So much for the American dream

Unwanted Adopted Boy Sent Back To Russia
A seven-year-old Russian boy who was adopted by an American woman has been sent home on his own.
Young Artyom Savelyev arrived at Moscow airport with the typed note from his adoptive mother which said he was being abandoned after only six months in her care. Torry-Ann Hansen had admitted to having made a mistake and suggested the boy should be re-housed. "I no longer wish to parent this child," the unmarried 27-year-old nurse from Tennessee wrote, requesting his adoption be annulled. She accused the boy's Siberian orphanage of misleading her about Artyom's behavioural problems. Hansen had placed sweets, biscuits and colouring pens in the child's rucksack before checking him onto the 10-hour flight as an unaccompanied minor, reportedly telling him he was going on an "excursion" to Moscow. Russia media has reacted with horror to the case and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called for all adoptions of the country's children by US citizens to be frozen. He said the suspension must be upheld until Russia and the US conclude an agreement on terms "specifying responsibilities" by the host family. Artyom is an only-child, whose only known relative - his birth mother - was relieved of her motherhood rights in 2008. He was picked up at the airport on Thursday by a Russian man who took him to the city's education ministry, where the youngster was left.
The man told officials he had been offered $200 (approximately £130) over the internet by Hansen to perform the service. Artyom has since been taken to hospital, where an examination revealed no signs of violent treatment.
But he reportedly told officials he was sometimes "dragged by his hair" by Hansen.
The boy will be kept in for a week before being transferred to an orphanage, either at the foreign ministry or in his home town in the far eastern Primoriye region. The regional court had sanctioned his adoption in autumn 2009, a year after he was separated from his birth mother.

Coincidentally, the story of his abandonment came on a day American-Russian relations were strengthened in Prague.

Dont for one minute get me wrong because i am not getting uptight about the USA, but come on. This woman should be flogged for treating a child in this manner. It has no bearing from which country she lives in, the international laws should be changed. This woman had taken this child on to give him a home, and she failed so like a broken car she sent him home, with a pocket full of sweets and a few pencils, and a head full of lies. what the hell must he be thinking of the western world now, sorry i mean the free world. On this subject with a 7 year old boy involved, it makes me feel ashamed, and as i live in the UK i am unsure why.

Regards ian 2411

I am simply glad the boy is safe.

There are many perspectives to view this story from and with the limited details above all one can do is make judgments based on assumptions.

I do feel for the children and potential parents who now have political gamesmanship holding up their own adoption process and my wish for them is a timely resolution and ultimately fulfillment of their desires to create families.

The one clear item in this story is that nationalism has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Respectfully,
TS

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Originally Posted by ian 2411

On this subject with a 7 year old boy involved, it makes me feel ashamed, and as i live in the UK i am unsure why.

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I am also ashamed, and it's because, like you, I believe I am a decent human being. Her nationality makes no difference, I agree. A creature like this should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It will be interesting to see if there will be any legal repercussions. She did, after all, abandon a minor child, placing his life at risk.

Sad. I cannot grasp that. Never having children is one of the deep sorrow's of my life.The reasons anyone could have for treating a child like that are simply incomprehensable to me. I work in a prison system, and see many of the results of destroyed families, every day.

From Contributions to The Associated Press made by K.M Hall & N. Vasilyeva

MOSCOW — Russia threatened to suspend all child adoptions by U.S. families Friday after a 7-year-old boy adopted by a woman from Tennessee was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.

The boy, Artyom Savelyev, was put on a plane by his adopted grandmother, Nancy Hansen, of Shelbyville.

"He drew a picture of our house burning down, and he'll tell anybody that he's going to burn our house down with us in it," she said in a telephone interview. "It got to be where you feared for your safety. It was terrible."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother "the last straw" in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children died in the U.S.

In an interview with ABC News, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the boy "fell into a very bad family."

The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign-adoption failures are reported prominently.

The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption — the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Wash.-based agency — for the duration of an investigation. Lillian Thogersen, the group's president, said it was investigating but that she could not discuss details of the case.

"It's one of the last things one would ever want for a child," she said. "It's heart-rending."

Thogersen said the agency had worked in Russia for 20 years, and it conducts home visits and provides support to parents after they bring children home.

In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, 33, a registered nurse.

Russia was the third leading overseas source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, after China, with 3,001, and Ethiopia, with 2,277, according to State Department figures.

"We're obviously very troubled by it," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington when asked about the boy's case.

Artyom, who was called Justin by his adoptive mother, arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a United Airlines flight on Thursday from Washington. Social workers sent him to a hospital for a health checkup.

The Kremlin children's rights office said the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother saying she was returning him due to severe psychological problems.

"This child is mentally unstable. He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues," the letter said. "I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues. ... After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends, and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child."

