BI-DE, a 21 month old abandoned Chinese boy with major heart problems, is due to arrive in Dublin this evening from Beijing for emergency heart surgery.
The seriously ill child is being brought to Ireland by Ms Sally Keaveney, co founder of International Orphan Aid who, for the past two weeks, has been inspecting aid shipments to China sponsored by her organisation and conducting negotiations about the adoption of Chinese babies.
Ms Keaveney had talks in Beijing which she is confident will help ease the adoption of Chinese people by Irish couples. This included a meeting with Ms Xiao Qing Zhang, the deputy director general of the Chinese Centre for Adoption Affairs of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
Mr Richard Walsh, a paediatric nurse, also accompanied the baby on the trip to Ireland. Bi De, whose English name is Peter and whose date of birth is estimated to be March 17th, had been abandoned.
He was collected from a children's unit in the central Chinese city of Xian. Bi De will go this evening to foster parents in Dun Laoghaire and will be seen by consultant Mr Brian Denham on Thursday next. The cardiac operation will be performed by Mr Freddie Wood in the Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin. Both are acting in a voluntary capacity.
We would like to think that in the long term he would be adopted, but he will have to return to China," said Ms Keaveney.
She also saw the safe arrival and temporary storage in warehouses in Xin of all six containers of aid materials donated in Ireland to help re equip two orphanages in Shaanxi province.
"The aid is being received very graciously by the Chinese," she said. "They have been most hospitable to us in Xian." More Irish aid was needed and she hoped that it could lead to the complete renovation of an orphanage in Xian.
The Chinese people are developing, she said. "They need help in terms of partnership and cooperation. What they don't need is condemnation and they don't need people in the West criticising what is happening over here."
She said that there was no obstacle now to the adoption of a Chinese child by an Irish couple if her organisation, founded last January, was given recognition by the Department of Health in Ireland.
Ms Zhang, who is responsible for foreign adoptions of Chinese infants, was under the impression that a Supreme Court ruling in July allowing the adoption of a Chinese baby was for one specific adoption only and did not realise it created a precedent, Ms Keaveney said.
Ms Chang "now understands fully the extent of the Supreme Court judgment of July 25th and she's willing to accept that. She's asked for copies of the judgment to go to other departments, which the Embassy is now doing, but she now is fully aware that this judgment is for everybody.
"There is no obstacle now to an Irish couple adopting a Chinese child. She has given me various requirements to allow us to register as an adoption agency in China, if the necessary people back in Ireland will help us.
"The only obstacle in Ireland is getting a letter from the Department of Health entrusting us with this function because the Chinese want to make certain that whoever registers in Beijing are not making money out of this, that they are a known non profit charitable organisation with state recognition."
Mrs Keaveney said there was no need for the Irish Adoption Board to get involved "because we know they do not have the resources or the manpower." Her organisation was now in a position to undertake all the necessary documentation. "We have contacts on the ground in China and we are in a position now to get babies for people in Ireland if we are allowed to do it."
In China 1.8 million babies are abandoned annually and rely on the state to feed and clothe them, and not just because of the one child policy, she said. "This is happening because in China it is still not acceptable for a girl to be unmarried and have a baby."
Six Irish couples have adoption papers being processed in Beijing and more than 100 more are waiting to apply. "We're hoping to get the papers from couples, have them stamped by the Chinese embassy, submit them to China, have them translated here and then have them delivered by the Embassy here," she explained.
"I have been told by the Adoption Board it could be months before they are ready to start processing papers for people. It's not good enough."
She praised the Chinese system. "There's nobody making money here out of babies," she said. "If anyone thinks they can come to China, get on a plane and try to buy a baby, forget it. They are going to end up in prison and are going to ruin it for everybody else. There is a very clear system in place and you must be passed by your country for adoption."