Abstract:
Adoption being an advantageous process, it tends to be beneficial to the prospective birth parents by relieving both financial and emotional stress of unplanned pregnancy and single parenting, the adoptive parents by enabling them to become parents when they may not have been able to otherwise and for the adopted children by being placed with families who have planned, prepared and longed for a child. As for Intercountry Adoption, there has been great controversy about the benefits and dangers of international adoption. Those against it view it as the ultimate kind of exploitation, the taking by the rich and power of the children born to the poor and powerless. Proponents of international adoption see it as a positive thing, where parents reach out to children in need and the cultural and racial differences viewed as a chance for the parents and children appreciate one another's differences. Taking a closer look at the trends of International Adoption in Kenya and globally, it tends to be leaning more towards the risky side as opposed to the beneficial side as history has proved. The adoption system tends to treat vulnerable children as properties hence the whole idea of child trafficking and exploitation. This is mostly blinded by the fact that Intercountry Adoption has been painted as a successful system that tends to build up a family-like environment for a child in a means of upholding their best interest principle. This research paper gives a detailed research finding that move to show the negative impact that Intercountry Adoption sets to impose on vulnerable children thus abusing the child’s best interest principle as well as identifying some of the measures required to combat those violations.
