Ethical Issues with Domestic Infant Adoption

What are some of the ethical issues in domestic infant adoption? When you adopt a baby, how can you be assured that it is done ethically? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility and adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Ashley Kodet and Susan Myers, District Supervisors with Adoptions from the Heart Adoption Agency.

Hit the Highlights
  • Expectant mother recruitment/ advertising by adoption agencies and adoption attorneys for expectant mothers.
  • Is it possible to advertise in an ethical way?
  • Why do many, if not most adoption agencies call an expectant mother a birthmother? How is that not designed to subtly enforce the outcome the agency wants to happen?
  • Expectant mother options counseling: How can agencies support all choices expectant mom’s make?
  • Are adoption agencies or attorney’s the right people to be doing adoption option counseling for prospective birth mothers or couples? Is there an inherent conflict of interest?
  • How can prospective adoptive parents help obtain pre-birth and post-placement counseling for birthparents?
  • What type of accountability is reasonable in terms of how long the wait will be for an adoptive family?
  • Is it ethical to charge less for an adoption of an African American baby than a white baby?
  • Is it ethical to promote open adoption when open adoption contracts are often not enforceable?
  • How can adoptive parents choose an agency that is respectful of the rights of birth fathers?

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Image Credit: Dannon Loveland