Child Adoption Is a Process

Child adoption is a process sanctioned under the law which makes a new and permanent parent-child relationship. The proceeding of adoption is normally done in front of a Judge. And adoption confers on the parent who adopts all the rights and obligations of that a legal parent and present the adopted child all of the emotional, social and legal duties and rights of a member of the family. Often, the court may use in its language the terms of "as if born to" to define the relationship of the new child-parent. Prior to the assumption of the parental rights by the parents who are adopting, the court finds out that the biologically related parents have in legal terms and with complete appreciation, either willingly renounced their parenthood rights, or these rights could have been stopped by the court. Based on the situations as also the laws of the state, these actions, i.e. The severing with regard to the parental biological rights as also the conferment of the rights of the parents on the adoptive parents might be completed simultaneously during finalization. (What is adoption?)

The judge during the period of final process in the court, makes an evaluation of the information regarding the child, the natural parents and also the adopting parents which might include among other things the 'home study' as also other assessments of the parents who are adopting as also their applicability for the child. It would also include reports relating to pre-adoption as also education with regard to placing as well as adoptive parents, notes of the case workers as also suggestions as also other types of reports. The persons appearing during the final process of hearing would be alone or together apart from the judge, might cover, however are not restricted to the (i) adoptive parents and their attorneys (ii) placing parents and their attorneys (iii) the child and the legal advocate and case workers (iv) case workers of the adoptive parents (v) case workers of the placing parents. The Judge makes a review of all the supporting knowledge regarding the placing as well as adoptive families and might interrogate all parties, inclusive of the children in case they are capable of communicating their desires as well as feelings. Based on that, the judge might disapprove or provide approval to the petition for adoption. In majority of the U.S. jurisdictions, during finalization of the adoption, the name of the child is legally altered, and the court makes an order of new issuance of a changed birth certificate in case of the child who is adopted. (What is adoption?)

2. What is a child adoption as a business?:

Under the veil of adopting parents acting as the benefactor of the child, adoption is seemingly as big business as any other commodity business. Majority of the people looking for adoption, want to have a baby and practically few of the actual orphans are available who are 'young' to be desirable for people looking for adoption. It follows that the so called "orphans" are created falsely to serve as a supply for the market for the babies. The adoption industry runs through creation of a cultural expectation of adoption for the sons and daughters of non-conventional mothers and thereafter exploits that very expectation for purely personal as well as monetary gains. The important players in adoption assume the tasks of "(i) client (ii) broker (iii) product and finally (iv) the source." (Adoption is big business) and the client in adoption happens to be the customer or in other words the prospective adopter. Facts reveal that majority of the prospective adopters are infertile while some have been unsuccessful to be parents because of multiplicity of factors including "obesity, STDs, unhealthy forms of habits such as drugs, smoking, drinking as well as environmental toxins." (Adoption is big business) the remaining has an inescapable medical state, or is single, gay or would choose to buy a child instead of experiencing the hassles of pregnancy. (Adoption is big business)

And the broker in adoption might be an organization, social worker, professional such as doctor, lawyer, spiritual minister, or might be a person seeking to have a child for his personal benefit. Normally the broker gets advantages via payments or by means of donations for the generous task of locating children for the purpose of adoption. The "price" of infants are anywhere between $10,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is hardly surprising that brokers are regarded as 'angels' apart from the financial benefits they enjoy. The "product" which is sold by the industry relating to adoption is that of children with the veneer of "real parenthood." (Adoption is big business) Several of the clients even come to enjoy the status of "liberator" because of the adoption that appears to have been shunned by the biological mother of the child. Healthy infants, particularly white infants are topmost in demand. There are instances, where the babies have been taken away from families as a means of creating genocide on societies. "The Native Americans in the U.S. And Canada and Aborigines in Australia are some of the examples." (Adoption is big business)

