Madam, - Hindsight can often be the best teacher. When former Taoiseach Eamon de Valera consulted his senior civil servants in 1938 on the issue of legal adoption, in response to a strong lobby for its introduction in Ireland, the memo he received from the Department of Justice stated: "Legalised adoption might be a serious disadvantage to a child in the event of the circumstances of the adoptive parents disimproving".
While we are not conversant with Indonesian adoption law, we bow to the expertise of the the Adoption Board, which considers it "on a par" with Irish legislation. Thus, it would seem that once a little Indonesian baby was re-named "Tristan Dowse" and legally adopted, there was no further requirement by anyone in authority to ensure that his physical, emotional and psychological needs were being met within his new legal family. Nor did his natural parents have any right to reassurance that he was alive, well and happy.
Your recent report on this case quoted the Irish Social Services Inspectorate as acknowledging that a number of children who had been adopted abroad by Irish people were subsequently placed in care here.
We are happy to agree that these cases are in a minority, but are they a phenomenon of foreign adoption only? We are occasionally contacted by distressed Irish natural mothers who were parted from their children by adoption in the past and who later discovered that their children had died, spent time in care, or otherwise endured a less than idyllic childhood.
These women were usually persuaded at the time that they were unworthy mothers with nothing to offer their children, who deserved proper married parents and abundant material comforts: "If you really love your baby you should have him adopted," was a common refrain from all in authority. And while we are glad to report that there has been an attempt to introduce slight openness in adoption these days, there are many cases where people will renege on promises even, for example, to send occasional photographs, and there is no law which can compel them to make even this little humane gesture.
What is glaringly obvious in all of this is the lack of any substantive and longitudinal research into adoption in Ireland - whether domestic or foreign - which would look at the experiences and outcomes for adopted people, natural parents and adoptive parents.
We have no idea whether Tristan's natural parents have been informed that he was returned to the orphanage. Nor do we know why he was there in the first place, or whether his extended natural family know about his existence. We hope that the Indonesian social services will concentrate on these questions rather than wasting time and money in pursuing an unwilling adoptive family.- Yours, etc.,
BERNIE HAROLD, Chairperson, Adoption Loss/Natural Parents Network of Ireland, Dublin 4.