[Nacac-canadian-issues] Adoption: a new marketplace - last article in series

[Elspeth Ross]

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Toronto Star
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Special Reports
Adoption

(Last article in Adoption series: Atkinson Fellowship: When the Bough=
 Breaks)

Adoption: A new marketplace
The influence of money raises ethical concerns

Nov. 30, 2002. 09:12 AM
  PATTI GOWER AND MARGARET PHILP
ATKINSON FELLOWS

LAKE EDWARD, N.B.=97In the sleepy backwoods of northern New Brunswick, in=20
villages of houses nestled into hillsides of rock and pine where the same=20
families have scraped by for generations, the tiny black baby stands out.

The 8-week-old boy seems as out of place as if a tulip had sprouted through=
=20
the fresh blanket of spring snow outside the window of his new home.

Xavier English arrived here four days ago.

Tara English, his adoptive mother, cradled him in her milky white arms for=
=20
the first time at the airport in Portland, Me., following his arrival on a=
=20
flight from Georgia, where he was born.

"I couldn't believe someone would give this baby up," English says. "I=20
couldn't wrap my mind around it. Someone was just handing the baby to us."

As infants go, Xavier was a relative bargain for English and her husband,=20
Paul. For African-American babies like Xavier, the American agency that=20
placed him charges $8,000 (U.S.). Were he a mixed-race child, he would have=
=20
commanded $10,000, were he white, $22,000.

Canadians soured by the endless wait for a baby are turning to a U.S.=20
adoption market with mixed-race and black infants to spare in a society=20
divided by race. As they do, they are wading into a thicket of thorny=20
ethical issues that spring from a growing mismatch between the number of=20
white babies being placed for adoption around the world and the swelling=20
ranks of infertile couples willing to mortgage the house to procure one.

Across North America, the healthy, white newborn, a staple in adoption=20
three decades ago, is a vanishing breed, a casualty of birth control,=20
abortion and easing social mores around childbirth out of wedlock.

Left behind in a growing surplus are the mixed-race and black children that=
=20
U.S. adoption agencies struggle vainly to place with local families.

And so, like merchandise gathering dust on the store shelf, mixed-race and=
=20
black children are priced at a discount.

"It's hard to understand," English says, gazing down at Xavier sleeping=20
peacefully on her lap. "For me, I figure, what makes the Caucasian birth=20
any different than his birth?

"But, unfortunately, it does come down to finances. I felt odd asking the=20
price. It's not that we're cheap or anything like that. It's just a=20
question of what we can afford."

A child with lighter skin was beyond their means. As it was, it cost=20
$17,000 (Canadian) to adopt Xavier, once the airline ticket, adoption home=
=20
study and birth-mother counselling were added in.

Private adoption agencies are outlawed in New Brunswick and the cost of=20
overseas adoption was prohibitive. The choice for the Englishes was between=
=20
waiting more than a decade for a child from the public system and stumbling=
=20
into the ethical muddle of private U.S. adoption.

Within a month of shipping the paperwork to Georgia, Xavier was home.

Two tiers of adoptive parents have emerged in Canada: those who pay next to=
=20
nothing to adopt sometimes troubled and older children from public=20
agencies, and those who can afford to pay thousands for the privilege of=20
adopting a baby.

Children from foster care have become the preserve of the working class.

"It has reached the point where many families are priced out of the=20
market," says Madelyn Freundlich, policy director for Children's Rights in=
=20
New York, an agency that advocates for children in U.S. foster care and who=
=20
has written extensively about the ethics of adoption.

Would-be parents in the public system must attend hours of adoption=20
classes, wait as social workers match them with a child, and spend months=20
on probation after a child from foster care is placed. Families adopting=20
through private agencies, meanwhile, must rest their fates in the hands of=
=20
birth mothers who often choose the new parents.

But those who have the money to adopt through a private international=20
agency for a baby girl from China or an orphaned boy from Russia are all=20
but guaranteed a child.

Last year, 703 foreign-born children were adopted into Ontario; by=20
contrast, 516 children in Ontario's child-care system were adopted in 2001.=
=20
Another 128 were adopted through private agencies. Across Canada, the=20
number of children adopted from abroad has increased tenfold in the span of=
=20
a decade, to 1,874 last year.

