In Norway, a Proposed Ban on Foreign Adoptions Rattles All Sides of a Heated Debate

One Norwegian woman only discovered via an old letter, hidden for 50 years, that she had been taken from her Korean parents. Another was taken from her home while she was stricken with polio; a woman had arrived and said she was taking the girl to medical care but instead took her to an orphanage. Yet another woman was given up to an orphanage by a vindictive grandmother, trying to break up her son’s marriage.

In each case, the women believed for their entire lives that they had been unwanted, given up or orphaned by their biological parents. The truth, though, could not have been more different.

Theirs are but a sliver of stories that have rattled Norway’s — and, potentially, greater Europe’s — robust foreign adoptions industry. On Tuesday, one of Norway’s top policy bodies recommended a halt to all foreign adoptions amid a probe into allegations of stolen children, forged paperwork and illegal, adoption-for-profit schemes. On the same day, Denmark’s sole foreign adoption agency announced it would be winding down its own operations following similar concerns.

The recommendation in Norway, sweeping in its scope, took all sides of the adoption debate by surprise.