ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 17, 1996 TAG: 9611180072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THERE ARE FEWER BABIES to go around, which makes adoption tougher than ever.
Betty Jean Lifton calls adoption a "a free-for-all," a loose system with no nationally uniform regulations.
It has become a system where babies are "moved around like merchandise," said Lifton, who is communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based American Adoption Congress and author of several books about adoption.
Decades ago, before adoption became institutionalized, an unwed pregnant woman might have met a nice couple and decided she wanted them to become the parents of her baby, Lifton said. She might have lived with the couple for a while.
But social mores have changed, Lifton said. Unwed women who become pregnant are keeping their babies. That, plus the legalization of abortion, means "there are fewer babies to adopt," she said.
"Because babies are so scarce, [adoption] has become a much more serious thing. Everyone's trying to compete for the same baby. People are desperate to get babies."
But done right, adoption can be less of a heartache and headache than Lifton suggests, said Corinne Gott, superintendent of the Roanoke Department of Social Services. The department handles about 20 to 25 adoptions a year.
"What you've got to do is a lot of work," Gott said. "And people have to understand that there is a risk of disappointment, just like if nature intervened. You've got to be willing to take the risk or not try to get out there and get a child."
Under Virginia law, a pregnant woman who is seeking to place her newborn baby for adoption has the legal right to choose whom she wants to place her baby with or to change her mind and keep the child herself.
"Before the adoption is finalized, it's her call," said Marge Savage, adoption program manager for Commonwealth Catholic Charities in Roanoke. "There is definitely no way to make any guarantees."
For that reason, prospective adoptive parents who work through Savage's agency are well-counseled about the risk involved.
"An adoptive family needs to really be counseled in the preparation process," she said.
In Virginia, there are two kinds of adoption: placement through a licensed adoption agency; and parental placement, wherein the birth parent or legal guardian arranges an adoption privately. Some states permit only agency placements.
In Virginia, the birth parent or legal guardian has 25 days to change the decision to adopt, or 15 days if the child is over 10 days old.
In cases where a pregnant woman has arranged to give the baby to an individual or a couple - either through an agency or a private arrangement - she does not sign any documents relating to who will have her baby until after the baby is born.
Paying money for babies is illegal. The state code prohibits any person or child placement agency from "charging, paying, giving or agreeing to give or accept money, property, service or thing of value" for a baby.
Exceptions include payment or reimbursement for medical expenses and insurance premiums directly related to the birth mother's pregnancy and for food, clothing and shelter if the birth mother is unable to work or otherwise support herself.
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