Is the US exporting black babies?

Attention Canadians, if you have $10,000 and 3 weeks you can adopt a black child born in the US.

CBS) The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.

www.cbsnews.com...
But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.

They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up.

Is the exploitation for money? Or is it good for the babies? The question is when these children go to a good home does it matter how they came to be in the home in the first place. These adoption agencies are clearly making money, but does it do so at they cost of Americans waiting years to adopt a child.

this is a great way to get rid of them while making money...i hope other countries start purchasing some as well.

you know what....as long as the baby has a full, happy, and productive life where he/she ends up i believe that its ok....

Originally posted by jeeze louise
These adoption agencies are clearly making money,
but does it do so at they cost of Americans waiting
years to adopt a child.

Not necessarily. We adopted our daughter from Bolivia. Our
adoption agency made no money. They do foreign and domestic
adoptions. They are a non-profit adoption agency. Many adoption
agencies are non-profit. Many are through churches and they
are 'on a mission' to save babies and bring families together.
Some adoption agencies make money for sure ... but it isn't
necessarily a 'given' fact that those handling these children
make money.

At the time we adopted - 8 years ago - we lived in Alabama.
The waiting list for adoption was 4-8 years. We knew people
on the waiting list that had been on 6 years and hadn't moved
up even one place in line. We were even open to adoption of
mixed race children.... but the wait was still 4-8 years. We
were also told that that the state would let us Foster Family
mixed and black children, but adopting them would have been
just as long of a wait as children of other ethnic backgrounds.

We were already in our mid-thirtys when we looked into adoption.
The cut off age was 35. We decided to go overseas. My best
friend is from Bolivia. We went there.

I have a hard time believing that babies are sent out of the country
to be adopted when there are massive waiting lists for adoption
here and when there are people who don't care what color their
baby is (like us) still have to wait. However, IF they are
being adopted in Canada ... fine. A happy home for them all and
one less child in 'the system'. I'm fine with this.

Originally posted by jeeze louise
Attention Canadians, if you have $10,000 and 3 weeks
you can adopt a black child born in the US.

8 years ago our daughter cost nearly $20,000 and nine months
to adopt. My friend now is adopting from Korea. $20,000 and
two years to adopt. If babies really did only cost $10,000 and
take three weeks to adopt ... I'd have a house full of them!!
(man ... I'd looooooooooove to adopt again! I reeeeeeeally would!)

I understand a good home is a good home no matter where it is...But Canada? Poor poor kids. I wonder if North Korea needs babies to adopt?




Tis but a joke, dont get your skivies in a bunch

Flyers Fan pardon my ignorance but you said that "8 years ago your daughter cost nearly $20,000", that is extortion! Who gets that money? Certainly not the birth mother. What a racket! No wonder no one trusts lawyers.Now I guess we have to add adoption agency's to the list of rip off specialist's. I think that is horrible they are preying on the pockets of people who are desperate, and willing to do anything to have children. What a world we live in!

Does no one else think it's really weird that a 'baby selling' industry is flourishing ? When the world is full of hunger and orphans? And people are forced to accept Food Stamps just to feed their families?

Originally posted by soficrow
Does no one else think it's really weird that a 'baby selling' industry is flourishing ? When the world is full of hunger and orphans? And people are forced to accept Food Stamps just to feed their families?

I hate what I am about to say, but its 100% true: People want white babies. Not brown ones, yellow ones, or purple ones. Thats why there is a wait that measures in years and costs in the 10's of thousands of dollars. How many wonderfull little kids are being over looked because of thier race? They are easy to adopt and relativly low cost involved. But the demand is white babies and its just the terrible truth.

Also hate to say it but the exploding inner city black population may have something to do with this. They just have babies and some live on welfare. I was walking down the street and I saw one woman with like 6 kids and this was a really bad neighborhood. Now this also happens in the trailer trash areas too, im just stating the facts nothing more, nothing less.

