Anna Spitz does some computer work with her adopted Chinese daughters, Sarah, 9, in red, and Rachel, 13. Because of China's new restrictions on adoptions, Spitz, a single parent who is UA coordinator of the Arizona Water Institute and a program manager in astrobiology, would no longer qualify as an adoptive parent.

Dean Knuth / arizona daily star

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Single adults and many with disabilities who want to adopt a Chinese baby or child will no longer be able to under new rules China will enact next year.

Stricter financial requirements also will be part of the new regulations, which some American adoption agencies have learned about from Chinese officials in recent weeks.

The rules will also exclude people who are seriously overweight, wheelchair dependent or take anti-depressants.

The rules are scheduled to take effect May 1.

About 12,000 Chinese orphans are expected to be adopted this year, two-thirds of them going to homes in the United States.

The number of adoptable children is expected to decline sharply over the next decade, however, because of a gradual shift away from the Chinese government's one-child rule — a policy that has led thousands of families to abandon newborns or place them for adoption.

Local adoption experts view China's new policies as necessary in some respects, but heartbreaking in others. Adoptive parents and others are especially dismayed by the new ban on single parents.

"It hurts my heart because if that rule were already in place, I would not have had the opportunity to become a parent and have the two girls that I have today," said Carol Thompson, University of Arizona assistant vice provost for student affairs.

Thompson has adopted two girls from China: Grace, now 9, who was adopted at 14 months, and Ting Ting, now 6, adopted two years ago.

"This is the way I got to have my family," Thompson said. "Every aspect of it was wonderful."

Anna Spitz, UA coordinator of the Arizona Water Institute and a program manager in astrobiology, is also a single parent of two girls from China. Rachel, 13, was 3 when Spitz adopted her; Sarah, now 9, was almost 4.

"I think it's really unfortunate, particularly when there are so many children who need homes," said Spitz, who also belongs to the local chapter of Families With Children From China. "I like to see children protected and I think a lot of the rules are good. But I think this one is not necessarily beneficial to the children."

While most consider two-parent families ideal, Spitz said, "even my third-grader knows several kids whose parents are divorced now. So I find this pretty disturbing."

The Chinese consulate in Los Angeles did not respond last week to faxed questions and requests for interviews about the new adoption rules.

China already limits single parents to 8 percent of the country's total adoptions, said Sonja Wendt, the China program coordinator for Hand in Hand International Adoptions, an agency in five states with offices in Tucson and Mesa. That 8 percent cannot include gays or lesbians, since China and other foreign countries ban them from adopting, Wendt said.

China's new restrictions are in response to a dramatic recent increase in applicants, Wendt said. Since 2003, the number of families worldwide applying to adopt from China has more than doubled to about 20,000 a year, she said.

China is highly respected for its careful practices, and adoptions of Chinese children can now take two years to complete, Wendt said.

The tighter medical and financial restrictions that will take effect in May are not unreasonable, said Wendt, the divorced mother of Wen, now 7, whom she adopted from China six years ago when she was married. Wendt also has a biological son, Evan, now 10.

"I think we have to look at this from a different perspective," she said. "If you were the birth mom, who would you pick to raise your child? Would you want your child to go to someone who had the potential to die early? They look at it as, these children have already been abandoned once and they want to give them the most secure placement that they can.

"But I am discouraged about not allowing singles," Wendt added, "because I feel that single parenting is just as wonderful an opportunity for a child to have a family as it is when couples adopt. I know many single moms who are just incredible moms."

Wendt is particularly saddened that she will not be able to adopt again from China, she said. As a divorced woman, she would have to be remarried for five years, before she turns 50. "And my whole life is dedicated to helping children in China find wonderful homes, so I'm not happy about the marriage rule."

New restrictions against people in wheelchairs, those who have had cancer and others with chronic illness or handicaps are raising concerns from advocates including Elizabeth Priaulx, a lawyer with the National Disability Rights Network in Washington, D.C.

"When you make these blanket policies, you're just not looking at what a person with disabilities is capable of doing," said Priaulx, who has cerebral palsy. She and her husband, Eric Goodman, have a 5 1/2-year-old son, Wil, whom they adopted from Korea when he was 6 months old.

"I use a cane so I always have just one hand free," Priaulx said. "I never carried my boy because I have a tendency to fall. I got a lightweight stroller so all I had to do was pick him up, put him in the stroller and take him from the car to the house or to the next room or wherever we needed to go.

"When he started to crawl I would just say, 'Come on,' and he would crawl behind me. No problem. I thought it was going to be so much harder than it was. Now he knows to be careful when we go for a walk. He knows if he runs ahead of me he has to wait for me to catch up.

"I do know that countries can put in whatever restrictions they want on adoptions. But there are many, many families who have one or more adults with disabilities who would make great parents that are going to be blocked from this," Priaulx said.

The new guidelines will not affect parents who already have adopted children from China. Nor will they affect those parents whose applications have been recorded by the China Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing by March 1, according to a memo sent to prospective parents from Holt International Children's Services.

Wendt said it's too late for anyone who will be excluded by the new criteria to start an application to adopt from China. "If you haven't already been certified, really it's too late," she said.

Cindy Marble, professor of special education at Arizona State University, is keeping her fingers crossed.

Marble adopted her almost 4-year-old daughter, Jainan, from China in August 2005. Jainan was deemed a special-needs child because she had a cleft lip and palate that have been surgically corrected.

Marble now has an application for a second special-needs child ready to be filed with the China Center.

"I've been assured that things will happen quickly enough that I will not have any problems," Marble said last week, "but I'll be waiting breathlessly to hear."

Also single, Marble opposes the new Chinese restriction. "I'm a college professor so I research everything," she said. "If there were good solid studies out there that said two parents are substantially better than one, that would be one thing. But the articles I've read say a lot of other things are more important than whether there are one or two parents."