The decades-long one-child policy in China has not only left the legacy of an ageing population, but also a set of strict adoption laws that have denied large numbers of abandoned children the chance of a family life.
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Families looking to adopt have faced a series of bureaucratic hurdles, in some cases leaving them with no legal way of proceeding with a planned adoption even if the child’s mother is happy for it to go ahead.
One such woman, Sichuan resident He Hua, was offered the chance to adopt a baby in 2021.
She had a medical condition that left her unable to give birth but she had always wanted a child of her own, and her elder sister told her that she knew an unmarried woman who was pregnant and would be unable to look after the child.
“My sister told her that I could take the child, and the woman agreed immediately,” He said.
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She accompanied the woman to a hospital in Chengdu, the provincial capital, where the baby was born. The biological mother had already told He that she would leave the city after giving birth and wanted nothing more to do with the baby.
But He’s joy soon turned into frustration when she tried to formalise the adoption with the local police and civil affairs bureau and was told she did not meet the requirements to adopt the baby.