Inner city blacks, trailer park whites, chinatown asians, they are the bad apple that shine brighter then the other 11 good apples. So using these as a base for arguement is moot.(mute?) Well, some blacks/white/asians/hispanics do consider kids another welfare check. "Hey honey, lets have another welfare check." But again, that is the one bad apple out of the other 11 in the dozen. For awhile welfare was actually researching people who were on welfare, found people who claimed 5 kids only had 2, claiming no money yet driving new cars, stuff like that. But in the end you have like 1 person to cover 5,000 and they could keep it up.

If you want to change the welfare program, make people on welfare take drug tests. If the person tests positive for drugs, cancel the check to them and give them 2 weeks to clean up, if you test and they clean, give them the checks again, if they test positive, send them to rehab, not jail.

Although, everyone should be drugged tested. The only people who would refuse are the ones who are on drugs. Yes they could make a mistake, which is why there is the hair folical test which can see if you have done illegals for however long you have not cut your hair.(if you bald they use armpit or pubic hair)

Originally posted by skippytjc

Originally posted by soficrow
Does no one else think it's really weird that a 'baby selling' industry is flourishing ? When the world is full of hunger and orphans? And people are forced to accept Food Stamps just to feed their families?

I hate what I am about to say, but its 100% true: People want white babies. Not brown ones, yellow ones, or purple ones.

Hmmm. The way I understand people here are saying they're spending $10,000 to $20,000 for black and brown babies.


....And what with the way budget cuts are coming down - looks like baby selling could shape up to be a really booming US industry...


.

As a former Social Worker with Child Protective Services, I can also add that the professional organization of black Social Workers strongly opposes the adoption of black children by white couples and that in many states the barriers and constraints on white couples to adopt black children discourages many. Conversely, the number of prospective back adoptive couples is miniscule.

Originally posted by jeeze louise
"8 years ago your daughter cost nearly $20,000",
that is extortion! Who gets that money? Certainly
not the birth mother.

I don't have the cost breakdown in front of me, but I'll
try to remember off the top of my head. The birth mother
didn't get a penny because she abandoned our daughter
just after birth (she left her on a bus). We have absolutely
no idea who her natural parents are. That's the way it is
with most children in the orphanages in Bolivia (and China
and Korea for that matter!). Abandoned.

~ $6,000 in travel expenses. We had to go to Bolivia and
stay there for one month. This was airfare, hotel, meals,
transportation in the country, etc.

~ $5,000 to the government of Bolivia. Supposedly to pay
for the care of our daughter before we got her. She was
nine months old and was in a CATHOLIC orphanage that
was run on charity from Italy. Obviously Bolivia didn't
pay anything towards our daughter's care, but they wanted
their money.

~ $3,000 program fee. This was the adoption agency fee.
It covered their work, their international documentations,
phone calls, faxes, paid the people working the case, etc.etc.

~ $2,500 Home Study. All adoptive parents have to have a
home study done. I'm guessing at the cost. I can't remember.
But the entire home study had to be translated, documented
by the embassy, and other legal stuff had to be done to it.
This drove the cost up.

~ $2,500 Bolivian lawyer fee. This covered the lawyer, court
costs, translations of documents, birth certificates, etc. etc.
All the legal stuff in Bolivia.

~ $1,000 re-adoption here in America. Our daughter was
only adopted as far as Bolivia was concerned. We then had
to re-adopt her here in America through the American courts.
I can't remember the exact amount, but I'll put $1,000. It
could have been higher court costs.

~ $1,000 travel in the country of Bolivia from Santa Cruz to
La Paz, plus legal costs in La Paz. We had to file paper work
in both Santa Cruz and in La Paz. Also, the American Embassy
had to see our daughter in person and file papers to get her
into the country.

~ $500 legal documents here in America such as passports,
translations, medical documentation, etc.

There were other 'little' things. By little, I mean $100 here,
$100 there. Money for international shots ... stuff like that.

Oh, and there were post-adoption reports that had to be done
every quarter for a year, and then once a year after that for
five years. All these had to be translated, authenticated, and
sent internationally. More $$$$ ....

[edit on 2/15/2005 by FlyersFan]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
black Social Workers strongly opposes the adoption
of black children by white couples

VERY true. We ran into this in Alabama. I couldn't
believe it. We were very open to adoption and we
were discouraged from inter-racial adoption.

