- American Youtuber Myka Stauffer and her husband adopted an autistic baby boy three years ago.
- The couple said they had given their son to another family, feeling unable to provide for their medical needs.
- On social networks, critics rain and accuse the Youtuber of having taken advantage of this adoption to gain notoriety.
“This is by far the most difficult video we have ever had. It was with these words that a speech of more than seven minutes began on Myka Stauffer's channel. The American videographer, followed by more than 700,000 people on YouTube, posted a controversial video on May 26. Accompanied by her husband, the mother explains that she had to "find a new family" for their son, adopted three years earlier in China.
According to the parents, little Huxley had suffered from a brain tumor and a stroke in utero. “With intercountry adoption, there are sometimes unknowns and things that are not transparent in the files. Once Huxley returned, there were far more special needs than we knew and we weren't told, ”said James, the husband of the Youtuber.
In tears, Myka and James explain that the autistic little boy needed appropriate medical support after having passed several assessments. "Today, he is happy, he is doing very well, his new mother is a medical professional and she fits him very well," they say.
Between 1% and 5% of children "re-adopted" in the United States
With nearly three million views, the video has aroused strong reactions on the Web. In tweets shared tens of thousands of times, some Internet users attack the mother, accused of having adopted Huxley solely to maintain her notoriety on the Internet.
The little boy's adoption was a real thread on the mom's YouTube channel, used to posting moments of her family life on the Net. A total of 27 videos with the theme “the path to adoption” have been posted since July 6, 2016. For several years, Myka Stauffer therefore told about the Huxley adoption process, as well as the different stages of her new life.
In the United States, this case raises a problem inherent in the American adoption system: "rehoming". According to a study conducted across the Atlantic, between one and five percent of adopted children have already been adopted once. A lucrative business is then created on the Internet, toddlers becoming simple goods published on classified ads sites.
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- Controversy
- Adoption
- By the Web
- Youtube
- Autism