Russia to End U.S. Adoptions?

A terrible story with potentially devastating consequences: Torry-Ann Hansen of Tennessee sent her 7-year-old adopted son, Artyom Saveylev, back to his native Russia on a plane by himself with a note saying “I no longer wish to parent this child.” Now, the Russian government has proposed suspending all adoptions to the United States. “Russians feel humiliated that their country, which they perceive as a world power, cannot take care of its own children and has to give them up to foreigners,” says The New York Times; only China and Ethiopia give up more children to American adoptions each year. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that Saveylev is in better hands: When he indicated to the Russian children’s ombudsman on national television that Hansen had pulled his hair, he was asked “Did you cry?” When Saveylev said yes, the children’s ombudsman reprimanded him, “You are a man, you shouldn’t cry.”