Associated Press: US Mom In China To Find Marrow Donor For Daughter

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Thanks for stopping by! Whatever Things Are True covers politics, policy, and parenting in international adoption. Too often, the way we talk about international adoption reminds me of that old fable about The Blind Men and the Elephant – we tend to confuse one small part of the animal for the whole beast. Although I’m the mother of three via international adoption, I try to take a child-centered approach to adoption issues. I hope you’ll stick around and share your thoughts, too.

For More About International Adoption

All the Social Orphans
Suffolk University Law Professor Sara Dillon on International Children's Rights and Social Orphan Policy
Center for Adoption Policy
Center for Adoption Policy provides research, analysis, advice and education to practitioners and the public about current legislation and practices governing ethical domestic and intercountry adoption in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute
Educates federal policy makers about the need for adoption reform, and coordinates efforts of policy makers and public groups to improve the lives of children.
Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program
The Child Advocacy Program (CAP) at Harvard Law School is committed to advancing children's interests through facilitating productive interaction between academia and the world of policy and practice, and through training generations of students to contribute in their future careers to law reform and social change.
Joint Council on International Children's Services
Adoption advocacy organization comprised of adoption agencies.

Associated Press: US Mom In China To Find Marrow Donor For Daughter

Here's another sad story about an international adoptee in need of a bone marrow transplant who is desperately searching for a match. The Associated Press reports:

Sherrie Cramer breaks into stifled sobs as she nears the dirt-streaked former orphanage in China where her daughter lived as a severely malnourished infant.

Once again, Cramer is fighting to keep the child she adopted alive. But this time, it's a battle against leukemia, and the odds are not in her favor.

Without a bone marrow transplant, Katie, now 16, may die from the aggressive blood cancer. The family has just a month, maybe two, to find a donor.

The teenager has no known blood relatives and her best chance of a match will be someone from her Zhuang ethnic group, China's largest minority of 16 million. So Cramer, of Sacramento, Calif., made the heart-wrenching decision to leave her daughter and go to China in search of a donor in the city of Katie's birth.

"I needed to come and do whatever I could do to ask the people of China to help me," says the 56-year-old English teacher and mother of three, all adopted from China. "I can give her everything, I can give her love and clothes and an education, but I cannot give her genetic markers for a match."

A few months ago I posted about Ira, a 7-year-old Finnish adoptee of Indian descent in the same situation. According to the family's Facebook page, five potential bone marrow matches were identified in June, and now the donors are undergoing further testing. Hopefully both Ira and Katie will soon find the donors they need.

Posted at 04:53 PM in Adoption Medicine, Adoptive Parenting, China, India | Permalink