An amendment to relax Adoption Law procedures has been approved by legislators despite initial worries.
The new law, which takes effect next April, allows mainlanders, regardless of whether they have children, to adopt more than one child. The minimum age for adoptive parents is lowered from 35 to 30. (Emphasis by FCC)
The amendment includes stricter regulations protecting the rights of children. Adoptive parents have to register with the relevant departments and obtain residency permits for their children.
A clause was added by the National People's Congress Standing Committee subjecting to prosecution those who abandoned or sold children, allaying fears that the relaxed law would encourage the abandonment of youngsters and violations of the one-child policy.
The current law, which limits adoption by childless couples to a single handicapped child or orphan, has added to the overcrowding of orphanages. Officially, there are about 100,000 orphans on the mainland but it is estimated millions more have been abandoned.
Fears of violations of the one-child policy and the law's apparent contradiction of birth-control guidelines had posed an obstacle to the passage of the amendments.
The amendment aims to give more orphans families and lift the burden of care from the Government.
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