It is important to note that it was to "expected have various generations of interbreeding" in order to vanish them and be invariable from the whites. The product source often is the mother who would be inexperienced or has scanty resources in her possession. These families sometimes have more children and adoption in this situation will result in separation of brothers or sisters, besides causing a trauma for the mother over the loss of her darling child. Worse still, some of the mothers are enticed to the websites of the adoption industry at the time of searching for information pertaining to scholarship available over the net. Some are attracted by means of "newspaper advertisements, business cards, or through 'Dear Birthmother' advertisements." (Adoption is big business) the moment a mother would be target of business, she experiences a harrowing period in trying to get her liberated from the clutches of brokers or individuals. No mother can envisage beforehand the joy of caring and holding her child or regarding how traumatic it would be in her case when the woman's child would be compelled to leave her for good. Her 'disgraceful' motherhood might have been legally made useless, but she would always be the child's mother. (Adoption is big business)

Judging from the sheer numbers which is 1, 40,000 annually, infant adoption is big business in America. But it is not certain regarding the number of infant adoptions and the number of older children who are adopted by relatives or foster parents. If the figures released by Marketdata Enterprise, Inc. situated in Tampa, Florida are any indication, in the year 2000, adoption provider revenues were about $1.44 billion having an yearly industry growth level projected to be about 11.5% in the year 2004. Although, outright sale of children is unlawful, money is taken regularly from adopters to make the adoption legal. There are some agencies that pass a fee structure having children being listed in the sections by sex as well as race having prices in proportion to their desire. Prices could vary from $25,000 - $50,000 as well as more. Even though adoption providers maintain that fees are never a child's payment, but is the amount to deal with the expenses of the services being offered, parents who want to adopt "are not being deceived" as they have full knowledge regarding what they are making payments with regard to a child. Hence the adopting parents having the maximum money get possession of the child regarded as the most desirable. Because of the lucrative nature of the adoptive business, it has drawn several professionals who were never having an interest in the adoption. (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

During the past 10 years, the amount of attorneys implicated with regard to adoption have since almost doubled. And adoption has since transformed from being a professional structure, wherein the providers of service dispense their "shingles and seek to defer the self-interest to that of a business structure" which belligerently inducts clients on a caveat level. There have been even instances where adoption brokers puts advertisements on a national level looking for women who are pregnant, and thereafter auctioning their children to the top bidder available from the adopters maintained in his listing. Rates have been seen to change from $75,000-$25,000 in case of white kids who are healthy. The persons who rake in profits as well as facilitators who are unlicensed give assurance to link the probable adopters to their preferred child and ask for money according to market rates. Because of market competition, a wide gap lies with regard to supply and demand of the babies that forms frantic as well as huge competition within the adopters. (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

It has been observed that presently there are more than forty adopters competing for each white child who is accessible to be adopted. Gradually, there are lesser desired adoptive kids as society have come to accept single mother who parent their children compared to earlier. The disgrace of giving birth to a child outside marriage has lowered and hence, the bulk of single moms prefer to have their kids with them in place of "relinquishing them" for being adopted. Besides, thanks to advanced technology, "birth control" pills are instantly accessible to the fertile populace, and, as abortion has been legalized, a pregnancy which is unplanned could be stopped. A new dimension to the problem has emerged because of the decrease in the supply of desirable adoptable infants and the rising infertility among Americans. (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

It is anticipated that out of every six couples, one couple has problems in conceiving and total infertile couples may number 5.3 million. A lot of adopters who are presently desirous of adoption had postponed child bearing with a view to further their careers, and sometime later, when they ultimately were desirous of conceiving, they discovered to their utter dismay that time has run out for them and they have become infertile. Poverty stricken women are particularly susceptible to the high pressurized strategies of the adoption industry. In the absence of resources and support, they have no other way but to think that their level of sacrifice truly would be of use to their kids. Hardly ever they have the knowledge regarding the long consequences which they a well as their kids are going to face because of the being separated. (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

