Opinion: Adoptive Mother Should Be Sent to the Gulag

I agree Dolly. The news media is not kind and won't try to be. It is up to the public to read between the lines. If anything, this might bring mental health issues more open to discussion.

A 7 year old child was put on a flight alone and sent on a connecting international flight. No matter what else the adoptive mother claims happened to her, doing this to a child warrents prosecution... period.

Wholly agree with Dolly. It sounds cruel on the surface, but if you take your emotions out of this and just think about it, how many of you can honestly say you'd be able to deal rationally with an extremely difficult child, especially when the adoption agency had misrepresented the child's problems? There were probably better ways to handle this situation, but I'm not throwing any stones.

Dolly you are correct. No one knows what went on for sure. I do know that there are children out there that have serious emotional issues and are very sweet with strangers and hide their problems but with family members they are their real selves and act out violently. Social Services do not always help because they are having financial problems since their fundings have been cut. Unless you know the system and all your legal rights Social Services will give you the run around when it comes to special needs.
The child may have been fine and it could be that the woman thought she was going to get more money from the Government because she had adopted a child. Or the woman and her family could be the violent ones and if that was the case the child is safe back in Russia. Not until a full investigation is done will we know the truth.

As a single male who adopted a special needs boy, I can understand the mother's frustration. HOWEVER, there is no excuse for what she did. There are state and local services availble to parents with special needs children. The mother's family, friends, her heighbors and her church certain would have been the source of some assistance and support. There are so many generous and caring folks in our society who whould have been very supportive, as they were to me and my partner in our time of need. No degree of legal retribution will cure the hurt and trauma this child will carry for the rest of his life. As grown man I am moved to tears for this terrible injustice.

Please folks, in your comments keep in mind that while this woman clearly did wrong, we don't want US-Russian adoptions to end. There are so many wonderful children in orphanages there who need forever families. My son was adopted from a "baby home" there. The women who ran it did a great job given the resources they have available. And he is a fantastic child - a blessing I couldn't imagine being without.

I agree, Dolly.

As far as the child being put on a flight alone - it's called "Unaccompanied Minors." Happens all the time. They have flight attendants who specifically watch the child and travel with. My own sister has done it since her infant was 2 years old and her oldest was 5, put the babies on a plane with an attendant to their father in San Antonio, Texas.

There has been a rash of adoptive mothers killing their Russian children. In each case they have consistently said, "There is something violent and dangerous with this child. I felt my other children were in danger." It's so popular in report now that one of those shows - criminal minds, or Law and Order, etc., did a show about it.

What I don't hear anyone acknowledging is that there seemingly is some deficiency in these Russian children. I imagine it comes from years of a depressed society, shell shock, poor pre-natal care, malnutrition and then, of course, the initial abandonment from the birth mother.

What's a shame is that the problem is probably more fixable than we realize with good medications and some long-term therapy.

But, I've got to tell you guys that if I adopted a child because I wanted the best for the child, and to add to my family, and I began that journey with good intentions, and then that child becomes a violent danger to my birth children or the children of my neighbors, I'm going to remove the child from my home. You can get up on the high horse all you want, but I'm telling you, good intentions or not, I'm not going to allow any person, child or otherwise, to bring violence and danger into my house.

What's ridiculous is that adoptive parents of American children return children to the orphanage every day, and it doesn't make headline news, and no one ostracizes the adoptive mother. No one even knows. What about those children?

I am disgusted, my brother was adopted at a later age (I am the adopted sister in a family of adopted kids). There were problems growing up that's for sure. He had lots, he still has lots and we are now in our 40's but family is still there and love and that has taken some of the lonliness out of his life. He needed love and it has helped him get somewhere instead of turning into who knows what. Just as this child sent back does. I cannot imagine the emotional damage that has been added on top of the emotional damage and trauma that this boy undoubtedly has already gone through. My parents could not hug or cuddle with my brother and only as an adult has he developed this ability with a partner. Not as a child. This is the result of a lack of love and contact in early years. Never has any of us ever given up completely but to do what these people did is horrible. There are no circumstances justifying it even if the boy was asking to go back. There is nothing to justify it.

