Matthew and Grace Huang are being charged with starving their eight year old adopted daughter to death in Qatar in January. The Huangs are from California and moved to Qatar when Mr. Huang received a job opportunity for engineering for the World Cup. Their daughter, Gloria was born in Ghana, and they adopted her when she was four years old. They also have two other children that they adopted from Africa.
The prosecution alleges that the Huangs refused to give their daughter food and made her starve to death. They also argue that the Huangs locked their daughter in a room at night. Matthew and Grace contend that their daughter had strange eating habits. Gloria’s habits consisted of starving herself for a period of time, and then binging. The couple reason that Gloria was locked in her room at night in order to prevent her from excessive eating. The Huangs said that Gloria would search through the garbage for food and they wanted to make sure she did not do that while they were sleeping. Gloria’s medical records showed that she had a history of eating disorders.
Matthew and Grace Huang have been in a Qatar jail since January. They were released from custody in November, but are not allowed to return to the United States. If the Huangs are convicted of deliberately starving Gloria, they can be sentenced to death.
Government officials in Qatar are arguing that the Huangs deliberately starved their daughter to death for human trafficking. They allege that the Huangs wanted to harvest Gloria’s organs on the black market. The police also are confused as to why the couple would adopt a child who did not look like them and have the same hereditary traits. Adoption is not a common practice in Qatar, so the officials are questioning the motives of the Huangs.
Should the couple be convicted? Should they be allowed to leave the country and return to the United States.
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It is too early to determine whether or not the couple should be convicted. But, at very least, as the police have said, it is definitely suspect as to why they adopted this specific girl, in this country. The motive behind the adoption is definitely questionable in this particular case.
Whether the girl had an eating disorder or not, will play a big role in the case. She may very well have starved herself to death; but, if this starvation was exacerbated by the Huangs, and she was locked up in her room with no food for purposes of selling her organs on the black market, that is entirely different and certainly can rise to the level of a criminal act.
As far as returning to the United States, I do not believe the couple should be allowed to return for fear that they may abscond from the law. If that happens, they may not be extradited back to Qatar, and may never be tried, let a lone held accountable or responsible for the alleged crimes.
The United States should leave the Huang’s fate to the Qatar officials and should not impose their authority in the region. Sovereign States should freely enjoy the right to prosecute as they see fit and should not be barred by foreign national status. However, if the Huang’s are allowed back into the United States, they should not be immune from prosecution and should be subject to investigation and prosecution as a result of their negligent behavior, and severe child abuse. While this case might implicate the sovereign power of the United States to “control” its citizens, the Huang’s have given up any potential protection by their egregious abuse and negligence. In my personal opinion, death would be getting off too easy. While a child is young, a parent’s responsibility should be to rear their child into the right direction regarding healthy habits, and preserving a sound mental state, not allowing them to do as the child sees fit. There were plenty of options available for the Huang’s to help their child, including therapy, seeking an adequate nutritionist or just being parents and helping their child get through its issues, but they decided that letting her die was a better alternative.