Why does it cost so much money to adopt a child/baby?

Felicita1

"Why does it cost so much money to adopt a child/baby?"

How about ask, "Why does it cost so much money to BUY a child/baby?" because that it is what it truly is. A market for purchasing newborn healthy infants. With prices set according to consumer demand (including white babies costing far more than AA or Latino babies!).

It is an industry here in North America. One that preys upon vulnerable mothers to convince them to surrender their babies, because of the money that can be made by adoption lawyer, facilitators and supposedly "non-profit" agencies that are anything-but. (Nonprofit only means that there are no shareholders -- it does not preclude profits begin paid out to directors and staff).

If adoption really were about finding homes for children without families, then there would not be such a huge marketing campaign aimed at convincing mothers to surrender their babies, nor would babies be sold at these prices. NO money should ever change hands for a baby: That is human trafficking, plain and simple.

" Regrettably, in many cases, the emphasis has changed from the desire to provide a needy child with a home, to that of providing a needy parent with a child. As a result, a whole industry has grown, generating millions of dollars of revenues each year, seeking babies for adoption and charging prospective parents enormous fees to process paperwork. The problems surrounding many intercountry adoptions in which children are taken from poor families in undeveloped countries and given to parents in developed countries, have become quite well known, but the Special Rapporteur was alarmed to hear of certain practices within developed countries, including the use of fraud and coercion to persuade single mothers to give up their children." -- United Nations, Commission on Human Rights, 2003.

Heather B

Because people are willing to pay it. It's a multi billion dollar business profiting off the backs of babes (illegal in most civilized nations)

Adoption is supposed to be a social service for children. Unfortunately it is not practised that way in the USA :(

MamaKate

Dear Soprano,

Not all adoptions cost a lot of money. Adopting through US or UK foster care is low cost and even free in some cases. There a thousands of children in foster care are legally freed (meaning their parents have lost their rights) for adoption every year. For the ones who haven't got extended family to step in, long term foster care or group homes and aging out of the system are too often their fates. These are the children who are truly in need of good homes and loving families and yet they are most often the ones who are over looked by perspective adoptive parents in lieu of newborns or international children (who are ironically "priced" at astronomical amounts) by the facilitators of such adoptions.

One of the main reasons these children are less likely to be considered by PAPs is because of widely perceived and generally incorrect stereotypes and stigmas. They are all different and unique, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER CHILD - each and every one capable of having "problems" or not but also just as capable of giving and receiving love. (Which it what its all about, right?!)

The absolute truth is that they are children who are very much just that. CHILDREN. They have no more or fewer "issues" than the average child who is adopted - or any other person per se. EVERY family has problems and EVERY parent, regardless of biological relationship with their kids, does their best to muddle through whatever issues, problems, ups and downs, discoveries and mistakes our children make WITH them. We do it even when the going gets tough. No matter what. Unconditionally. Why? Because they are our children.

Of course, this can be said of every parent-child relationship, no matter how it is formed, whether it is biological or adoptive, official or unofficial, with and without problems, "expensive" or not. It is about a special bond and and UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for another human being that surpasses every other expression of the feeling. It transcends gender, abilities, age, ethnicity, and every other issue that divides mankind - even actual separation. It is fierce, incredible, joyous, unendingly deep and sometimes even excruciatingly painful but it is worth every drop of yourself that you have to give. Giving love is what parenting is.

So back to your question, adopting is not expensive when it is about giving a child who desperately needs a family a loving set of parents. It becomes expensive when people begin to focus on their ideals and begin treating the awesome possibility (and responsibility) of creating a parent-child relationship as a commercial enterprise. As others have pointed out, the idea of "supply and demand" when it comes to anything creates outrageous ethical and financial issues.

Because of a high demand for certain types of adoptive situations, these situations have become extremely profitable. Like most other highly profitable "commodities" (once you put a price on a life, it becomes a "commodity" - a product. Disgusting.) there is a great risk for greed to overcome ethics. This is exactly what has happened in certain areas of adoption. What was once a means to provide a needed social service became a "market". It opened the door to all sorts of unethical practices and reduced the rights of the children it is supposed to assist. (You should hang out here on Y/A and you'll learn a lot more about it!) And worst of all, it allowed the children who have the greatest and most urgent need for a chance to have a positive family experience to be pushed to back of the line in the minds of the public and potential adoptive parents. The costs for adopting children from foster care has remained low and the level of ethical behavior remains relatively high. It remains a social service rather than a "market".

Linny G

Such a silly question. I like multiple choice- you pick!

A. To insure you have the means to pay for the child's therapy bills later on in life & still be able to pay for our search for our n family.

