Owning Laura Silsby’s Shame: How the Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies the Western Disregard for the Integrity of Poor Families
By: Shani M. King

Is this really case of child trafficking, for adoption, or is there a more sinister reason? - Merc

https://twitter.com/SouledOutWorld/status/1159639272296800257
In January 2010, an earthquake in Haiti left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured, & displaced, & over a million homeless.

http://haiti.org/files/BULLETIN%20du%2021%20au%2023.pdf
The missionaries claimed they had the good intentions to set up an orphanage,

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Missionaries-plan-for-orphanage-for-Haitian-children-83600197.html
but investigations showed that none of the children were orphans & that the missionaries may have been attempting to smuggle the children out of Haiti to be adopted internationally. http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32497
Despite evidence of association with child traffickers,

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/19/haiti.baptists.adviser/index.html
the Haitian justice system—prodded in part by President Clinton’s diplomatic efforts on behalf of the missionaries—determined that none of the missionaries were guilty of illegal activities,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/laura-silsby-us-missionar_n_579644.html
except the leader Laura Silsby, who faced a lesser charge of organizing illegal travel. https://twitter.com/SouledOutWorld/status/1161166713813131264
They did so essentially because we place such little value on the integrity of poor families; the idea that the missionaries were acting to “save” these children justified the damage they would have caused to the children & their families.

http://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty 
In this way, the Silsby case offers a window into international & domestic child placement schemes that disrupt poor families & disregard traditional forms of child placement.
In the international context, the demand for intercountry adoption (“ICA”) is driven by Westerners who wish to have children & who desire to save poor children.
While relying on good intentions, ICA as it currently operates perpetuates a system of child placement that destroys the integrity of poor families & feeds illicit child trafficking schemes like the one devised by Laura Silsby.
In the domestic context, the American foster care system also disrupts poor families.
Children are funneled into a system that can be as harmful as the homes from which they are removed; yet the system still appears to remove the children with too little regard for the integrity of their families.
The U.S. foster care system & ICA are both premised on rescuing children from unfortunate life circumstances, stemming mainly from poverty.
In both systems, instead of providing resources to enable families to take care of their children, these resources are used to remove children from their families & communities.
Inadequate family reunification planning & services in the foster care system undermine parents’ attempts to regain custody of their children, & in ICA, adoptive parents pay substantial sums to complete the ICA process,
while birth families typically receive no assistance that would enable them to better provide for the children who will be adopted.
Ultimately, both the domestic & international systems disrupt the lives of poor families, but not always because it is necessary for the child’s well-being.
This Article does not suggest that it is necessary to end foster care or ICA.
On the contrary, recognizing the need for systems that ensure children are raised in safe & loving homes, I seek to show that the current systems need to be improved so they do not continue to systemically & unnecessarily damage the integrity of poor families.
Movement towards this type of improvement will not happen, however, without acknowledgment that the problem exists.
Commentators generally accept that poor families are more likely to be involved in, & thus disadvantaged by, both the intercountry adoption system & the U.S. foster care system.
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