Save the Date for Children’s Rights
- When: Friday, October 3, 2014
- Where: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at 40 Presidential Dr, Simi Valley, CA 93065
- Who: International Children’s Rights Institute
- Bonus: I’m there presenting with Cathi Swett AND the CBC’s Jennifer Lalh will be speaking too!
The International Children’s Rights Institute will be launched this summer, a unique center of its kind.
We have been hearing a lot about the right of every child to a mother and father, a right that has been repeatedly affirmed by the Vatican this year. This is a paramount right, but it goes along with two other sacred rights: the right of every child to be born free (not bought or sold), and the right of every child to his or her origins.While it might seem like common sense to say that children should not be sold or deprived of their maternal or paternal birthrights, there are many rapid changes taking place globally that have made such an assumption disputable. That is why we have gathered a team of scholars and experts to assert these rights vigorously in the face of movements that jeopardize them.
I have been invited to speak at the Institutes’ inaugural conference, “Bonds that Matter,” which will take place on October 3, 2014, at the picturesque in Simi Valley, California.
I’m pretty excited to be included and even happier that Cathi Swett is joining me; I’m much happier speaking about adoption WITH an adoptee!
The ICRI has opted not to structure our day around debate, but rather around workshops and alliance-forming. While we may not all agree on every issue related to the three sacred rights of the child, we are all committed to advocating for children and believe that children’s interests must be represented first, not the ambitions of adults to have children on their terms.
“Bonds that Matter” Conference Schedule
8:00-9:00 AM — Reception/Light breakfast
9:00-10:00 AM – Opening remarks from co-director of ICRI “Birth and the Atomic Bomb – Are All Technologies Good?” —Alana Newman
10:00-10:15 AM — Question & Answers
10:15-11:15AM – “Breeders, Angels, or Mothers” — Jennifer Lahl
11:15-11:30 AM — Question & Answers
11:30-12:30 — Breakout Sessions — How does third-party reproduction fit into the advocacy your group is doing?
12:30-1:30 — Lunch
1:30-2:15 – “The First Round of the Sexual Revolution: Divorce” –Jennifer Johnson and Jennifer Roback-Morse, PhD
2:15-2:30 — Q&A
2:30-3:30 — Breakout Sessions — How do trends in divorce fit into the advocacy your group is doing?
3:30-4:15 – “Adoption: Breaking Bonds or Building Families?”–Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy and C. Catherine Henderson Swett
4:15-4:30 — Q&A
4:30-5:30 — Breakout Sessions — How do trends in adoption fit into the advocacy your group is doing?
5:30-5:45 – Break
5:45: Closing remarks from co-director of ICRI
6:00—Dinner
INFORMATION ON PRESENTERS
| Alana Newman is the founder of The Anonymous Us Project—an online story-collective for people whose lives have been affected by third party reproduction, but especially highlights the voices of donor-conceived people. She is both a former egg donor and the daughter of an anonymous sperm donor. | |
| Ms. Lahl is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl has 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager. Her writings have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. She is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She was invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking. | |
| Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is the founder and President of the Ruth Institute. She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001), recently reissued in paperback, as Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village. Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. | |
| Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy began researching adoption in 2001 in preparation of the successful reunion with her own son, Max, who was placed for adoption in 1987. Her writings have been published in New York Times, Chicago Now, Adoption Today, and many others. She has been interviewed by Dan Rather, Montel Williams and appeared on Huffington Post. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Adoptee Rights Coalition. Her website is www.MusingsoftheLame.com. | |
| C. Catherine Henderson Swett is an Attorney in New York and New Jersey. She is a former VP of the American Adoption Congress. Ms.Swett did legal research for the lawsuit defending the Tennessee Adoption Record legislation and has been published inNational Law Journal. Her non-legal research includes the history of child welfare and adoption. She has done grandparent adoptions (to keep kids out of foster care) and works for family preservation and adoptee rights. | |
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Jennifer Johnson(formerly Jennifer Thieme) is theDirector of Outreach for the Ruth Institute, as well as the Institute’s Business Manager. She has 20 years of accounting, marketing, and promotional writing for small business. She’s a former homeschooling mom with three grown children, and her passion is reaching out to libertarians and others “on the right” who don’t believe that natural marriage limits the state.
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For more information please see the ICRI website. Please do not hesitate to contact conference coordinator, J. Lopez, atinfo@internationalchildrensrights.com if you have any questions.
How do I sign up to attend this conference? I am very interested in attending.
Hi Andrea,
Right now it looks to be that one must get in touch with the organizers still. I don’t see nor have a link to a registration online. But if you go here? http://internationalchildrensrights.com/contact-us
I think it should be very interesting myself!