A widely-read newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet (“Evening News”), recently published an article signed by 12 Swedish adoptive parents announcing their support for a proposal to stop adoptions to Sweden. Here’s the link to the article in Swedish; the Google Translate version in English is printed at the end of this post.

The adoptive parents also fully support the proposal that illegally adopted people should receive an apology from the Swedish government, and that the adoptees should be offered financial support for return trips to their country of birth and to search for their roots.

Additionally, the parents noted that we adoptive parents can love their adopted children deeply, and also recognize and regret the damage that fraud and other inequities can cause in adoption. Via Google Translate, “As much as we love our adopted children, we feel sad about what has happened. It is not possible to weigh children’s opportunities for a secure future in Sweden against the risk of children having their papers forged and being illegally adopted away from their families of origin.”

This is the “both/and” of many of us in the adoption community, including adoptees. We can love our families, and loathe the adoption industrial complex. I give credit to the Swedish parents for voicing this so publicly.

In June of this year, according to PBS.org, “A Swedish commission recommended that international adoptions be stopped after an investigation found a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades…The assignment was to investigate whether there had been irregularities that the Swedish actors knew about, could have done and actually did,” Anna Singer, a legal expert and the head of the commission…And actors include everyone who has had anything to do with international adoption activities.

It includes the government, the supervisory authority, organization, municipalities and courts. The conclusion is that there have been irregularities in the international adoptions to Sweden.”

Swedish scholar Tobias Hubinette PhD, who is also an adopted person from South Korea, on July 9 posted information about the remarkable public statement by the adoptive parents, noting that “Previously, a smaller group of (Swedish) adoptive parents who have adopted from Chile have signed an appeal demanding that the Adoptioncentrum‘s adoptions from Chile to Sweden be investigated, but never before have so many Swedish adoptive parents together been behind an article like the one found in the Aftonbladet.”

Adoptioncentrum, by its own description, is “the largest and most experienced adoption organisation in Sweden, and one of the largest and most experienced organisations in the entire world. We are currently collaborating with authorities and NGOs in more than 20 countries.”

Many folks in Western Europe have been active in speaking out about adoption illegalities. Norway, The Netherlands, and Denmark have ended or restricted international adoptions. This past February, a Swiss news source printed “Why countries are banning international adoptions,” noting that Flanders in Belgium and the U.K. (in addition to Norway, The Netherlands, and Denmark) have investigated and restricted international adoptions. Switzerland plans to end international adoptions at the end of 2026.

There have been many reports about fraud in international adoptions, including from the Associated Press South Korean adoptions.

“The Chinese Adoptees Who Were Stolen” via The New Yorker in May 2025 notes that “As thousands of Chinese families take DNA tests, the results are upending what adoptees abroad thought they knew about their origins.”

We in the United States need to be aware of the rising tide of news and actions being taken by other adoptive parents, and of course by adoptees, around the world, including calls for restrictions, apologies, investigations, reparations, annulments, and more

Around the entire globe, only the United States actually deports international adoptees. We must speak out on behalf of adoptees in regard to citizenship issues.

And we must open our hearts, minds, and eyes to what is happening in other countries and what other parents are doing to combat fraud and inequity. Maybe we need to do that especially because we love our children deeply.

Google Translate of Aftonbladet article, from Swedish to English:

We are people who have adopted ourselves. We have followed the work of the Adoption Commission with great interest, the final results of which were presented in June. We are saddened and appalled by the extent of legal uncertainty that has occurred in international adoptions to Sweden over the decades. We are very upset by the irregularities that have occurred in several cases in the adoption process.

As much as we love our adopted children, we feel sad about what has happened. It is not possible to weigh children’s opportunities for a secure future in Sweden against the risk of children having their papers forged and being illegally adopted away from their families of origin.

The right to identity and origin should not be determined by economic circumstances.
We want to be clear that our position is not about our feelings and choices, but about the fact that sometimes you have to look up and see structures and be able to have several thoughts in your head.

We fully support the adoption commission’s proposal that people who have been adopted to Sweden on illegal grounds should receive an apology from the Swedish state. This should be a given. We agree with the investigation’s conclusion that people who have been adopted should be offered financial support for return trips to their country of birth and to search for their roots.

The right to identity and origin should not be determined by economic circumstances. In addition, adoptees should be offered high-quality conversation support, adapted to their experiences

Many who have been adopted are now adults, but there are also many who are still children. We believe that families who have recently adopted children should receive readily available support, due to the double burden that many children have of separation trauma and disability or illness.

We support the inquiry’s proposal to stop adoptions to Sweden
Today, support for adoptive families is weak in terms of child psychiatry and parental support, and is also unevenly distributed across the country. We all need to learn from the mistakes that have been made and ensure that children who have come to Sweden through adoption and their families are given the right tools to counteract mental illness

The Convention on the Rights of the Child contains several paragraphs that are difficult to reconcile with international adoption of children, for example Articles 8 and 30, concerning the right of children to preserve their identity, language and culture. The investigation also shows that children from indigenous peoples and indigenous minorities are overrepresented among children who are adopted away, due to discrimination in their countries of birth. We consider this to be an unacceptable basis for adoption.

We therefore support the investigation’s proposal to stop adoptions to Sweden. Adoption of children between countries should always be legally secure and be the last opportunity for a child to have their own family, and if this cannot be guaranteed, the mediation needs to be stopped.

Karin Andersen
Johanna Andersson
Suzanna Asp
Carmilla Floyd
Marita Rodriguez Gallardo
Anna Gemfeldt
Tomas Rodriguez Hedling
Anneli Nordling
Kalle Norwald
Helga Stensson
Patrik Stensson
Anna-Stina Takala