For a time yesterday it was easy to see the Mihaela case as a battle between the cold-hearted, bureaucratic Romanians and the big-hearted, warm Irish.
The plight of a Romanian child being returned to an orphanage because of a visa mix-up touched people in a way that, say, the deportation of Romanians who come here to better themselves, and to support their children, does not.
Mihaela has endured a lot, at the age of four. Abandoned at birth, she is being reared in an orphanage and is severely disabled. The day two years ago when she was seen by Mrs Briege Hughes in the orphanage was a lucky day for her.
In bringing Mihaela to Ireland four times and arranging medical treatment for her, Mrs Hughes has done a great deal more than most of us can boast. In a fairly arbitrary and cruel world, people like Mrs Hughes provide the saving grace.
But to see the events of yesterday as a triumph for Irish openheartedness over Romanian bureaucracy would be to take an unjustifiably simplistic approach. The Romanians have, after all, allowed Mihaela to come to this country four times and, so far as we know, there were no difficulties on the first three occasions.
Her return to Romania, had it happened yesterday morning - and had a ticket error and a TV 3 camera not intervened - would not necessarily have been permanent. Mrs Hughes was told that the commission which oversees the orphanage would meet on September 4th to decide if it would allow her to return for medical care.
September 4th isn't far off, a week from today. To insist on dragging the child back for that one week seems like the height of bureaucratic silliness.
But the Romanians, one observer said, are "damned if they do and damned if they don't". When adoption was fairly unregulated after the communist government fell, there was scope for abuse, and the Romanians were criticised for it.
A year ago Romanian measures to eliminate abuses were praised by UNICEF. Since then, however, a European Parliament report by Baroness Emma Nicholson has again criticised the adoption process as open to abuse by those who gain financially from it.
Romania, anxious to join the EU, has responded by banning foreign adoptions until next summer. It has also been trying to improve its childcare policies in general so as to make it unnecessary for its children to be adopted abroad. Yesterday the Irish group, Parents of Adopted Romanian Children, said it wished Romania well in this endeavour.
In a context in which Romania has to be seen to be doing the right thing, can we complain if its authorities are unhappy that a child came here on an exit visa for a holiday and is then, it appears, staying for medical treatment which, presumably, could take months to complete?
We don't know how the child came to be on a holiday visa and we might wish the authorities in Mihaela's region had handled the issue with a somewhat lighter touch.
But we cannot have it both ways. Romania is entitled to act within the law to regulate its childcare services, just as we are entitled to act within our laws to regulate ours.
pomorain@irish-times.ie