Adoption News and Articles

The following articles address adoption practices of the past and of today. The information may come as a surprise to many - after all, television, radio and newspapers in the United States have been used very effectively by the adoption industry to suppress reality and promote adoption. Those in the business of adoption have created a "culture of adoption", making many people believe adoption is a perfect situation for everyone.

Those who are experiencing adoption separation often have a different view.

Not by Choice - by Karen Wilson-Buterbaugh, Eclectica Magazine. Historical perspective of adoption and the techniques used to get mothers to surrender their babies in the 1960's.

America's Secret Crime Against the Family by Jessica DelBalzo. Strongly worded article that ompares the adoption industry to the tobbacco industry, another business that has harmful effects.

"Adoptees, stripped of their families, given new names and even falsified birth certificates, make up a new generation of slaves in America. In a society where the average cost of a private adoption is $60,000, agencies and social workers see infants only through the dollar signs in their eyes. The child's welfare takes second place to the profit he can bring in; otherwise, parents would be informed of the risks of adoption before they could surrender their babies. Instead, children are sold like miniature slaves. Their birth records are altered to reflect the names of their purchasers rather than their parents, and their true birth certificate is sealed away. They are the only Americans who are denied the right to know their own name and the names of their parents."

Quote:

"Rose Bernstein, in her article, "Gaps in Services to Unmarried Mothers" (CHILDREN, March-April 1963), has given us some words which should make us do some critical thinking about unmarried mothers, about ourselves as members of the helping professions, and about our services and their utilization as well as the lack of services. Let's take another look. For example, take several statements in the Bernstein article relating to maternity homes: * That many maternity homes tend to give priority to mothers who plan to relinquish their babies... This may be the time to rethink the purpose and goals of the maternity home as community agency not only in relation to these statements, but also in relation to changing times. For example, is there any justification for offering service on the basis of whether plans are to keep or relinquish the baby? I have heard some social workers say that we may have to encourage the unmarried expectant mother to keep her child because of the reported decline in available adoptive homes. What is the rationale for helping the unmarried mother to surrender her child in a time when there is an over-supply of adoptive homes and helping her to keep the child when we anticipate a shortage of adoptive homes?" -- From the READERS' EXCHANGE, "Bernstein: A Stimulus To Reappraisal," by Jane E. Wrieden (Colonel, The Salvation Army), Children, Vol. 10, No. 3, May-June 1963 (Cornell University Archives)

One factor in determining the status of women in a society is how many mothers have children adopted-out.

Adoption Press Releases and News Articles