No parent, of course, gets any guarantees about the health of a child. But under most state laws, adoption agencies and others who arrange adoptions are supposed to share with prospective parents any medical and psychiatric histories they have on a child and his biological family. Many of the children who develop emotional or neurological problems had mothers who used drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. Much of the litigation involves children from overseas, the fastest-growing area of adoption. In these cases, parents are trying to hold U.S. agencies that work with foreign orphanages responsible for passing along allegedly false or incomplete information.
Parents often claim their adopted children are hurt by the lack of disclosure too.
Justin, now a 15-year old high school sophomore, says he has suffered extensive pain and complications from the virus. She is suing New York Foundling Hospital and an affiliated doctor in a state court in Staten Island, N.Y., seeking compensatory and punitive damages. It declines to comment further, citing state confidentiality rules. The doctor also denies the allegations. Susan Cox of Holt International Children's Services Inc. in Eugene, Ore., the nation's largest adoption agency, points out that only a tiny fraction of the 120,000 adoptions in the U.S. each year result in litigation.