UK Charity Urges Madonna To Reconsider Adoption

LILONGWE, Malawi — Madonna is expected to arrive in Malawi Sunday, airport officials said, as the star's plans to adopt a girl as her second child from the poor African country began to draw criticism.

Officials at the airport in the capital spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

The luxury lodge where Madonna has stayed in the past has been fully booked and casual visitors have been turned away. International media have begun arriving in the capital in anticipation of her visit.

Friday, a welfare official and a person involved in the adoption proceedings said the singer plans to adopt a 4-year-old girl.

But a British children's charity has urged Madonna to "think twice" before adding another African child to her celebrity family.

Save the Children UK said Saturday that the recently divorced star risked sending the wrong message by going through with the adoption.

Spokesman Dominic Nutt said many international adoptions are unnecessary _ and some even feed into a criminal "adoption industry."

Nutt said he was not suggesting that Madonna was doing anything wrong _ but he said the whole process of international adoptions is often flawed.

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He said that, barring exceptional circumstances, children should be kept in the care of their extended families or within their communities.

Madonna's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg in New York, who has not commented on the adoption reports, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the star would not respond to Save the Children.

The welfare official and people close to the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the girl's mother, an unmarried 18-year-old, died a few months after the child was born. Her father is believed to be alive but no other details were available.

The girl's relatives at first resisted the adoption but have now consented, they said.

Madonna and the girl's uncle are expected to appear in court on Monday to sign adoption papers.

Madonna was harshly criticized for her adoption of David Banda, now 3, in 2008. Children's advocacy groups accused the 50-year-old star of wielding her wealth and influence to circumvent Malawian law requiring an 18- to 24-month assessment period before adoption.

Austin Msowoya, legal researcher with Malawi's Law Commission, played down concerns that a second adoption by Madonna would violate any laws.

He said the best interests of the child needed to be taken into account _ whether this was staying in an orphanage in Malawi or getting "an education with Madonna."

"When you look at these two options, then perhaps it becomes in the best interests of the child to allow the adoption if the parents and the guardians consent to it," he told Associated Press Television News Saturday.

Reports that Madonna wants to adopt a girl from Malawi have been circulating for some time. But the first official hint came from the star herself last week.

In an interview in Malawi's leading daily The Nation, the singer said she was considering another adoption but would only do it if she had "the support of the Malawian people and government."

If the adoption goes through, Madonna would become a single mother of four. She also has an 8-year-old son, Rocco, with former husband Guy Ritchie and a 12-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from a previous relationship.

Madonna first traveled to Malawi in 2006 while doing charity work and filming a documentary on the devastating poverty and AIDS crisis there. She is also establishing a school for girls there.

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Associated Press correspondents Khaled Kazziha in Lilongwe, Malawi and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.

Comments

[alwqb]

Why on earth would anyone appose Madonna adopting another baby? This poor child with no mother, in an orphanage since birth who is now four, deserves to be helped by Madonna who will love her, care for her and give her a home and family. Why would Save the Children do this? Madonna has shown the world what a loving and caring mother she is. Just because you might not like her process doesn't mean a small child should suffer without the love and joy of a family.

[pilgrim7]

Whether Madonna adopts an Asian, African, African-American or white child, is and should be a personal decision based on her preference since no one else but her has to shoulder that financial responsibility and no one is forcing her to do it. Wish more people who had the resources were as generous as Madonna. I applaud her and others like her.

[moonbay]

I do not fault Madonna for wanting to adopt a child she has fallen in love with, except in her willingness to circumvent the laws of the country she is adopting from, and, in her choice of country, i.e. one with laws that don't consider ALL family and relative's options. The fault lies in the laws and regulations (perhaps) and in their enforcement or lack thereof.

I agree that doing a run around laws and regulations DOES make the job harder of agencies that DO truly try to keep to the letter of the law, where it protects the child (and family's cohesion). IF, that has been reported accurately, then I believe someone should take Madonna aside and just say, "NO!"

Otherwise, I support her loving intent to bring another child into her family.

[Atac]

I don't think we should be judging Madonna for adopting a child. She has the wealth and security and she must love children. (I'm sure the cynical will believe she is only adopting to raise publicity... but everything she does anyway is covered by the media, so how can we really tell what is for publicity and what she wants to do in private).

I am a bit disturbed about the situation since the child has living relatives. The article implies that Madonna bought them off, or some fancy lawyers came in and convinced them. However, i think there's more to the story.

At any rate, as long as Madonna raises the child well, then we should be happy for the both of them.

[jadamind]

wealth and security...she is sleeping with a 22 year old and uses everything for a photo op...people, have you lost your sense of reality how this woman lives?

