The new guidelines, which go into effect on May 1, give
preference to more suitable applicants, a Ministry of Civil Affairs
official said yesterday.
A key criterion is that applicants should have a Body Mass Index
(BMI) a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies
to both adult men and women of less than 40.
A BMI of 40 means extreme obesity, for example, in a person who
is 1.7 meters tall and weighs more than 115 kilograms.
Xing Kaimin, director of the ministry's China Centre of Adoption
Affairs, said obese people are more likely to suffer from diseases
and might have a shorter life expectancy.
The applicant couple must be married for at least two years; and
those who were earlier divorced should have been currently married
for at least five years.
Xing said a complete family is essential for adopted
children.
The current law allows single foreigners to adopt Chinese
children, but requires the father to be at least 40 years older
than the adopted girl.
Another change is that couples must also have less than four
children and be in the 30-50 age group, according to Xing. The
current law does not specify the number of children of adopting
parents, but they should be at least 30 years old.
He stressed the guidelines are temporary and might be
revised.
"We will continue to deal with foreign adoption according to
law," he told China Daily, referring to the Law of Adoption and a
Registration Regulation on Foreign Adoption.
"The priority criteria are meant to protect children's interests
and shorten the waiting time for more qualified applicants," Xing
said. "It does not mean we are prejudiced against less qualified
applicants, who can still apply."
Xing said the center, the only institution authorized to deal
with foreign adoptions, has received a soaring number of
applications to adopt Chinese children in recent years.
Prospective adopters now have to wait for 14 to 15 months on
average from the time of their applications till they receive an
initial match, Xing said.
"We want to pick the most qualified so that our children can
grow up in even better conditions," Xing said, noting there are
fewer abandoned or orphaned children because of social
progress.
Xing said more than 100 licensed adoption agencies in 16
countries have been informed of the revisions.
More than 50,000 Chinese children are reported to have been
adopted by foreigners in the past 10 years, of which US families
make up four in five.
About 8,000 Chinese children were adopted by US families last
year. The figure was 5,000 in 2001.
(China Daily December 25, 2006)