In an attempt to pry myself and others away from Angelina Jolie's latest adoption, let's dive into the issues the U.S. State Department seems to be having with Guatemalan adoptions. Even though Guatemalan adoptions have been very big with U.S. families in the past, second only to China, the State Department is less than thrilled with Guatemalan adoption procedures of late. The State Department is not recommending Guatemalan adoptions at this time.

There is a FAQ page on the Department of State's Web site which outlines the problems, which are:

• Conflicts of Interest - Notaries may determine a child's eligibility for adoption, authorize the adoption, and register the adoption. The notaries may also interact directly with birth parents, solicit consents for adoption, and make adoption referrals to prospective adoptive parents. The Department of State is concerned that a notary can’t handle all of these different roles and still keep the best interest of everyone in mind.

• Lack of Government Oversight - The notaries are largely unregulated. Since social services are limited, the U.S. is concerned that birth mothers are relinquishing their rights due to threats or gifts of money. More adoptive parents are reporting that they are also being extorted for very large amounts of money by Guatemalan representatives in order to complete adoptions.

• Unregulated Foster Care - Foster parents are also not regulated to any set standard of care. Many Guatemalan foster parents have been great with the children and adoptive parents have expressed their gratitude, but the U.S. is also aware of cases where the children have been physically and sexually abused by their foster parents. The abuse, is of course, not reported to the prospective adoptive parents.

• Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption - While Guatemala has been a part of the Hague Convention since March 2003, it has not enacted the Hague-consistent legislation or instituted the Hague-consistent practices that would protect children. Guatemala is lacking the required central authority to oversee intercountry adoption processing as well as other numerous steps the Convention requires.

The U.S. has not stopped accepting or processing Guatemalan adoptions, but will be taking more time to scrutinize each case. The State Department encourages each prospective adoptive family to research any adoption agency before working with them and to call the Better Business Bureau and/or the licensing office of the appropriate state government agency in the U.S. state where the agency is located or licensed.

Update 4/1/2008 - The United States will not process or approve any new Guatemalan Adoptions.

The Guatemalan government will also be taking more time with each adoption as on March 1, 2007, Guatemala issued a "Manual of Good Practices" on adoption that the State Department is calling a "good first step toward a national law that implements the Hague Convention". The manual states that the child's best interest is to be considered in each adoption, that no one involved with the adoption receives an improper financial gain, and that the courts is to determine a child's eligibility for adoption. All of this reviewing of each case may mean time delays with each Guatemalan adoption. It could also mean that an adoption may be denied if a child is found not to be an orphan under U.S. law.

But time is not the only problem to consider. It's a question of ethics. The National Council for Adoption(NCFA) has also released a statement on the State Department's crack down on Guatemalan adoptions. The NCFA does not agree with the government's decision to post such “rash statements” and believes that the State Department should make a retraction. The NCFA's stance is that the children waiting in Guatemalan foster care are now put at greater risk and that suspending adoptions is not serving the best interest of these waiting children.

The State Department's argument? Would you want to adopt a child whose mother did not freely choose to place him for adoption? Do you want to "support negative child welfare practices"?

Many adoptive parents are saying, "no". What do you say? Do you agree with the National Council for Adoption or the State Department on this one?