Artyom was adopted in September from an orphanage in Russia's Far East, near Vladivostok, where he lived after his mother, an alcoholic, lost her parental rights, officials said. More than 50,000 Russian children have been adopted by U.S. citizens since 1991, according to statistics from the U.S. Embassy.

Nancy Hansen, the grandmother, said she and the boy flew to Washington and she put the child on the plane with the note from her daughter.

She rejected assertions of child abandonment, saying he was watched over by a United Airlines flight attendant and the family paid a man $200 to pick the boy up at the Moscow airport and take him to the Russian Education and Science Ministry.

denuseri; I understand the responce, but at the end of the day i was not comenting on the reasons, i was comenting on the stupid and selfish way she went about it. If this child was so mentaly retarded or unstable, why did she put him on a aircraft unsupervised by specialist people, and if she had told the airline about the childs problem, i can well imaggine their responce. What she did was irrisponsible, and that child could have been a danger to not only the airline staff inside the aircraft but also the passengers. The woman has said in her statement that she feared the safety of her family, but she didn't give a damn about anyone on the aircraft.

Regards ian 2411

I didnt say a thing Ian, all I did was post a quoted copy of an Associated Press report on the topic.

My apologies denuseri; i thought the post was a responce that you were giving, my mistake.

Regards ian2411

I agree, there is not enough info.
But I would like to say adoptions are "revoked" (can't find a good adjective) for much the same reasons across the board. I would hope the number is small but the number is of little import. One would suspect that the reasons given in all cases are much the same as those "reported" in this.

Still very sad!

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Originally Posted by TantricSoul

I am simply glad the boy is safe.

There are many perspectives to view this story from and with the limited details above all one can do is make judgments based on assumptions.

I do feel for the children and potential parents who now have political gamesmanship holding up their own adoption process and my wish for them is a timely resolution and ultimately fulfillment of their desires to create families.

The one clear item in this story is that nationalism has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Respectfully,
TS

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Originally Posted by DuncanONeil

I would like to say adoptions are "revoked" (can't find a good adjective) for much the same reasons across the board.

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Regardless of the reasons, you don't just throw a kid on a plane with a "Return to Sender" sticker. There are procedures to follow, most of which would ensure the safety of the child. My biggest question is whether the guy who met the kid in Russia was someone well known to this woman or was he some guy she met in a chat room?

But I wouldn't worry too much about them stopping adoptions by Americans. Where else are they going to find people gullible enough to pay them to take off their unwanted kids?

Perhaps I was reacting too much to the adoption angle. The rest of it does leave an opening for castigating the women, but we really do not have all of the information. There is not evidence for what I am about to say either. The article could have been written from a PC perspective. Biased to what was done and deliberately left out some information.
Airlines have in place a program for the transport of "Unaccompanied Minors" so it must happen fairly often.

As a few of us have said there is a lot of guess work being applied here!

Maybe this is a good time to bring up the title of this thread? What does this human frailty story have to do with the "American Dream"?

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Originally Posted by Thorne

Regardless of the reasons, you don't just throw a kid on a plane with a "Return to Sender" sticker. There are procedures to follow, most of which would ensure the safety of the child. My biggest question is whether the guy who met the kid in Russia was someone well known to this woman or was he some guy she met in a chat room?

But I wouldn't worry too much about them stopping adoptions by Americans. Where else are they going to find people gullible enough to pay them to take off their unwanted kids?

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Nothing really imho... sadely it came off as yet another attempt to castigate the United States, though that may not have been the op's intention.

If you ask me children are treated far worse in the majority of the rest of the world than they are here.

Was what the woman did morally and perhaps criminally reprehensible?

I say yes.

When you adopt someone you get the good with the bad, just like when you give birth and there are resources and procedures to follow when handleing discrepancies and she didnt do the right thing (based upon what Ive seen on the topic so far).


The adoption agency she used may be guilty of misrepresentation and criminal misdoings. But that doesnt preclude the fact that she most certianly did not follow the appropriate ethical way of handling the situation.

The Mainstream media had a report on it today and the governemnt of both countries is getting involved so we may know more at a later date.

i

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Originally Posted by DuncanONeil

Maybe this is a good time to bring up the title of this thread? What does this human frailty story have to do with the "American Dream"?

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It got your attention so it must have done what it was supposed to do.

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Originally Posted by denuseri

Nothing really imho... sadely it came off as yet another attempt to castigate the United States, though that may not have been the op's intention.

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If I wanted to criticise or rebuke the USA I would have written it in clear print for all to see, I don’t hide behind double meanings, but i do understand what you are saying and i understand why. I cannot and wouldn’t do that for the sake of one stupid woman, because every country in the world has women just like her, so it would be a pointless act. It seems Duncan asked the question for a reaction and he got it, just like me with the head line, I'm going fishing in three days time and i hope the fish take the bait as quick.

Regards ian 2411