Evening star., 1939-07-09
Baby Brokers
Operate in
District
Non.Proft Agency
Recommended BY
Miss MOrss
By Testa Gum mines.

Babies are for sale today in the
District of Columbia. If YOU wish
you can buy one at prices ranging
from 500 to $500.
This was the statement made re-
Gently by Miss Patricia Morss. chief
of the Division of Child Welfare
Of the Bureau of Public Welfare,
while discussing the whole system
Of adoption in Washington In
charge of the division which super
vises the care of all children who
are wards of the District for any
reason, Miss Morss believes that it
is imperative that all adoptions in
the District be arranged through
a central agency, with no profits
possible to third person, as pro-
lection to both homeless infants and
adopting parents.
At the present time adoptions are
contrived in the District through
three sources - physicians, baby
brokers" who keep in touch with
hospitals and do the baby selling, "
and various social and charitable
agencies. Sometimes this baby SELL
Ing results in happy homes being
obtained, it is true, Miss Morss says
Other times, because neither the po-
tentialities of the child nor the suit
ability of the adopting parents has
been considered the adoption brings
only sorrow and tragedy.
Advocates Licenses.
Therefore, Miss Morss would like
to see in operation supporting legis-
lation to the Adoption Act, good
in itself, which went into effect in
the District in August of 1887
Parents should not have the right
to give babies away, she believes,
and, therefore, there should be legis-
lation to correct the indiscriminate
placing of children by parents or a
mother in distress She believes
that all agencies engaged in placing
children should be licensed and that
there should be some legal restric-
ton to parental transfer of rights
to children usually to some third
person with commercial interest
in the arrangement without the
sanction of any agency or court
And she needs full-time employe
to investigate backgrounds of both
babies available for adoption and
people who wish to adopt them.
Supposing that you wish to adopt
a child-how do you go about it
today in Washington? BY far, the
most usual way is through a third
person. such as physician or COM
mercial agent, or both.
There are functioning in the city
absolutely within the law, individuals
who haunt the waiting rooms OF
obstetrical clinics and hospitals te
interview unmarried expectan'
mothers. At this point the girl ap-
preached, usually very young, is
desperate. A respectable-looklne
woman offers her everything she
needs SO vitally at the moment
namely secrecy. care of the chile
after the mother and child leave the
hospital and superior adopting par
ents. The baby broker paints pictures
of the child in the future-happy
secure, cherished, and receiving al
of the advantages that money car
buy.
Give Babies Away.
The percentage of young women
signing consent papers under these
circumstances is said to be large ane
these consent papers consist virtual,
in giving the baby away Consen
forms signed by the natural mothe
read, in part:
II do hereby, voluntarily, uncondi
tionally and absolutely surrende
and commit the said child to tn
care. custody control and manage
ment of of Washing
ton. D. c., who in her discretion ma
select, or that she, in her discre
ton. may provide said child wit
a home, until the child shall reac
the age of 81 years I pledge my
self not to interfere with the Gus