Why is adopting expensive?

cmc

It totally depends on what kind of adoption you're talking about.

foster care adoption - these kids really need homes, but this kind of adoption is not expensive at all. Also there are more children than families willing to adopt, in part becauses these kids come from situations of abuse and neglect and not every parent wants to take this on. These children are in the care of the state so the state pays the cost of most of the services needed to do the adoption (e.g. homestudy) to help move them out of state funded care.

domestic adoption (newborn) - in this case there are many more families wanting to adopt than there are children. Here private agencies perform the services and pass along the cost of adoption to the families. some may be charging excessively but they have to do a lot of work to ensure parents can provide a healthy safe environment, and also they have to do outreach work to find pregnant women wanting to place. And often the women will require financial assitance associated with their pregnancy.

international adoption - you still need the homestudy, but now you have two governments involved trying to make sure the adoption is ethical and in the child's interest. Also prior to the adoption the child has been in an orphanage or foster care, so I think some of the cost goes to this.

All of this has to be done legally so lawyers fees are also part of it, and generally lawyers are well paid.

LaurieDB

Adopting through foster care is not expensive at all. You don't have to pay all sorts of exorbitant fees to do it. Children can be adopted by people of varying economic backgrounds. My aparents didn't even have an actual bed for me when they adopted me (I was 2.) I slept on a cot. We had no car, as they could not afford it at the time. Later, we acquired a car, but it certainly was no brand new beauty! My afather worked his way up over the years, but they didn't have a lot financially at the time of the adoption.

However, when you adopt through an agency, it's ridiculously expensive. Agencies are businesses and businesses need to make money, whether they are classified as non-profit style or for-profit style agencies.

On another note, I think we all know that being without financial means doesn't make a person an abuser, nor does being wealthy make a person a good parent.

anastasia beaverhausen-the real1

because adoption is a money making business.

Crucio

Laurie is right adopting from foster care is not costly and sometimes even free. However most people want babies and babies available for adoption in Foster Care are small compared to the couples who want them. Some couples are willing to pay a high price in order to get a healthy infant, most specifically a healthy white infant. Adoption fees should not cost that much. I can understand agency fees/ lawyer fees/home study and a few others. I donâ€™t think PAP should be paying for the PBM hospital bills. IMO no adoption should be more then 25 â€“ 30 grand.

Another reason prices can be high is because people are willing to pay that fee. My Aunt and her husband were willing to pay 60+ grand for their son, specifically because they wanted a white infant. I love my little cousin but now i wonder how he will feel about that fact one day.

sunny

The same reason waterfront property is expensive--it's rare.

There are not loads of babies needing homes anymore. Women aren't shamed into giving them away as often as they used to be.

Why not try foster care? Lots of children there need homes...

Gaia Raain

The children who NEED homes are those in foster care, and in most states it's free to adopt them.

grapesgum

Adoption is nearly free if you adopt through the foster system.

Domestic infant adoption is another story. Adoptable infants are a commercial product. The price is sort of like the cost of gas - it is controlled by the rate of production and the level of demand. Short supply + high demand = high prices.

Short supply - the producers have reduced the commodity to less than 1% of the potential product that is conceived "out of wedlock", i.e., abortion and parenting are far more appealing than adoption.

High demand - soaring infertility rates.

If you or someone you know is considering giving a home to a child in the foster system, please let them know that there is little or no cost. The corrupt commercial adoption system is the USA is not an impediment to being a parent.

Robsdaddy

Part of the reason is legal fees. Lawyers are expensive.

ace

Star,
Having a child in general is expensive,the process is so hard for some folks that want to adopt because they would rather trick a child into thinking they our parents ( i mean adopting a baby privately) It would be more commendable to earn the love of a child who needs a home ,and as lots of other people are saying on this question the children who really need homes it's not that expensive to adopt them out of foster care sure the child might have a few more issues than a baby but if you really want to help out the needy children then adopt from foster care

CutThroat

Adoption can sometimes be a long and difficult process. The agencies and social workers want to do their best to place children into stable, loving homes where they will thrive and be raised to the potential. One does not need to have a huge savings account to adoption as many fees are spread out over the course of the adoption. There are also many loans and other financial aides available to families who are building their family through adoption (including a federal tax credit).

If you compare the cost of giving birth to a child in the hospital (without insurance) and adopting internationally, they are about the same. Doctors must be paid for their services and adoption agencies and their international counterparts must be as well (those fees also help to cover the cost of caring for the child in foster care or an orphanage). Any reputable adoption agency should be willing to disclose their fees and purposes to an applicant.

Erin L

There are different ways to adopt and different fees for each. Adopting from foster care is very inexpensive as others have told you.

We adopted internationally. The biggest expenses are travel expenses, and a fee to the foreign government to cover court costs and the costs of paying for the foster care or institutional care that your child received. Another big expense in international adoption are the fees to U.S immigration for their background checks, visa filing, etc.

34 weeks with Evan Alexanderâ™¥

I don't know. Why is it so hard to go to a shelter and adopt a cat just because you live in an apartment? They'd rather put the animal down than have it live in a "hovel."

akbutner2

legal fees, adoption attorney fees, costs of adoption agency use, possible coverage of birth mother's medical fees, for international adoptions...costs of traveling back and forth from your country to that country (often the foreign country requires multiple visits you cannot do it within one visit). those are just some of the possibilities.

Ted

This is a good question. However, I will address the cynical responses ("money making business"):

1) Lawyers don't work for free
2) Social workers don't either, although its close
3) Adoption agencies have to pay the bills, too
4) Giving birth to a baby in a medical facility costs money
5) Court costs
6) Birth moms usually have needs before/after, bills counseling that adoptive parents pay.

Just to name a few. Some have apparently never heard of the phrase "there is no free lunch." Who is supposed to pay for all of these necessary people in the process? Should they all be volunteers? If you have a problem with the quality of people in the adoption industry, ask yourself how good they'd be if they were volunteers?

Foster care is not a free lunch, by the way. The government doesn't charge because those children are, truth be told, usually damaged goods (God bless the people that adopt foster kids) or older. Most people want a baby, and not an older kid with known or unknown problems they are not equipped to handle. So inevitably the government will have to pay to care for them until they are 18 if nobody adopts them. This is not good for the children or the government, so incentives are necessary to make the situation better.

ilymicahj

I don't get it either, but I'm guessing so they go to good middle class/upperclass homes and so they know that you can afford it. I'm guessing.

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