Better regulation would help, but the power is concentrated in the hands of a powerful adoption agency lobby and adoptive parents, who have legal rights adoptees lack.
Among the requirements for prospective adoptive parents at The Cradle, an adoption agency in Evanston, Illinois, is a class about the risks associated with drug and alcohol exposure during pregnancy.
An adoption agency representing the biological or adoptive parents.
Adoption agencies must provide certified copies of court records to pending adoption, the name of the agency or attorney representing biological or adoptive parents, a letter from the adoption agency, and a description of the relationship between the agency and the parents.
Adoptive parents and adoption agencies have powerful incentives not to talk about trafficking or to question whether a child was given up voluntarily, especially given how difficult it is to know for certain.
A new web magazine containing almost exclusively pieces written by adoptees, Gazillion Voices, stands in stark contrast to the by now old-fashioned magazine Adoptive Families, which focuses on the interests of adoptive parents and adoption agencies.
A lawyer for an adoption agency said a Russian boy who was sent back to Moscow by his American adoptive mother has been placed back in an orphanage.
All prospective adoptive parents must undergo a home study, a process in which a licensed social worker from the adoption agency or the state meets with each member of the family in preparation for the adoption.
An adoption agency based in Washington has asked a court to appoint a guardian for a Russian boy whose adoptive mother sent him back to Moscow.
So, my adoptive family got in touch with my biological family in Ethiopia (using documents given to us by my father, that were confiscated from us by our adoptive family after we arrived) to find out the truth of our background, since they were lied to by the adoption agency.
