"But the court has now to consider first and foremost the interest of Edita," the judge said.Edita was just nine weeks old when Serb troops attacked a garage where women and children from her home village of Hrustovo had gone to shelter.Edita's mother and younger brother were killed, as were her grandmother, two aunts and two cousins. Edita and her cousin, Melvina, were retrieved alive from under the bodies of their mothers by a Serb officer, who handed the babies to neighbours.Edita, who had three pellets lodged in her brain, was first taken to an orphanage and then brought to Britain for medical treatment, assisted by Mr Fowler, 62, and his 49-year-old wife.The couple adopted Edita at Oxford County Court. But the order was later set aside afterinvestigations showed that members of the child's family had escaped from Bosnia and were living as refugees in Switzerland, a fact known to the Fowlers.Sir Stephen said that he was satisfied that Mr and Mrs Fowler knew from an early stage that their adoption of the young girl - who will be five next month - was forbidden.Faced with the "determined opposition" of members of Edita's family, Oxfordshire County Council, the adoption agency, and advice from the Official Solicitor, the couple had decided at the start of the latest hearing to drop the adoption application.Although there had been "appalling irresponsibility" on the part of Mr and Mrs Fowler over their actions in trying to adopt Edita, the child should remain with them, Sir Stephen said."I believe that Mr and Mrs Fowler ... are nevertheless capable of acting in Edita's interests now that the whole situation has been revealed."His decision was praised by Barbara Mostyn, of the Campaign for Inter- Country Adoption, who said cases like Edita's may become increasingly common as families trace evacuated Bosnian children."In a war situation you can understand a care worker would be delighted to think a child will leave such a horrendous situation. Their ability to trace surviving relatives at that time would be absolutely zero," Mrs Mostyn said.She added: "I think the judge in many ways has ruled in favour of the child but not the relatives."If she retains links with her family, hopefully they can forge a relationship.".

Couples who want to adopt a child will now have the right to appeal if they feel they were turned down unfairly or were the victims of political correctness. The Government is bringing in the new measures after a number of controversial cases where parents were denied the right to adopt on the grounds of education, age or race. In one case, a Norfolk couple - Jim and Roma Lawrence, from Cromer - were told that they could not adopt a mixed-race child because of their "lack of understanding of racial issues" despite Mrs Lawrence having been born to an Asian family in Guyana.But social workers' leaders yesterday denied that political correctness could override a child's chance of a stable home, stressing they acted in children's best interests rather than that of potential parents.The changes, which come into force on 1 April, will ensure that couples will be told when their application is being considered by an adoption panel.They will receive a copy of their assessment report, which goes to the panel, and have an opportunity to respond to it in writing.If the panel recommends against allowing the couple to adopt, the pair will be shown the recommendation before it goes to the adoption agency - whether a local authority social services department or a voluntary agency - which makes the final decision.The couple will then have the right to challenge the recommendation and to have it reviewed by the adoption agency.Stephen Dorrell, the Secretary of State for Health, said the changes would remove "fashionable theories" from adoption and would make the procedure more independent and transparent."Decisions about which parents are able to adopt children should reflect common-sense values that are widely shared throughout society, and shouldn't reflect the rather specialist and fashionable theories of a particular professional group," he said.The measures also include changes to increase the number of lay members on the panels from two to three - including, wherever possible, one adoptive parent and one person who was adopted.Membership of a panel will be restricted to a maximum of two consecutive terms of three years with at least three, and no more than four, members appointed each year.A spokeswoman for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering said that they welcomed the measures: "Anything that makes adoption more open and accountable would be welcomed by BAAF." she said. "Some of the regulation is already taking place with local authorities."But she defended social workers from charges of "fashionable theories", saying: "We argue that social workers act in the best interests of the child and do not make decisions out of some notion of political correctness. That is unfair, misleading and not borne out by the evidence."Dave Burchell, assistant director of the British Association of Social Workers, added: "Adoption is an emotive and sensitive area of social work. It is understandable that couples who are turned down should feel hurt and aggrieved, yet it is the best interests of the children that social workers represent not the interests of the adults."There are also considerable difficulties to be addressed over the proposals to make the entire application report available to the couple," he said. "What happens for instance in the course of the very detailed assessment process if something is uncovered that only one of the applicants knows about and must remain confidential?"An Early Day Motion was tabled yesterday calling on the Government to restore funding to the overseas adoption helpline which has assisted 14,000 callers over the last five years."The helpline is the only source of accurate, independent information and advice available to would-be adopters, social workers and other professionals struggling through the difficult and complicated procedures ...

facing those who wish to adopt from overseas," said Peter Thurnham, MP for Bolton North East.. Is it true that there are many more children awaiting adoption than there are available parents? Yes, says the British Agency for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) which will run a national adoption week later this year in the hope of attracting new parents. Adoptions have dropped from the peak in 1968, when 24,831 children were adopted, to 6,239 in 1994. Of the 1994 figures, half were step-parents adopting their partner's child. The type of children who need adopting has also changed since the 1960s, when a high proportion were babies. Now in 1994 only 360 out of 6,000 were babies under 12 months old and the majority tended to be much older and were like to have suffered ill-treatment or abuse in the past.Is it true that white couples can't adopt mixed race children?No, but it can be difficult.