan Bissell, UNICEF's chief of child protection. "We've got to get a registration system in place. Once we have that, we want families for children - and that includes adoption. We are not against intercountry adoption, but we are against exploitation."

Bissell said she was frustrated by the hostility toward UNICEF that is commonly expressed by leading supporters of international adoption in the United States.

"I find myself saddened by it, but it's not going to take the wind out of our sails," she said.

The chief operating officer for Save the Children, which is deeply engaged in helping Haitian orphans, said the tensions and disputes were likely to revolve around timing - with some groups seeking to resume large-scale adoptions much more quickly than other groups.

"It's hard to know how big the problem is without taking the time to go through this registration process, and I know for many it's an excruciating process," Carolyn Miles said.

"There are no records," she added. "To be sure that a child is an orphan, that will be difficult - going back to their villages, trying to find people who know their families." Source:Divisions arise over push for adoptions from Haiti, Associated Press

Although I know children are hurting in Haiti right now, I believe it will only deepen the humanitarian disaster if we hand out hasty adoption approvals to parents who might not be fit for raising Haitian children. Haiti had a problem with child-smuggling even before the earthquake, and we must be vigilant. I am still haunted by the story of the black child who was adopted by white pedophile, Frank Lombard, specifically to be sexually exploited. The pedophile chose to adopt a black child to torture because, he said, "it was easier to get a black child."

It shouldn't be that easy.