International adoption has been tainted by a few unscrupulous entrepreneurs=
=20
who exploit poor mothers and infertile couples desperate for a child.

Last year, the Ontario government banned all adoptions from Vietnam after=20
allegations surfaced that baby brokers working with U.S. and Canadian=20
adoption agencies were buying infants from their mothers, falsifying birth=
=20
records and even paying women to become pregnant, while reaping handsome=20
fees from the unsuspecting agencies.

China is regarded as the least corrupt of the baby-exporting countries,=20
with strictly enforced rules. Baby girls abound in Chinese orphanages under=
=20
a policy that restricts families to a single child in a culture that=20
cherishes its sons. Nearly a third of the international adoptions in Canada=
=20
last year were of Chinese girls whose new parents presumably wanted the=20
clear conscience of adopting from a country where regulations are explicit=
=20
and babies are willingly given up.

But even in China, adoptive parents routinely pay a $4,000 donation to the=
=20
orphanage, with the vague understanding that the money will buy clothing=20
and cribs for the less fortunate children who remain behind.

In 1993, 66 countries drafted an agreement called The Hague Convention on=20
Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry=20
Adoption. The convention set ethical ground rules to prevent the abduction,=
=20
trafficking and sale of human beings.

The Hague Convention, ratified by Canada in 1996, turns on the philosophy=20
that family and culture are a child's birthright. Wherever possible,=20
children should remain with their biological families. And the convention=20
dictates that no stone be left unturned in finding prospective families=20
locally before a child can be placed on the international adoption block.

In the countries that furnish children for the international adoption=20
industry, the convention ensures that birth parents have freely consented=20
to placing their child for adoption without promise of compensation. In=20
those countries adopting children, prospective parents must be assessed as=
=20
suitable to adopt.

Ontario passed a law three years ago that allows it to license and regulate=
=20
private adoption agencies importing children from overseas. But most of the=
=20
countries that supply children, such as China and Russia, have yet to=20
ratify the convention.

`Canada is good because it has =97 at least it's believed to have =97 less=
=20
racial polarity.'

Richard van Deelen, U.S. adoption broker

With U.S. ratification of the convention expected sometime in the next=20
year, the implications are murky for a country whose citizens feed the=20
international adoption boom while at the same time exporting its own=20
mixed-race and African-American children to Canada, Europe and Australia.

Canadian immigration figures show that families in Canada adopted 65=20
children from the United States last year =97 most of them believed to be=20
African-American children placed by adoption agencies who often run into=20
racist sentiments when searching for homes among a clientele of mostly=20
white, middle-class prospective parents.

"We always need families for full African-American and mixed-race babies,"=
=20
says Richard van Deelen of Adoption Associates Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich.,=
=20
an agency that places children in Canada. "Canada is good because it has =97=
=20
at least it's believed to have =97 less racial polarity."

The agency charges between $6,000 (U.S.) and $9,000 for an African-American=
=20
child, while a mixed-race child usually commands a fee of between $10,000=20
and $15,000. Such adoption fees are not pegging a value to human life=20
according to skin hue, van Deelen insists.

"It's a supply and demand issue," he says. "Caucasian children, you have 20=
=20
people standing in line for every one of them. So there's no reason for an=
=20
agency to discount its services to price that child. They can charge their=
=20
full fee and it will be paid.

"When you're placing a mixed-race child, you may have two or three families=
=20
available for every child, so there's far greater pressure to be=20
competitive because there are many other agencies facing the same issues=20
who need to place these children.

"And this gets much more severe when you're placing African-American=20
children where you may not have immediately a family for that child. And=20
the people who come to adopt mixed-race and black children very often have=
=20
other children, either by adoption or birth, so there's quite often=20
financial issues with them that they simply can't afford the full fee.

"We're not the only agency that does this. That's the way it is in the=20
United States."

That American agencies must place mixed-race and black children in other=20
countries astounds people like Freundlich of Children's Rights.

"We have a range of families here in the United States who are adopting=20
children from other countries, and yet we're going to argue that we don't=20
have a sufficient number of families to adopt U.S. children because of=20
race?" she asks. "It just doesn't make sense."


