I have been actively involved in adoption reform for nearly three decades. I am a past member of the board of directors for the American Adoption Association and join with Jane Nast and others in calling for an end to private adoption. In private adoption, there is no accountability and no mandate for proper record keeping. Money is the only motivation, which is not in the best interest of anyone other than the baby broker. The babies, their original parents and both prospective and successful adoptive parents are all at risk for exploitation through shoddy, illegal practices that lead to broken hearts, financial ruin and overturned adoptions.
Money breeds corruption and needs to be removed totally from a child welfare issue.
All private adoption should be illegal, as lawyers are not social workers. We need to put an end to the tight control attorneys have on this totally uncontrolled industry. I hope that this latest incident finally blows the lid off the problem. As a parent from Ontario who privately adopted a newborn baby two and a half years ago in Kentucky, I was astonished to read about the corruption involved in private adoptions. My husband and I were scrutinized to within an inch of our lives, by both the provincial and the state governments, including extensive interviews, full disclosure of our finances and fingerprinting to ensure that we had no criminal record.