3. What kinds of organizations are involved in this business?

The business of adoption runs through a myriad of adoption agency organizations and individuals. It is not difficult to notice that free enterprise in America has been a hotbed for adoption scams, exploitation and coercions as infant adoptions has come to be a multi-million dollar privatized, entrepreneurial industry. The hodgepodge of legal strictures which differ from one state to another build an arena for dishonest attorneys with some working in conjunction with facilitators, procurers, or "match-makers" giving advertisements to attract those in crisis. There have been reports that because of the handiwork of unethical adoption attorneys of the likes of Maxine Buckmeier, Seymour Kurtz and others, they have become adept of taking advantage of legal shortcomings to their advantage. They start their business in a particular state, release advertisement in another, dispatch would-be mothers in another state and make finalization of the adoption in yet another state. Their modus operandi has been to isolate expectant mothers from their families and make a dependent bond with them through prospective adopters pay for their living and medical expenditures and almost hold them hostage, blackmailing them to surrender or pay back those expenses. (Adoption: The Child Commodities Market is Big Business)

In the opinion of Ann Babb, writer of 'Ethics in American Adoption' no professional association are there, or any academics, certification, licensing procedures, professional recognition as adoption specialists, and no training or educational qualifications. Adoption professionals have not yet shaped any uniform ethical standards or prepared any significant endeavors so as to monitor their own profession. Normally it is observed in other professions and occupations, licensing or certifications in a special subject is mandatory prior to offering his services in an area. For example, a Doctor will not offer any services outside the realm of his profession, but it is strange that individuals with professions as diverse as social work and law, marriage and family therapy, and with medical background are permitted to brand themselves as 'adoption professionals'. (Adoption: The Child Commodities Market is Big Business)

The changing dynamics of adoption over the years has been from adoption being regarded as a private matter to now most often being known as the "adoption triad." Usually, agencies dealing with adoption have licenses available from the State where they are situated and these agencies might be categorized either as 'private' or 'public'. "Public agencies are normally non-profit organizations who are affiliated with a government agency and private agencies might be privately owned and run business or may be affiliated with a religious or other social service organization. Besides, private agencies might be either for-profit or non-profit entities. For public as well as private agencies, state licensed social workers assist birthparents and adoptive families in the process of adoption." (Information on adoption agencies, private, and facilitators) Over the years, adoption facilitators have joined the fray and now comprise a growing tribe in the adoption community. In majority of the cases, adoption facilitators happen to be adoptive parents themselves who assume the responsibility of assisting others to adopt. However, facilitators, "unlike an adoption attorney or agency, are not trained in the sphere of adoption, but are self-educated. In majority of the cases, facilitators are not licensed or their activities regulated and they do not come under the control of any State or any federal agency." (Information on adoption agencies, private, and facilitators)

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4. Who gets the profit if there is one?

Profits are shared by the various players in the game of adoption business. Children as also their mothers are being exploited on a wide level by the adoption industry in this present era. Adoption professionals more often than not employ coercive tactics to buy infants. Majority of the adoption providers who state to provide counseling which is unbiased to possible biological mothers often focus on amount received from the adoptive parents in order to provide support to their businesses. The coercive characteristics of these types of services are a grim reminder to state "that the system is fueled by the adoptive parents, the paying clients to whom the various agencies as also attorneys provide their service." (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America) Uncontrolled and dishonest facilitators use pressure tactics or simply "bribe the poor as also single women across the world to surrender their babies." (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

Innumerable amount of travel annually by the citizens of U.S. abroad to have children with thousand of dollars, since they have decided they want a child above anything else. There are some agencies who engage the services of "bounty hunters to look for babies for adoption, dishing out as much as $10,000 per find, which is considered huge money in the poor regions of the world." (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America) the booty is also shared by child stealers which another angle to the booming adoption business. The baby stealers target are the "poor single mothers who are mostly being isolated from their families as well as support systems and comb poverty stricken neighborhoods in search of pregnant women, most often posing to look after them." (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America) Besides, babies of prostitutes are also sold off by the brothel owners to minimize the downtime of the pregnant ladies. Housewives belonging to middle and upper classes hire the services of would-be mothers as being servants, enable to organize adoption and corner the brokerage fees. (Infant Adoption is Big Business in America)

5) What kind of problems is this business having?

