[International adoption: children's health risk evolution]

The socioeconomic and sanitary conditions in many countries make it necessary to weigh as precisely as possible the uncertainties which might affect the health of internationally adopted children, which is one of the key drivers to adoption decision. Indeed, health troubles are more and more frequent among children proposed by countries, at a time when there are fewer children to be adopted. Hence the institutions and the actors in the field of international adoption are compelled to frequently update their professional practices, so as to cope both with the declining offer for adoptable children and with the increasing pressure from the birth countries of children to make host countries adopt children with high age or with special needs. It also requires from the administrations the will to provide better initial information and to implement the demand for an agreement. Meanwhile, in spite of those growing constraints, adopting families have been more and more risk adverse during the latest decades, this being a common trend in our developed countries.