Outside Canada's public adoption realm, adoptive parents are not purchasing=
=20
a baby but, rather, the services of social workers and lawyers that lead to=
=20
a baby. But the line between the two remains fine.

Regulations dictate the exact services for which agencies can charge fees =
=97=20
counselling for a birth mother, for example. Prospective parents are=20
forbidden from providing the birth mother with the most meagre gesture that=
=20
might be construed as undue influence =97 not even a cup of coffee or a=20
bouquet of flowers at her hospital bedside.

Ontario law also forbids social workers from counselling pregnant women=20
considering placing their children for adoption at the same time as working=
=20
with prospective parents. Still, private agencies that counsel birth=20
mothers collect their money from adoptive parents. In the balance of power,=
=20
those paying the money usually wield more than those who do not.

It's a complete conflict, says Dianne Mathes, a Toronto therapist who=20
specializes in adoption issues.

"If you want to provide birth parents with really unbiased support and=20
counselling in their best interests, it has to be done by people who have=20
nothing to do with potential adoptive parents," she says.

Even in Ontario's public system, the role of money poses an ethical dilemma.

The ranks of children in foster care in Ontario started to soar after the=20
Tory government slashed welfare rates by 21.6 per cent in 1995. Since then,=
=20
the number of children in care has swelled by 63 per cent, to 16,989 and=20
the province's budget for children's aid societies has nearly doubled to=20
$872 million.

Whatever savings were reaped from trimming the welfare cheques of single=20
mothers has only been poured back into the child-protection machinery that=
=20
is seizing their children.

As families on social assistance grow poorer, British Columbia and Ontario,=
=20
among others, have enacted laws that trade in the old philosophy of=20
preserving biological families for provisions that lower the threshold for=
=20
putting children into care.


For an infertile couple like Paul and Tara English =97 their daughter,=20
Parker, 4, was conceived through fertility drugs that have failed ever=20
since =97 with no line on a expectant mother wanting to place her baby for=
=20
adoption and at least a decade-long wait for an infant through the public=20
system, there was little recourse but to look abroad.

So, they welcome little Xavier, the fifth son born to a poor black woman in=
=20
Warner Robbins, Ga., who could ill-afford another mouth to feed. When he=20
was born, his mother never held him. She left strict instructions with the=
=20
agency to choose the adoptive parents on her behalf: no pictures, no word=20
of the growing child being raised by perfect strangers.

As she told the agency social workers: "Love is not enough when you don't=20
have the time and the finances."

The Englishes were disheartened. They imagined being hand-picked by the=20
mother, their consciences soothed by her blessing and the promise that=20
letters and pictures would someday lead to a connection between their black=
=20
child raised in a white enclave in Canada and his biological family and=20
cultural roots in the U.S. south.

It is, after all, his birthright.


Adoption is a fiction of invented families, an aberration from the order=20
that is intrinsic to the well-being of children as long as there are woeful=
=20
parents and unwanted pregnancies. But as long as Canadians embrace the=20
public policy of adoption, the system should shed the pretence that biology=
=20
ends when a child becomes a member of a new family.

Laws should be changed, minds opened and government purse strings loosened=
=20
if adoption in Canada is to be a more ethical and honest practice that=20
serves the interests of children.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
----
Reporter Margaret Philp and photographer Patti Gower are the 2001 winners=20
of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. Their year-long project=20
documents the problems that plague adoption in Canada and tells the stories=
=20
of people touched by adoption. Philp, 37, and Gower, 41, work for The Globe=
=20
and Mail.

[photograph]
PATTI GOWER/ATKINSON FELLOW
Tara English of Lake Edward, N.B., holds her new adopted baby son, Xavier,=
=20
a few days after he arrived from Georgia, where he was born. "I couldn't=20
believe someone would give this baby up," English says.

   WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

 > Pt. 1: Love is not enough

 > Pt. 2: Two dads & a family

 > Pt. 3: Fighting to keep biological ties

 > Part 4: A mother's need to know

 > Part 5: Curse of alcohol, pregnancy

 > Part 6: Illinois reforms reduce caseloads

 > Part 7: Moving kids off the shelves

 > Part 8: A new marketplace

   MORE FROM THE SERIES

 > Main page with all stories

 > Photo gallery: One family's journey home