Originally posted by skippytjc
People want white babies. Not brown ones,
yellow ones, or purple ones.

Our daughter is a loooooooooooovely shade of brown
and in the summer she is darker than most black americans
we know. We don't know her heritage ... but we are thinking
she has some of the Incan Indian in her. That's what we figure
because she gets sooooooooo dark in the summer.

I can only quote you costs and things from 8 years ago.
Internationally, the white babies were mostly coming from
Russia and Romania. They cost upwards of $40,000-50,000.
The thing is .... those babies were all white, but they came with
MAJOR problems. Over in those countries, lots of times there
were 6 kids in a crib in the orphanages. They didn't get the
attention they required. I read a statistic that 20% of international
adoptions are 'interrupted' (don't work out and the adopted child
ends up being given up by the family and placed in 'the system'
here in America). They are interrupted mostly because these kids
were going to families who had no clue as to the conditions that
the child was being brought up in in the Russian and/or Romanian
orphanages.

Our daughter is from Bolivia. Our adoption agency places children
from all over South America and Mexico. Bolivia was VERY popular.
They also adopt children out of China.

I know that Holt adoption agency is THE adoption agency to go to
for adoption from Korea.

I don't know about White babies wanted to be adopted and that
brown and yellow babies not being wanted. Everyone I know that
has adopted internationally has gone for Korea, China, and Bolivia.
I suppose if there were less white babies being aborted here in
America, then there would be more white babies available for
adoption and thus less people would have to travel overseas for
children. But the families I know who are now considered
'interracial' by the government because they adopted asian or
hispanic children all are very accepting and loving and don't care
what color thier child is.

*funny side note. When our daughter was a baby I babysat
the neighbors blonde haired blue eyed baby one day. I was used
to changing the diapers of our brown skinned child. Well, I went
to change the diapers of this very white skinned baby and I thought
she looked funny.* I guess it's all what you get used to!

Please don't send your *racial slur removed* to Canada! We have enough victims up here already!

[edit on 15-2-2005 by Banshee]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
As a former Social Worker with Child Protective Services, I can also add that the professional organization of black Social Workers strongly opposes the adoption of black children by white couples and that in many states the barriers and constraints on white couples to adopt black children discourages many.

That is one of the most depressing things I have read all day and I have been doing WWII Holocaust research all morning! I would hope their are more people out there like flyersfan who just want babies (and I bet there are)! But to not allow an adoption due simple race seems ludirious in this day and age.
Any indication of why this is a stance taken by this group? Other than the obvious racist intent.
obs



[edit on 16-2-2005 by observer]

Just kidding...

There are US citizens who would adopt those babies if adoption were made easier, just as others have pointed out. I'm glad to hear that someone's giving these children a chance at life with a loving family. Does anyone have info on how many children are adopted out of the US every year as opposed to how many are "imported"?

Originally posted by observer
Any indication of why this is a stance taken by this group?

I can't answer for Grady, but I can give you my 2 cents on our
experience in Alabama. WHY was this stance taken in Alabama?
My opinion - because of intense racism and ignorance in the area.
We didn't care what color our new child would be ... we just wanted
a child. When we looked into adopting children of mixed race, we
were instantly stuck in the mud. We were told that we'd have to
foster care first for a few years, and then perhaps it would be
considered but most likely not. yada yada yada. We were already
in our mid thirtys and we just wanted our baby(ies). We didn't
want to get stuck 'in the system' for years and years waiting to
see if the state thought we were okay for interracial adoption.
(and knowing that they usually didn't think it was okay)

We took the plunge, adopted a BEEEEEEEEEEEEAUTIFUL hispanic
daughter from Bolivia (I'm her mom, I can say that!!) and have had
absolutely no problem being a bi-racial family. I fear that if we had
tried to work within the Alabama system, we'd still be stuck foster
caring different children and then having them replaced and then
replaced ... as the system does. I'm all for foster care, but we wanted
ADOPTION - permenant!