[lizziesocks]

Oh noes!

What's an aging popstar to do when her toy-boy ex-husband insists on his parental rights to her African baby accessory? Why.... go buy another one of course! The natural family objects to her chosen purchase? Buy them off! The government has adoption laws and regulations? Ignore them and buy off the government!

It's astonishing how Madge manages to actually get MORE repulsive as the decades go by.

[jason10006]

Anyone who says they would rather live in a Malawain orphanage than with Madonna in her mansions and penthouses and nannies and private jets has NEVER set foot in a truly poor third world nation.

[AlligatorShuz]

Detroit is a third world city and there are plenty of orphaned black babies in Detroit.
Have you been to Detroit?

[blimie]

If the adoption is legal, it is her business. She doesn't have to answer to a charity.

[piul05]

Part II - this was posted, by mistake, down below

This last point reflects the whole thing with Madonna and the adoption; but a child that young is a tabula rasa; in other words, her "culture" is a system in formation, which should been revolving around the immediate family. In Mercy's case, would be the bonding she has with the people running at the overcrowded orphanage - in other words, not much in terms of strong ties and none of individual parental attention a young child desperately needs.

If she's adopted now ( and the whole process started when she was 2, a little toddler), she'll adapt perfectly to her new life, as culture identification takes the whole of one's childhood and teen years to develop, it's not something that's tattooed on one's forehead.

Alternatively, she can be left to linger in the orphanage and become one more number in infant mortality. But so long as she is living among people of the same color, I don't think STC cares one way or the other.

[piul05]

Part II (This was wrongly posted below)

This last point reflects the whole thing with Madonna and the adoption; but a child that young is a tabula rasa; in other words, her "culture" is a system in formation, which should been revolving around the immediate family. In Mercy's case, would be the bonding she has with the people running at the overcrowded orphanage - in other words, not much in terms of strong ties and none of individual parental attention a young child desperately needs.

If she's adopted now ( and the whole process started when she was 2, a little toddler), she'll adapt perfectly to her new life, as culture identification takes the whole of one's childhood and teen years to develop, it's not something that's tattooed on one's forehead.

Alternatively, she can be left to linger in the orphanage and become one more number in infant mortality. But so long as she is living among people of the same color, I don't think STC cares one way or the other.

[piul05]

Part I

Save the Children is just as racist as the social services in England overall - not in the sense of thinking one ethnic group inferior than another, but by categorizing people into neat little boxes, which interesting enough, lumps anyone with brown skin in the same group. This, for example, has led to disastrous policy decisions like placing an upper middle class Christian teenager of Caribbean descent (whose family was being investigated for abuse - they were later cleared) with a working class, Muslim foster family. The only thing in common was their melanin production. Culturally, the child would have been much better with any Anglo-Saxon, upper middle class family.

Adoption of babies from a different ethnic background is also not allowed, because, again, they do have difficulty in making a distinction between ethnicity and culture; as a result, children are left to linger in orphanages...

[ESerafina42]

She must want a matched set.

All I can think of when I hear about these celebrities and their "exotic" adopted children is those noblewomen in the 17th-18th centuries who used to be attended by (and even painted with) small black children as a kind of fashion accessory. They were also pampered and dressed up, at least until they weren't cute anymore. Sorry, but I don't see a whole lot of difference.

[truthyguy]

As long as the media give people like Madonna and Jolie free national publicity, they will keep doing whatever it is that gets them the publicity. This is not about the children. It's about notoriety. If it was about the children then the money would go into doing something for a village rather than spending the same money on adoption, nannies, private schools, clothes, etc. for just one child.

[mtaylor90028]

This is about their private life and wanting to adopt a child. If the media covers it, so be it.

[Blueline]

What do you do with your money to help these kids?

[truthyguy]

It's none of your F--king business!!

[LMPE]

No matter what the deal with Malawi is, I'd rather live there than with Madonna.

[Joye]

I wonder why Guy Richie doesn't GO TO THE COURTS AND PETITION FOR HIS SON. Madonna will have 3 children for herself..

[mew-too]

It could be that the couple has an understanding between them when it comes to raising their children without division.

[lizziesocks]

It'll get there. Control-freak Madge cannot STAND the fact that Guy has any say over Rocco Ritchie and David Banda Ritchie. She's already playing visitation games and it won't be long before Guy has to duke it out in court with her.

On a positive note, he knows about quite a few skeletons in her closet so she is limited in how far she can push him.

[AngieMom57]

Maria Montessori was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize seven times. Her theory for world peace was simple, take good emotional, physical, and intellectual care of two generations and all wars would cease.
Hold that thought.