Orphans of precaution

There are upwards of 50,000 orphan children in Romania. None of them will be allowed adoption by foreign families. (With the possible exception of some 1,100 whose cases were pending when an adoption ban was recently passed.)

An adoption ban? Well, yeah. To international families, at least.

Don't worry, though - it's the children's interests we have at heart. This, according to Baroness Emma Nicholson, the late EU Rapporteur for Romania's admission into the union. Out of a righteous abundance of caution, Nicholson apparently urged the EU not to continue to consider Romania's admission unless international adoptions were stopped. It seems that some of the previously adopted children, you see, can't be accounted for.

It isn't certain what has happened to them. While it's entirely possible that their current 'missing' status is the mere result of a bureaucratic accounting error, Nicholson and other EU officials desired to leave nothing up to chance. Thus, all international adoptions from Romania were ceased as of recently. Foreigners are being urged not to pursue opportunities there any further.

To quote Nicholson:

". . . countries in transition that provide a market for international adoption would better serve the interests of their children by developing adequate community support."

Translation? Until we can be 100% certain that no single Romanian adopted child will be abused or neglected by a foreigner, only Romanian families should be allowed to adopt Romanian children.

To which I say: exciting! Next step is requiring a license of any parent who wants a child. Or why not just save time and sterilize the Gypsies? They seem to be a source of many Romanian orphans. Precaution demands it!