B. To make sure you can buy us clothes from Baby Gap & a pony

C. To make sure adoption agents and lawyers drive nice cars

D. 'Cuz we're worth it.

E. All of the above.

Im going to go with "E"

tish

um....

foster care adoption is next to free...

oh, you're talking about 'domestic infant/newborn adoption'...in that case:

it's business. and a business driven by the emotions and desperation of childless couples to score healthy newborn and often, caucacian babies. and since there are far few babies the demand is increased and the costs are high. it's sort of like manhattan real estate.

Mei-Ling

Because you're paying for a human life and in exchange, you get to keep said human life.

(P.S. MamaKate nailed it. Price goes onto infant's/toddler's head, infant/toddler becomes a commodity.)

Not Adopted

Simple economics:

Large demand + limited supply = high prices.

Independ"ant"

Supply/Demand

Babies/toddlers are treated as commodites. Nice,huh.

Who's worse the people that run the organized crime or the people that participate in it.

anastasia beaverhausen-the real1

up to $50,000. depends on how shiney, white and healthy you want it.

Crucio

Because people are willing to pay that much I find it quite absurd. Why should anyone have to pay thousands of dollars to give a home and family to a child in need its crazy. Thatâ€™s why if I ever adopt it will be from foster care. Plus i'd rather use some of that money to take my new children on a vacation like going to Disney world.

If you want to adopt a minority its much less which is also absurd. Price should not be different based on race its just very shallow imo.

allchildrenareangels

There is a high demand of people wanting to adopt. The adoption agencies know that. So they make good money off of people wanting to adopt.

monkeykitty83

Adoption from US foster care is either free or low cost, depending on your area. I've never heard it costing more than a couple of hundred dollars in actual court costs. So no, adopting a child does not necessarily actually have to cost much money.

It costs so much to adopt an infant from a private agency because of demand. The figure often quoted is that there are 40 waiting families for every 1 newborn placed. With demand that high, agencies can charge pretty much whatever they want, and people will pay it.

International adoption is more complicated and has more actual costs associated with the process, but again it's about demand. Older children and special needs children still cost less to adopt than infants and toddlers.

It's not that all adoption is expensive. Foster care adoption is not. It's that if you have specific wants that must be met (like a healthy white newborn,) you will pay for the privilege of having your desires met. In the US, the children who are in actual danger of not finding adoptive homes cost little or nothing to adopt.

I hate putting a price tag on children. Hate it. But that's unfortunately the way it currently is.

â™¥â™¥Ritaâ™¥â™¥

If you adopt from foster care it is next to nothing as far as cost. Some states will pay for the attorney to finalize the adoption.

In private agencies.....well, everyone needs to be paid. The agency has bills to pay!! They know there is a demand and they know that someone will pay to satisfy that drive.

sizesmith

It amazes me. Agencies, who make money, knowing that a baby is placed, continue to advertise and so forth, even though the demand for babies is so high, and they make it higher by putting cute little faces out there, where people who have no idea about adoption buy into it.

I'm for adoption, and am an AP myself. I won't go through an agency, because they tend to strong arm women to place children. They get HUGE amounts of money.

Our son's private adoption costs right around $1000.00 by the time all the expenses were added up, including the home study, attorney fees, filing fees, and birth certificate fees.

If it had been $100,000.00, he'd have been worth it, however, we wouldn't have been able to afford that. Insurance, including medicaid covers a natural child to be born. The same insurance often times won't cover any fertility diagnosis, much less treatment. Adoption agencies make a lot of money. Even the non-profit ones have very highly paid workers.

Randy B

Like it or not, agencies are businesses and even "non-profit" businesses need to make money in order to keep going. They have social workers to pay for, office costs, administrative costs and a whole host of other costs that must be covered plus they need to put some away for future needs.

Now, with that having been said, do they do that or do they make more then what is necessary? Since I've never seen their books I can only assume that perhaps they do but I know they didn't get a cent from me. Depending upon the channels you adopt through, yes even for international adoptions, you need not spend a fortune.

cmc

It isn't cheap but depending where you go it doesn't have to be out of control. We were in San Francisco, where costs for everything are higher, so I assume the agency staff was paid fairly, but not excessively. The only cost that I thought was out of line in our adoption was the $5000 we paid to an agency in Georgia. Our daughter's mom was placing in GA, so someone had to handle the paperwork on that end. They only did maybe one full days work from what I could see, but had a fixed price they charged. If we had had more time I would have tried to find an alternative. Our agency worked on fee-for-service (home study, classes, outreach were all charged when the service was provided), and had a sliding scale based on income. None of the levels were cheap, but it wasn't out of whack either.

We chose not to go with certain lawyers, facilitators etc, because they really seemed more like they were selling babies.

Diego is Smiling!!

probably to see how much you are willing to give for this child

and to make sure the baby goes to a home where they can afford all the things the child needs

WOWZA!

I don't know but I think it's sad. I would love to adopt a child and provide a good home. I really can't afford the fees. I mean, I can afford the child's expenses but coming up with THAT much money up front, I can't do. I want to adopt an older child.

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