Ethical Issues with Domestic Infant Adoption
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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.
+ Highlights of the show (click to expand)
- 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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I listened to this on the heals of our agency (IAC — Independent Adoption Center) closing suddenly and unexpectedly last week after 34+ years. There has been a lot of discussion (in online groups) regarding the ethical responsibilities of the agency to the adopting family. I am very much against the commodification and commercialization of adoption, and I don’t want to seem entitled to have a baby if I pay money, however it almost seems at odds protecting ourselves. It seemed like from the numbers — 150 adopting per year and 500-800 waiting families, with more signing up all the time, that we were being fleeced.
Is there a reasonable ratio we should be requesting? There should be more waiting families than birth mothers to give a fair number of options to the later party, but what is fair?
We want to sign up with an agency that puts birthmothers first and provides counseling, but we’re feeling very wary after all this…
Rebecca, I am so very sorry that this is happening to you. We have a multimedia guide that will guide you on exactly what to look for and what questions to ask. Nothing is a 100% guarantee, but you can rule out a lot of potential problems if you know what to look for. Creating a Family Multimedia Guide on Choosing an Adoption Agency or Attorney (http://bit.ly/2djEMZj)
I truly wish you the very best of luck!!