A recent CNN.com story on innovative social-media approaches to adopting children is just the latest example of how our world has drastically changed in recent years.
I’ve documented numerous examples, in this blog and elsewhere, that underscore how the collective “traditional” media is no longer the sole arbiter of what is newsworthy. (News flash! ANYONE can create their own printing press or video channel these days.)
Likewise, adoption agencies, some of which have financially preyed upon the hopes and dreams of those seeking to start families, are now far from the only game in town. That welcome development is thanks largely to sites like Facebook and YouTube and LinkedIn, as well as other sites that foster viral FOAFOAF (friend of a friend of a friend) communications. I recently began helping a wonderful Chicago-area couple seeking to take this very path. They have two sons already (one biologically, one via adoption) and their heartfelt desire is to add a girl to their family.
More details to come, but in the meantime, if you know of anyone who may be a match for them, please shoot me an email at matt@insideedgepr.com or call me at 708-860-1380.
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It’s a shame that the mainstream media’s focus,when it comes to adoption, is always the well being of prospective adoptive parents. Whatever the abuses of some adoption agencies, they are still the only route to securing the rights of potential birth mothers and adoptive children. This is because tehy are subject to laws requiring strict keeping of records about the children they place. A private adoption, whether arranged via a lawyer or facebook, is subject to almost no safeguards of this sort. It makes it far too easy for adoptive parents to take advantage of birth parents and leaves the adopted child with no guarantee that any information about her adoption or her biological origins will be available to her in the future.
I don’t consider cavalier do-it-yourself adoption to be a welcome change at all. Find a reputable agency. Concern yourself not just with the interests of those who want to adopt, but of those whose circumstances have made them so vulnerable that they must give their own beloved children to strangers. But concern yourself most of all with the human being who has no voice in any of it and protect her basic human right to know her identity and her history.
I appreciate LilySea’s remarks. Obviously, in any transaction, especially those that center on people’s very lives and quality of life, it’s so important to act ethically, responsibly and compassionately. In the instance of my clients, they have one biological son and one adopted son, and they maintain contact with the birth mom, providing her with regular updates and offering to have her visit.
She’s not yet opted to visit, but it’s available, and the same openness and respect for the next biological mom they partner with is something that the couple strongly believes in.
That’s great, Inside Edge. I just think these things are far too important to be left to the whims of individual goodness. The right to records and personal history should be protected in all instances–including those in which people would choose a less ethical approach than your clients.