Madonna’s Adoption
MADONNA last night defended her decision to take baby David Banda out of Malawi, saying she had acted “according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child”.
Speaking for the first time about the controversial bid to adopt the 13-month-old, the singer said it was her wish “to open up our home and help one child escape an extreme life of hardship, poverty and in many cases death”.
She added: “This was not a decision or commitment that my family or I take lightly.” The family would now take time “to experience the joy we feel to have David home”.
As David completed his fraught journey from Malawi - where hundreds like him die every day from disease, starvation and neglect - to the London mansion of his adoptive multi-millionaire mother, the debate persisted: should Madonna be allowed to keep him?
While she has the support of the Malawi government - which broke from national protocol to give her an 18-month custody order - Madonna has come under criticism from aid agencies that say overseas adoption is not the answer for the children left suffering from deprivation.
Adoption experts have also raised questions over whether Madonna will be allowed to keep the child. She and her film-maker husband Guy Ritchie will now have to negotiate the labyrinthine regulations for couples wishing to adopt from overseas.
Under British law, adopting parents are subject to intense scrutiny from local council workers. A spokesman for Wiltshire County Council, where the couple have a second home, said that included regular visits from members of the authority’s family-placement team for at least a year after the child arrives.
In addition, Madonna would have undergone an assessment before she travelled to Malawi, the spokesman said.
Naomi Angell, legal adviser to the Inter-country Adoption Centre, said prospective British parents were evaluated to see whether they could cope with the particular circumstances that arise with foreign adoptions.
“Often there’s very little information about the child’s background or medical history, so they look at whether the family can cope with uncertainty.”
Ms Angell said parents were assessed on the issues of inter-racial adoption, and the ways in which they might help make the child proud of their heritage.
“It’s often said you adopt the country as well as the child,” she said.
Reports suggested yesterday that David was admitted into the UK on a US visa, prompting speculation that he may be adopted under US law.
Under a US fast-track initiative, Adoption Now, cases are assigned to a specific court to allow one judge to handle proceedings as quickly as possible.
Documents such as marriage certificates required by the country in question - on this occasion Malawi - must then be translated and presented to the country’s embassy in the US.
The application is referred to the country and once a child has been identified - a process which can also take months - the parents travel to meet the child and finalise arrangements.
Regardless of what option she chooses, Madonna will also fall under the scrutiny of Malawian officials. While a Malawi court waived a national law requiring would-be parents to live in the country for at least a year, the court said David must be returned if Madonna was seen to be treating him differently from her other children, Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, five.
Meanwhile, charities are becoming vociferous in their opposition to what they see as a token gesture; there are one million orphans in the country.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 65 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. Life expectancy is about 40 years, with 175 children in 1,000 dying before the age of five, UNICEF figures show.
Jane Mayo, from ActionAid said: “Inter-country adoption can never solve the problem of child poverty.”
Ms Mayo said Madonna’s attempts to highlight the plight of orphans were welcome, but she suggested the singer could help by putting pressure on world leaders to keep their promise to provide AIDS drugs to all who need them.
Anna Feuchtwang, from the charity EveryChild, which represents the rights of children around the world, said it was important for children to stay in their own countries if possible.