With growing awareness of the nexus between the brokers, adoption professionals and adopting parents; this has impacted the adoption business in more ways than one. Besides, there has been demand from all quarters that the Federal Government must regulate adoption. In its nascent stages, the public perceived adoption to be a "philanthropic, benevolent" endeavor undertaken by "charitable" institutions who donate their services to guarantee improved conditions for the poor and orphans. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption) the federal government has adopted tightening measures with regard to "foster care." Further the reality is a strong arguing level for speedy intervention of the federal government in adoption which involves fees. Providing the power of regulation to the state governments, the clients of adoption providing services are now virtually susceptible to corrupt service "providers" efficiently protected by far flung distances from being accountable. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption)

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Adoption has since tended to be an industry with stakes in multi-million dollars with some providers garnering revenues close to $15 million every year. Because of the demand for healthy infants far outstripping supply, kids in the U.S. are practically sold away to the person who bids the highest, sometimes to individuals who are not U.S. citizens and are residing in other nations. With the murky side of the adoption slowly surfacing, the business of adoption is faced with problems. Testimony from birthparents, adoptive parents are being taken. These witnesses narrate blow by blow account of touching stories that describes a series of unethical as well as deceiving practices of business, inclusive of kidnapping, by agencies who are dealing in adoption. The accusations are inclusive of the theft as well as selling of children from their biological parents who were badly desirous of keeping their babies with them. There have even been instances where infants with life threatening health problems were given way to unsuspicious adoptive families unaware of the distressed requirement their children had for immediate medical treatment. For instance a particular agency situated in Tennessee had bee found to involve in illegal placement of about 10,000 children in almost forty states within a decade. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption)

Quite a number of cases have been filed against adoption business which has also led to business problems of the adoption agencies. During 1992, the Smithlawn Maternity Centre which is a charter member affiliated to the trade association i.e. National Council for Adoption -- NCFA was the earlier of the adoption agencies in the U.S. which was effectively prosecuted under the "racketeering statutes" of the federal law. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption) and the law suit was being filed by the parents who adopted 2 "healthy" kids. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption) the parents had suspected that the staff of the agency had covered up serious medical state of affairs of the two kids who had separate biological mothers. Subsequently, it was understood from the records of the agency that once the mother of one of the child had consumed drugs prior to as well as during the time of pregnancy and the other baby had to encounter a lot of pain at the time of delivery birth. The adoptive family also filed cases against the attorney stated that he faced an interest conflict at the time of representing his clients. While representing the family, he was also a member among the board of directors in Smithlawn's. (Why the Federal Government Must Regulate Adoption)

6) How does this business impact our society, science technology etc.

The societal impact of adoption is immense as adoption leads to real families being disintegrated that includes mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings. However there are some who believe that single unwed mothers giving birth to a child need to get punishment and it hardly matters how children would be impacted. Grandparents particularly are averse to see their sons having to face suffering as a result of the need to provide "support for their own child." The moment the baby comes to the adopters, the very reality that they had this child who is unrelated to call them "mom and "dad" assists the adopters to "put forth the concept that God has committed a mistake and in reality planned this handsome baby for them. A lot of people report that TV talk shows and game shows are exploiting adoption, but the truth is that adoption in itself is exploitation." (Adoption is big business) it is clear as daylight to fathom the real client in adoption. It is not the child and it is not the mother of the child or father. On the other hand, it is the people with the hope to adopt the absolutely healthy infant of their dreams. (Adoption is big business)