Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Review of "The Stork Market"
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This is a useful and important book, well researched and documented, about what is wrong with domestic and international adoption in the USA today. Written in a clear, crisp journalistic style that is easy to read and follow, "Stork Market" quotes from a wide variety of diverse sources and opinions about the many abuses in our adoption system, and the injustices to all triad members these abuses engender. The root of most of these abuses is the ancient "root of all evil", the love of money. Ms.Riben makes a clear case that commercialism and lack of uniform or stringent regulation of adoption providers is the culprit. She also calls into question the belief that because one can pay, one "deserves" a child to adopt, whether that is really the best solution for the child or not.
This book provides a good overview of what is wrong with the adoption industry, from the coercion of naive pregnant women without providing real options counseling or alternatives, the attempts to take birthfathers out of the picture, to scams that promise a baby to prospective adoptive parents but take their money and give them nothing. Seeing the child as a product subject to the laws of supply and demand, and adoption as a businness rather than a sensitive child welfare issue is also exposed as a cause of corruption and suffering. The problems of sealed records, secrets and lies, amended birth certificates which state that the adoptive parents gave birth to their adopted child, and the new Safe Haven legal abandonment laws are also addressed, along with some heart-warming annectdotes of helping unwed mothers to keep their babies.
There is also a harrowing chapter on the most extreme horrors, children adopted by abusers and pedophiles because of the lack of oversight of adoption facilitators.
I was solidly impressed and enjoying this book right up until the final chapter in conclusion, where I feel the author will lose a lot of other readers as well. What troubled me was the solution proposed, to replace adoption with some form of legal guardianship, and the conviction that adoption is too flawed to be fixed, but must be "restructured" or replaced.
My experience has been that when one starts talking about abolishing adoption or changing it to legal guardianship, many people who would otherwise support reforms of the system stop listening and get defensive, because adoption HAS worked for them, or those they know, despite its many flaws and abuses, and they are not interested in getting rid of it.
Like Ms. Riben, I am also a surrendering mother with many years in adoption reform. Unlike her, I still believe in reform and flexibility in adoption; yes, I would like to see all the abuses she has pointed out reformed and changed, by better, more uniform laws, stricter regulation, better mandated ethical practice. I do not see this necessitating replacing adoption with guardianship. I wish she had ended her book after documenting the abuses, and left readers to draw their own conclusions. I feel the end conclusion weakens an otherwise powerful book as a tool to promote change and understanding.
I hope this book will be widely read and discussed by all interested in adoption reform, and serve as a platform to implement needed change.
MaryAnne Cohen, mother, poet, co-founder of Origins: An organization for women who have lost children to adoption
The Stork Market: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry
www.AdvocatePublications.com
This is a useful and important book, well researched and documented, about what is wrong with domestic and international adoption in the USA today. Written in a clear, crisp journalistic style that is easy to read and follow, "Stork Market" quotes from a wide variety of diverse sources and opinions about the many abuses in our adoption system, and the injustices to all triad members these abuses engender. The root of most of these abuses is the ancient "root of all evil", the love of money. Ms.Riben makes a clear case that commercialism and lack of uniform or stringent regulation of adoption providers is the culprit. She also calls into question the belief that because one can pay, one "deserves" a child to adopt, whether that is really the best solution for the child or not.
This book provides a good overview of what is wrong with the adoption industry, from the coercion of naive pregnant women without providing real options counseling or alternatives, the attempts to take birthfathers out of the picture, to scams that promise a baby to prospective adoptive parents but take their money and give them nothing. Seeing the child as a product subject to the laws of supply and demand, and adoption as a businness rather than a sensitive child welfare issue is also exposed as a cause of corruption and suffering. The problems of sealed records, secrets and lies, amended birth certificates which state that the adoptive parents gave birth to their adopted child, and the new Safe Haven legal abandonment laws are also addressed, along with some heart-warming annectdotes of helping unwed mothers to keep their babies.
There is also a harrowing chapter on the most extreme horrors, children adopted by abusers and pedophiles because of the lack of oversight of adoption facilitators.
I was solidly impressed and enjoying this book right up until the final chapter in conclusion, where I feel the author will lose a lot of other readers as well. What troubled me was the solution proposed, to replace adoption with some form of legal guardianship, and the conviction that adoption is too flawed to be fixed, but must be "restructured" or replaced.
My experience has been that when one starts talking about abolishing adoption or changing it to legal guardianship, many people who would otherwise support reforms of the system stop listening and get defensive, because adoption HAS worked for them, or those they know, despite its many flaws and abuses, and they are not interested in getting rid of it.
Like Ms. Riben, I am also a surrendering mother with many years in adoption reform. Unlike her, I still believe in reform and flexibility in adoption; yes, I would like to see all the abuses she has pointed out reformed and changed, by better, more uniform laws, stricter regulation, better mandated ethical practice. I do not see this necessitating replacing adoption with guardianship. I wish she had ended her book after documenting the abuses, and left readers to draw their own conclusions. I feel the end conclusion weakens an otherwise powerful book as a tool to promote change and understanding.
I hope this book will be widely read and discussed by all interested in adoption reform, and serve as a platform to implement needed change.
MaryAnne Cohen, mother, poet, co-founder of Origins: An organization for women who have lost children to adoption
The Stork Market: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry
www.AdvocatePublications.com
# posted by Senior Mom @ 9:28 AM 
Comments:
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MaryAnne, thanks for the basically great review!
Ad, while you are of course free to disagree, I'd like to point out that it actually appears to be less of a disagreement with my conclusion, as a misread or misunderstanding my conclusions.
The Stork Market conclusion (p. 215) states:
"Call it what you will: adoption, permanent guardianship, or custodial care. The word stewardship has taken on broader
meaning in the environmental arena. Brent Waters uses the term “procreative stewardship” to describe a type of adoption that provides moral integrity. Call it any of these or entrustment or find a new term. Whatever name it goes
by, a system is needed that provides nurturing, supportive, permanent family care for children without dissolution of the ties to their family of origin."
The FINAL sentence of the book's conclusion is: "The profit motive and corruption in adoption cannot be mended; it must be ended."
It says THE PROFIT MOTIVE must be ended. It does not say adoption must be ended.
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Ad, while you are of course free to disagree, I'd like to point out that it actually appears to be less of a disagreement with my conclusion, as a misread or misunderstanding my conclusions.
The Stork Market conclusion (p. 215) states:
"Call it what you will: adoption, permanent guardianship, or custodial care. The word stewardship has taken on broader
meaning in the environmental arena. Brent Waters uses the term “procreative stewardship” to describe a type of adoption that provides moral integrity. Call it any of these or entrustment or find a new term. Whatever name it goes
by, a system is needed that provides nurturing, supportive, permanent family care for children without dissolution of the ties to their family of origin."
The FINAL sentence of the book's conclusion is: "The profit motive and corruption in adoption cannot be mended; it must be ended."
It says THE PROFIT MOTIVE must be ended. It does not say adoption must be ended.
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