As a mother of an adopted son from our FOSTER CARE system I can relate to some of the emotional challenges she claims to have faced however I agree that her ations are extreme but desperate people do DESPERATE things.
Also as an educator of special needs children I have seen many eastern European adoptive children with severe emotional problems. If anything should come from this it should be a more in depth look into what is happening in these orphanages that turn out such emotionally disturbed children. It amazes me how much money we spend here in the USA to help such needy kids.
I pray for all parties involoved that some good does come out of such a sad situation and as for this article... what a joke!

I wonder what she would have done if she had given birth to this child, take it back to the hospital. you have no guarantee with any child.

You are right...none of us know the situation...BUT, being a mom, nontheless, I don't care HOW destructive the child is, he is a SEVEN year old boy who has seen GOD KNOWS what over there in a russian orphanage. So, now you take a little boy who is probably in 1st grade, maybe 2nd and throw him out like yesterday's trash? COME ON...can you imagine what that did to his heart and spirit....if you're a parent, try to imagine what that would do to YOUR child's feelings? TERRIBLE

YOU DON'T NEED TO BE THERE TO MAKE THIS JUDGMENT. IT WAS TOTALLY WRONG BY ANY COMMANDMENT OF GOD. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. LET THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME TO ME BY JESUS. WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? A SEVEN YEAR OLD BOY? ON A PLANE BY HIMSELF TO RUSSIA ,LEFT BY AN IGNORAMUS. GOD HAVE MERCY ON HER AND YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE.

I'm astounded by the number of people here claiming that we can't make an intelligent comment because we don't have all the facts. This was a CHILD !!! She abandoned him....put him on a plane by himself. Can you gather a little compassion people??? He must have been terribly frightened....and he's old enough to know he's been treated badly and that his new "family" didn't want him. This will effect him the rest of his life. What more details do we need?? If the child had medical problems the woman should have asked for help instead of sending him back like a dog to a shelter.

................Right on the money Dolly. 'nuff said

Certainly absolutely no one can know what happened in that home. However, even if this were destined to be a failed adoption for perfectly legitimate reasons - and that certainly does happen - there are appropriate ways to handle that situation and under no circumstances is putting a 7 year old child on an international flight unaccompanied an acceptable way to handle it. And what about an airline that took an unaccompanied minor on an international flight? I hope as this unravels we will find that the facts are not exactly as they appear and this woman did not actually proceed as we have been led to believe. If it turns out to be indeed the way it appears, I hope our government proceeds with criminal prosecution and this woman and her mother are held accountable. The airline too!

Avery's article is positively scurrilous. How can anybody at this juncture have an opinion? The facts are few and disjointed. What if the basic info turns out to be accurate, that the child in question is psychotic? Should adoptive parents be subjected to all of the financial and emotional traumas that such a situation entails? I think not, especially if the child's situation was misrepresented in the first place. Avery's article is an example of the hysterically opinionated journalism that pollutes the current information channels we're all subjected to. Jefferson must be spinning in his grave!

My cousins were adopted from Russia. For anyone to ever send a child back to the conditions of a Russian orphanage would have to have a cold heart. My cousins have seen and experienced everything under the sun, and that was before they were five years old. All three are now productive members of society. The child would have been much safer dropping him off at a hospital. What she did was outright spiteful and cruel...

NO, the woman paid an adult to ride with the child. The child was, however, given a one way ticket. He DID have supervision the entire trip.....

How educated do you have to be to not be repelled by the fact that a child that age was sent on a 12 hour plane ride alone with a note returning him like some defective merchandise!
Seems to me that if you ever try to adopt a child, they better give YOU some psychological testing!!