ABSTRACT
In the winter of 1999, three-day-old twins were brought to a public adoption center in Bogotá, Colombia, by their U’wa tribe parents because they wanted their children to live (Kotler, 1999). The alternative, decreed by their tribe, was to leave them in the woods (or throw them into a river) to die, because twins, according to tribal beliefs, are an evil omen. However, when the center attempted to place these children, a major custody battle ensued. The tribe fought to halt the adoption, stating that they wanted time to consider changing their customs and might accept the twins back, but social workers and child care advocates opposed this solution; they feared for these children to be returned to those people who might have “discarded them in the wild” (p. A11). Following extensive negotiations, the government agreed to give the twins back to the U’wa tribe after the tribe “agreed to place the rights of these two children above their cultural beliefs” (“Twin Babies Spared,” 1999, A14).
