This from the St. Petersburg, Times March 29, 1998

A Times Editorial

Adopt this measure



© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 1998 
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Lawmakers in Tallahassee are making headway on a much-needed overhaul of 
Florida's adoption system, but private adoption agencies are already 
mobilizing for a fight. And no wonder. Some adoption agencies and 
lawyers are milking the system for all it's worth, and they are not 
eager to be weaned. In a particularly cynical move, they are now using 
their adoptive-parent clients as fronts, betting that lawmakers would be 
reluctant to disappoint desperate couples willing to pay high premiums 
for the chance to adopt a healthy newborn. 

Legislators should not be fooled. If anything, the lobby's self-interest 
scheme should stiffen the state's resolve to put more safeguards in a 
system that for too long has escaped adequate oversight and regulation. 
Left mostly to their own devices, private agencies and lawyers have 
fostered an adoption system that comes close to baby-selling, with high 
costs to all parties involved -- except the middlemen, of course. 

As detailed in a recent report by the Times' Stephen Nohlgren, 
ex-employees of Tampa's Adoption By Choice say adoptive parents are 
snookered into paying thousands of dollars in bogus expenses, while 
birth mothers are pressured into giving up their babies within hours 
after delivery -- with no chance to change their minds -- and birth 
fathers are kept in the dark until it's too late. The rush to get the 
birth mother to sign away her rights, and the failure to notify the 
birth father of his, only increase the risk that the adoption will later 
be challenged. 

A comprehensive measure recently approved by the Senate Judiciary 
Committee could change the system for the better. By strengthening the 
rights of birth parents early on, it gives adoptive parents -- and, most 
important, the child -- greater stability later. 

The bill would give birth mothers time to reconsider their decisions. A 
pregnant woman who has signed a contract to put her newborn up for 
adoption may change her mind once the baby arrives. Women should not be 
pressured to give their consent from the hospital bed, when emotions are 
high and resistance is low. Under the proposed legislation, birth 
mothers would have a week after delivery to reflect on their decision -- 
and to back out of an adoption contract if they changed their minds. 

The measure also would give birth fathers notice of adoption plans. The 
"Baby Sam" case, involving a Palm Harbor man's still-ongoing attempt to 
regain custody of his natural son from an Alabama couple, is only the 
latest example of the instability and heartbreak that can result when 
adoptions proceed without the birth father's consent. This bill would 
require greater efforts to locate and to hear from those fathers. 

Florida law prohibits baby-selling, but you would never know it from the 
lucrative payments birth mothers can get and agencies can hide as 
"reasonable living expenses." The prospect of such exorbitant financial 
gain, to both the mother and the professional, skews motivations and 
puts the interests of others ahead of what may be best for the child. 
The proposed law would limit adoption fees to $1,000 and living expenses 
to $2,500, unless otherwise approved by a judge. 

Lawmakers need to think about the children who are hurt when adoptions 
go awry in the present system. Florida's adoption system cries out for 
reform.