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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1960)
Last year 20,000 children were adopted in casual, unplanned, sometimes ill-advised ways; needless tragedies resulted, yet this dangerous "gray market" continues to grow But these placements hover between . legality and illegality, hence the term "gray." The go-betweens rarely realize they are operating in a legal shadowland because adoption statutes are complex and differ widely from state to state. In some, any unlicensed third party who tries to arrange an adoption is guilty of a crime; in others, these deals are allowed. In still other states, courts approve private adop tions, even though the law is actually being broken, provided the mother appears before the court and gives her consent A report in the Yale Law Journal says this about private adoptions: "When adop tions are the product of independent place ments, the blind frequently lead the blind. Good intentions are no substitute for trained and experienced personnel. The interests of the child, as well as those of the natural and adoptive parents, may be lost and un protected in a humanitarian mist." From my own experience, I know this to be true. Even though the majority of independent adoptions turn out well, far too many do not. It is undoubtedly true that people who give babies to couples they hardly know, or don't know at all, are causing much heartbreak. Just six weeks ago, for example, Mr. and Mrs. John Vasta, a Brooklyn, N. Y., couple, were facing an ordeal they had dreaded ever since they had taken a four-day-old youngster into their home and their hearts in 1957. Richard Guy, born out of wedlock to a 14-year-old girl, was never legally adopted. Last March, Mr. and Mrs. Vasta decided to dispel the gnawing fear that some day their child might be taken from them, and they instructed their law yer to make the necessary arrangements with Richard's natural mother. When the mother, Mrs. Amelia Malave, who had since married and been widowed, was notified of the whereabouts of her son, she said that he had been taken from her without her permission and that until she heard from the lawyer she had been un able to locate him. She demanded three-year-old Richard back and has since taken the case to court. At this writing, the case has not been decided, but it's very possible that the Vastas will have to give up the little boy whom they have raised and loved as their own son for three years. This suffering could have been averted if the case had been handled by a recog nized adoption agency. What follows will explain why. Here, then, are the major dan gers of the gray market in babies, based upon the files of the Child Welfare League of America, the experiences of licensed adoption agencies, and reports and obser vations of many authorities in the field: 1. A gray-market arrangement cannnl prelect die new parents sufficiently against future claims by the natural parents. The Brooklyn case is not an isolated one. It happens hundreds of times, and few hu man experiences can be more tragic. In many cases, natural parents win back the children they once gave up. I know a West Coast couple who sadly dismantled a crib recently and gave away a roomful of toys. Eight months after they thought they had their adopted son forever, they were ordered to give him up. These things can happen because, in most private adoptions, the real mother knows the identity of the new parents. In states where such adoptions are permitted, the law requires the go-between to tell her where the baby is going and to whom. Consequently, if the real mother suffers a change of heart, she can look up the new parents and demand her child. Com plicated laws are involved, differing from state to state, but there are grounds on which a natural mother can win back her child even though it has been "legally" adopted and living with its new family for years. This peril is not present in agency adop tions. Placements handled by recognized organizations protect the new parents fully. Never, under any circumstances, does the real mother know who is adopting her baby. She can never trace the child. She signs a release for adoption, and the agency is then empowered to act After adoption, all records are sealed by law. The real mother is given only enough information to satisfy her that her baby will be in the best available home. Equally important, the mother is helped to come to a firm decision, reducing the chance she will ever come back to demand her child. If troubled following the release of her child, she receives counseling. 2. Private adoptions increase the risk that a child-hungry couple will gel a sick baby. 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