Category Archives: Ethics in adoption

Ethics in adoption

Two Ways to Adopt a…Kidney?

1 Comment

Act I

Need a Kidney: Scene 1

Cam and Jordan are living their best lives, except for one thing: Cam needs a kidney, and Jordan is determined to help him get one. Their plan:

  • Find a kidney. Maybe there’s someone out there who needs $ more than they need a kidney.
  • Do an Internet search to find a kidney broker, someone who can help find a kidney.
  • Oh, looky! Here’s a consultant who shows up at the top of the Google search! (We don’t even wanna know how much money it cost to get there!)
  • Hire a kidney consultant to help broker us a kidney.
  • The kidney might be in another locale that is more friendly about this type of thing. Some locales have more rules about this than others. We wouldn’t want the kidney holder to back out once the agreement is made. We need a kidney-friendly locale with laws that are on our side, and the consultant can help us with that.
  • Get that kidney installed in Cam and live happily ever after.
Continue reading Two Ways to Adopt a…Kidney? →
Ethics in adoption

Ditch the Pitchforks. The Problem is She Revealed the Truth.

9 Comments

A few weeks ago, the “world’s most-used adoption site,” the “largest online adoption community,” the “most-read publisher of adoption articles, videos and other content” published an article titled The Baby Bust: Why Are There No Infants to Adopt?

A few days ago, the article became a topic of discussion in two of my cross-triad adoption groups.

Homes for Babies? Or Babies for Homes?

The article probably meant to explain the current baby bust and advise potential adoptive parents what to do about it. If adoption is about finding babies for homes, then perhaps the article met its mark.

But among those who believe adoption should be about finding homes for babies, the article incited quite a furor. The article has been taken down, but here are some passages to illustrate why it was so inflammatory.

Short Supply

The author, herself an adoption attorney, outlined the market forces that make it very difficult for prospective adoptive parents to find a baby.

From time to time, consumers find certain items in short supply. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, cleaning supplies and toilet paper were hard-to-find products. In recent years, prospective adoptive parents have realized that infants to adopt are available in increasingly limited quantities.

Is adoption about finding homes for babies or babies for homes? When the system is based on supply and demand, we commodify babies.

Readers were incensed at the comparison of toilet paper and humans. Why did the author do that? I suspect it was not to put babies on par with the lowest of paper goods, but rather to elicit the feelings of desperation we all had for toilet paper a year ago, and how we had to wait for supply to catch up with demand.

Continue reading Ditch the Pitchforks. The Problem is She Revealed the Truth. →
Ethics in adoption

The Fine Line Between Adoption & Trafficking: Ashley Mitchell on the Paul Peterson Case

14 Comments

Birth mom and advocate Ashley Mitchell breaks down the case and talks about our responsibility to prevent coercion in adoption.

If you are horrified by the Paul Peterson case (details below), if you’ve ever wondered what happens in “adoption-friendly states,” if you care about ethics in adoption, you must tune in to Ashley Mitchell’s recent talk via Instagram TV.

Click to see on IGTV

Case Background

Continue reading The Fine Line Between Adoption & Trafficking: Ashley Mitchell on the Paul Peterson Case →