Changes May Come for Chinese Adoptions in the New Year

I have been seeing reports regarding new changes to the qualifications for prospective adoptive parents interested in adopting from China. These changes were disclosed to agencies in a December 8th meeting in Beijing and are scheduled to take effect on May 1, 2007. Some of the changes include the following:

• No single parent adoptions.
• Married couples must be married for at least 2 years.
• Must have a Body Mass Index, a measure of obesity, of no more than 40.
• Adoptive parents must be between the ages of 30 and 50.
• Prospective parents up to age 55 will be considered for special needs children.
• Prospective parents must not be taking medications for psychiatric conditions including depression or anxiety.
• Adoptive parents with a "severe facial deformity" will not be considered.
• Prospective parents who are wheelchair dependent will not be considered.

Some agencies feel that these changes are taking place so that only the best adoptive families are found. Others feel that the new guidelines will help with the number of applications that are flowing into China as the U.S. is the number one destination for children who are adopted abroad. Agencies report that this over flow of applications has caused wait times for adoption approval to go from 6 months in early 2005 to 15 months currently. China is also looking for the number of adoptable children to decline as they phase out the "one-child" rule. A rule that has caused many Chinese families to abandon newborns.

_{SOURCES:
China Bars Overweight Parents From Adopting - NBC10.com
Some see China's adoption rules as heartbreaking, necessary - Associated Press Report}