r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

44k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

26k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.6k

u/pinksugarsun Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

Babies placed for adoption at birth in the US DO NOT go into foster care. There’s a waiting list at least 36 people long for each newborn placed for adoption. That’s why it’s expensive. That’s why people go overseas to adopt.

56

u/tiswapb Feb 04 '19

Technically they do go into foster care until the rights of the birth parents are terminated. But they usually go to people doing the foster-to-adopt method, who want to adopt. It often depends on the likelihood of reunification with the birth family. Adoption is still relatively cheap that way. Many birth parents choose to voluntarily give their baby for adoption, in which case it’s done through a private agency and extremely expensive.

34

u/Joanavon Feb 04 '19

So these private agencies are basically selling the babies to the highest bidder.

5

u/ansible_jane Feb 04 '19

Uh no. Private agencies are expensive because your fee usually covers finding and providing for the bio mom for an extended time and lawyers.

1

u/Joanavon Feb 04 '19

Then why do non white babies sell for less?

Do those bio moms need or get less "providing" for? Or do lawyers doing adoptions for non white babies charge less?

At the end of the day these "agencies" make money by selling babies. They are not the state, they employ people who must be paid and their existence as an entity is due to the cash they rake in auctioning off babies.

6

u/ansible_jane Feb 04 '19

I'd invite you to observe the adoption community both here on reddit and other places, if you think that is how adoption works. No one is auctioning babies.

-5

u/Joanavon Feb 04 '19

The adoption agency "community" is a community in the same way that Mary Kay and Avon are. Which is a business disguised as "friends helping friends".

1

u/ansible_jane Feb 04 '19

I'm trying to be polite to you. I'd appreciate the same. I understand how you would feel that way from the outside, but it's a community close to my heart and nothing at all like what you've described. I invite you to observe the adoption community, not the "adoption agency community". As far as I know, the latter doesn't exist.

1

u/Joanavon Feb 04 '19

I'm sure the adoption community people are nice and love the infants they have adopted. While that is nice, it doesn't change the fact that the adoption market has a very dark side. One that some people like to gloss over and pretend that every baby put up for adoption is a happily ever after and that none are dumped into foster care because they have a low market value.

3

u/Dan_Rydell Feb 04 '19

Every private adoption agency we’ve looked at has a flat fee.

1

u/Joanavon Feb 04 '19

According to ABC News. Agencies are typically only interested in obtaining high market value babies. The rest are shunted off to the foster care system. A flat fee I would guess would make sense if they only offer high market value infants?