Mirah Riben

Mirah Riben (born January 26, 1945) is an American author, freelance writer, researcher, advocate and social activist whose career began in 1969 as the Associate Editor of three magazines at Volitant/Histrionic Publishing.. She is known for her critical examination of the adoption industry and reproductive biotechnologies. Riben has presented at The Association for Research on Mothering Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada (2009), the 6th Annual PLI Adoption Law Institute Conference panel, “Costs of Adoption: A Survey and Ethical Considerations” (2009), and the 7th Annual NJ Research Conference on Women, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Her concerns with adoption have been a vital focus of her life since 1968, when like millions of women , she was persuaded to lose her firstborn to adoption as a result of social shame and secrecy surrounding single motherhood prevalent from the 1940s to the early 1970s.
Riben first became known in the movement to bring greater regulation and humanity to adoption practices in 1988 when she published Shedding light on...The Dark Side of Adoption, a critical analysis of the sealed adoption process and its impact on families.
== Presentations and conferences ==
Riben has been a vocal critic and researcher in the adoption debate since the 1970s, appearing on a number of television and radio programs. In 1988, she was a guest on the Geraldo Show in an episode entitled “Private Adoption: White Knights or Flesh Peddlers?” In 1990, she appeared on the Joan Rivers Show in segment #1170, with Grace Anne Smiegel, grandmother of Lisa Steinberg who was killed by Joel Steinberg. Her other appearances include:
* "Speaking of Adoption" with Donna Montalbano, WOON Radio Jan. 8, 2008
* The Adoption Show - Voices Ending The Myth, Michelle Edmonds, June 17, 2007
* Morton Downey Jr. Show, 1989, panel discussing open adoption records with Joe Soll and Carol Gustavson and in 1988, The Dark Side of Adoption
* Community View. (1987) Interview, July. Jackson Cablevision, NJ: Jacksonville.
* “US tries to thaw Russia's adoption freeze,” “Storks return babies too,” “Inside America's "stork market,” and “Adopted children not safe in US, better protected in Russia” on Russian Television.
Riben also presented at Adoption Community of New England on The Universality of Losing a Child to Adoption April 17, 2010; and at Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference, Oct. 15-16, 2007, EBSAI and Ethics.
== Written works ==
A dedicated researcher, Mirah Riben has been published widely on domestic adoption, as well as international and inter-racial adoption. Riben’s work has dealt with many understudied issues related to adoption, including the economic structure of the adoption industry and marketplace, the implications of race, age and health on the price of adoption, the impact of adoption on birth families and adoptees, and the lack of regulation in the industry.
Her books, first shedding light on ...the Dark Side of Adoption (1988) and then The Stork Market: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry (2007) were some of the first to counter the myth of altruistic, win-win adoptions, exposing a multi-billion-dollar industry with many uncredentialed actors, complex implications of racial and social politics, and little oversight
Riben’s work also exposes the international settings that lend themselves to issues such as human trafficking, fraud, corruption, rights abuses, and scandal, as related to adoption. 
Her work is widely-regarded in the field of social work and has been included in the social work handbook for adoption. 
She has over 200 articles published in a variety of publications, including 100 articles published on the Huffington Post, many of which deal with the ethics of modern adoption practices and the realities of adoption loss. Riben has been widely cited regarding the contestedSamuels, Elizabeth J., Time to Decide? The Laws Governing Mothers' Consents to the Adoption of Their Newborn Infants. Tennessee Law Review, Vol. 72, p. 509, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=843584 adoption case involving a young Alabama mother named Kimberly Rossler and pre-birth consentThibodeaux, David, Whose Rights Should Prevail? Toward a Child-Centric Approach to Revocation of Birthparent Consent in Domestic Infant Adoption (2014). 1 Belmont Law Review 343 (2014), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2481238, which is currently legal in three states--Idaho, New York, OregonChild Welfare Information Gateway. (2017). Consent to adoption. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau.. Recent articles have dealt with issues such as genetic selection for health, physical and educational traits; third party reproduction and surrogacy, the creation and selling of desirable frozen embryos by for-profit companies; all of which exploit and commodify human beings.
== Advocacy and activism ==
Riben has a long history of advocating for children. In the 1970s, in addition to caring for her three children, she was a home birther and La Leche League Leader.
In 1980, Mirah Riben cofounded the advocacy organization Origins (the precursor to Origins-AU, Origins Canada and later Origins-USA) a national group for mothers who lost their children to adoption, campaigning against practices such as sealed birth certificates, the issuance of falsified “amended” birth certificates, and pre-birth matching with “expenses" paid directly from prospective adopters to expectant mothers. 
Riben is former Director of the American Adoption Congress and in 1989 helped organize the first march on Washington for Adoptee rights. 
Riben was a member of the Board of Directors of Origins-USA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping natural families together. She also served as Public Relations Chair in 2007 and Vice President of Communications in 2008, of the organization.
She has been a prominent advocate to change the language of adoption, and for the mental health of adopted adolescents and adults, who are four times more likely to attempt suicide and deal with issues such as genealogical bewilderment and genetic sexual attraction. Riben is concerned with emotional, physical and sexual abuse of adopted children, as well as adoptive parents who abandon or rehome the children they have made a lifetime commitment to protect. 
==In the media==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Mirah Riben | HuffPost
* Mirah Riben, Author Info, Published Books, Bio, Photo, Video
* Mirah Riben blogspot
* About Mirah Riben - Amazon.com
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* Mirah Riben | Freelance Journalist | Muck Rack
* Mirah Riben – Medium
* Mirah Riben on linkedin
* Mirah Riben - SelectedWorks
* Mirah Riben, Author/lecturer at Http://mirahriben.blogspot.com
Category:1945 births
Category:Living people
Category:American writers
Category:American authors
Category:American scientists
Category:American lawyers
Category:American activists
Category:Social activists