Minister of Labor & Welfare (Likud) Chaim Katz has adopted the decisions of the inter-ministerial team to ease the legal bureaucracy in adopting children who were brought to the world through surrogacy abroad or via other means, aimed in large part in helping Toeiva couples adopt children R”L. The new guidelines are expected to be approved by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
The efforts to facilitate and expedite the adoption process include a reduction of hundreds of shekels from the cost of the adoption request, and eliminating the need to submit the application through an attorney. The couple will be able to submit an application and start the adoption process even before the child is born. Currently, there is only a limited window of time allowed, from birth until 90 days after birth, to complete the full adoption process.
In addition, the minimum age for adoption decreased from 21 to 18. The inter-ministerial team decided to remove and cancel the obligation to submit an affidavit regarding the lack of criminal records of offenses against minors, [which was previously applied only to couples who had brought children into the world in this manner].
Minister Katz said that “we intend to make a change in the professional procedures so that parenthood can be recognized with minimal bureaucracy and maximum security for children. After intensive work, the staff members brought to reforms that maintain the required balance between alleviating legal proceedings and safeguarding the child’s best interests. The goal is to implement this in its entirety in the coming months.”
Dr. Tali Burla, a social worker who headed the team, added that “the work of the inter-ministerial team placed supreme emphasis on the best interests of the child and on creating a professional and quick match, as far as possible, between the reality of his life and the legal reality. As professionals, we welcome the appointment of the team and its recommendations by the Minister of Labor & Social Affairs and hope that the recommendations will be approved in full by the Attorney General, in a manner that will facilitate the promotion of a legal arrangement that will benefit children.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
The best way our community can fight this is by more actively encouraging adoption, so that these very unfortunate children, who have been put up for adoption under extremely difficult circumstances, can be be adopted by happy Torah-dik families. This will also help the problem of yiddishe neshamas being raised in irreligious homes.
After a government decision like this, I’m wondering if our redemption is still flowering.
(P.S. — this comment is a shorty; hope it doesn’t take 24 hours to be processed.)
shame , shame , shame!!
Oy to the Yidden. We used to be renown for our preservation of tzinus and now look where we are today … hopefully Hashem will destroy these these wicked tziyoinim
what can we say? The Torah says it all:
“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22)
“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13)
Questions: (1) Is allowing adoption to to’eiva couples worse than allowing adoption to families that are mechalelei shabbos and ochlei nveilose utreifose? (2) Do we believe that the short- or long-term affects on the adopted children will be worse? (3) Would you be willing to adopt such a child, to prevent him or her from being placed with a to’eiva couple?