Does this make you uneasy?

cantstopLinnyG

It makes me uneasy because it is true. This is one of the top reasons many people here, ap's, f parents AND adoptees wish to change the system.

The profit is made by the agencies and lawyers, and even our own government, on local levels. The product is the baby, the manufacturers are the f parents, the consumers are the a parents, and the big business owner is the agency/lawyer.

The ap's and the fp's have the emotional attachment to the child, but the only attachment the agency has is to the money paid for the "goods"...the baby.

I could not agree with you more- NO ONE should profit from adoption. When the profit is stopped, I believe there will be NO more unethical adoption involving coercion, lies and manipulation.

I mean for God's sake- the sheer fact a pap can give money towards rent/bills, etc to a prospective relinquishing mother and then lose that money if she decides to parent is insane. It is coercive to the f mom to begin with, but the pap's suffer, also.

The celebrity thing chaps my a$$$ too. Most of the celebs who adopt probably would not pass a home study to adopt a dog. Another example of how money talks.

Once we get rid of the profit to agencies & lawyers, and in the instances of foreign adoptions, corrupt governments, adoption might just truly be in "the best interest of the child." Right now, with the exception of foster care and foster to adopt programs, it's the agencies, lawyers and corrupt foreign government who wins.

Possum

In the USA infant adoption IS an industry. There is no other word for it.
And sadly Hugh Jackman's wife is pushing extremely hard for Australia to end up the same way.
She wanted babies so bad - that she just went to the US to get herself some. (then closed up an open adoption because it got too 'messy' - ie she didn't want the mother in her life)

Private adoption agencies get their money only when they've wrenched the child out of his/her mothers arms - and placed said baby into the adoptive parents family.
They don't care what the child or the mother will feel about any of it.
It's ALL about the money.

INDUSTRY.
There is no better word for it.

rachael

I WISH IT WASNT AN INDUSTRY, but it is. think of the amount PAP's pay for the child-tens of thousands per child.
and the marketing...its genius.
its on tv, in movies, newpapers, magazines, BILLBOARDS. its all over. just how much money does it take to run an ad in all those places? i know i had to run an ad once, it was 4 lines and cost me something like $15. now take the full page ads you see-or a long tv clip-or a huge billboard. spread them all over the world in every social level community.
i wonder how much that costs? i wonder how they (a company that only 'cares' about the well being of a child) are able to produce such huge amounts of money for that. oh yeah.....the babys they get pay for that.

so if having a product people want, advertising worldwide, making huge profits, convincing people that normally wouldnt use your service that it is actually best for them isnt considered and industry.....THEN WHAT IS IT?

SJM

It is an industry. As an infant, my permanent custodian was a corporation. A corporation may have legal personhood, but it sure as heck doesn't have any emotions or emotional attachments. After several months, employees within that corporation placed me with a family who paid a fee amounting to about twice the value of a new car. I'm willing to bet they made a profit from that transaction.

jesskarules

uh, it is an industry, all they care about is doing their job, the money, they dont care about how anyone feels, thats what industries do, they are selfish and think of only themselves.

Nurse Autumn Intactivist NFP

Yes, it makes me uneasy, but it is true. I can not think of a better way to describe it; an industry is what it is. So what do we do? Well, we educate, and try to reform it.

Opedial

The problem is it is an industry. Is it an industry to me as an adoptive parent, or to a First mother? Likely not in our minds, but the fact is people are profiting big time from adoption, making it an industry and making babies the product.

23 year old texas female married

Adoption has to be an industry. They are always somebody looking for an infant to adopt. I don't understand why my kids were targets to place for adoption. Yes I understand the fact that I have gone to trade school to become a medical assistant and yes I am young and yes my kids are healthy and white.

People have no regard how I feel when they bluntly ask me at grocery stores: Can I adopt her/him. At least when my kids get to be 18 to 24 months old they finally stop. People are out there making sure young women know about adoption. As early as when you first announce I am pregnant, right after you give birth, and while you are grocery shopping with your child.

I wish people would go away with adoption. Look if I didn't want my kids I would not be parenting them. They would have been aborted. I always wanted children, ever since I could remember. I once asked my mother if she could get pregnant and give me her baby to raise. I was 12. I know when I was 4 I demanded that my mother give me a little sister. She accidentally got pregnant and had me another brother.

sunny

I've always been 'uneasy' with adoption.

kitta

In the USA, it is a huge industry. There are thousands and thousands of private adoption agencies.

There are thousands of adoption attorneys.

These people make a huge living from adoption.

They even advertise, some on television, some in newpapers, the internet, even on billboards.

They troll the world, looking for babies.

There is also a public adoption industry, but that is another topic.

Laurel J

I calls'em as I sees'em. Since adoptees are treated as goods exchanged for profit, I see private adoption as an industry.

Sarah

I think 'Adoption' as a whole is a very gray topic.
There are many different perspectives and views on it - against it or for it.
It also depends on each individual's upbringing on their perception on adoption / their own experiences of adoption - whether they adopted out a child/adopted a child/was an adopted child.
The reasoning behind why adoption was carried out in the first place is also a very personal matter and there are many reasons why it happened. Some bad some good. It's easy to make a judgment on someone else's action, but I personally try not to judge someone for their actions as I'm not that person, I probably won't know what they are going through.
IMO, people using babies as a commodity isn't 'right'. I think every mother, whether they adopt the child out/abort it/raise it, will have some sort of emotional attachment to that individual situation whether they are aware of it or not, and whether they show it or not. They might not be upset/distress about it, but I'm sure it will always be at the back of their minds as a part of their history in life.
Adoption overall to me, has its good and bad. It can cause detrimental affects on both the adopted child and/or birth parents. However, there have been cases where it has worked out for both parties. No one can really tell what will happen in the future. Every decision we make is a gamble including the impending existence of a child.

birthdad in hell

over $1.4 billion dollars annually is generated by selling i mean adopting children in the U.S. alone. judges and public officials working with them. government grants, media. law makers and attorneys in the pocket. that is adoption in america. sounds a lot like an industry to me. that or the mafia.

Philippa

Adoption is different in the UK as the local authorities and adoption agencies deal with it so costs are generally court costs and with adoption agencies maybe admin fees. However at worst it generally is generally a matter of a few hundred pounds compared to the many thousands that it costs in other countries.

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