When Adoption Stops Saving Children and Starts Saving the Adoption Industry
For decades, many couples ask, “How do I start the adoption process?” Adoption has been marketed as a selfless act of love—“saving” children from uncertain futures. But what if the system built to protect the most vulnerable is exploiting them? What if, instead of last-resort care, adoption has become a multi-billion-dollar business? Victims and family advocates are speaking out: Adoption should never be a business.
The Adoption Industry: A Profitable Machine
Adoption is not just about placing children in loving homes—it’s a complex and lucrative industry. Agencies, attorneys, facilitators, and adoption service providers charge tens of thousands of dollars per child. According to the National Council for Adoption, the global adoption market is valued at billions. In the U.S., domestic infant adoptions often range from $30,000 to $50,000 each.
With that much money on the line, a critical question arises: Are we saving children, or are we saving the industry that profits from their separation?
When “Saving a Child” Becomes a Sales Pitch
Adoption marketing often uses emotionally charged language—”every child deserves a forever family” or “open your heart and home.” But behind the scenes, vulnerable families are frequently coerced, misled, or manipulated into ‘relinquishing’ their children. These tactics mirror those used in child trafficking: targeting impoverished, single, or young mothers and convincing them that giving up their baby is “the best thing they can do.”
This form of separation is permanent, even when it is avoidable. The pain, grief, and loss do not just disappear once the papers are signed. In fact, for many adopted people, it only begins.
Victims Speak Out: Why This Feels Like Child Trafficking
Many adoptees and first families now identify what happened to them not as an act of charity, but as child trafficking. Why? Because:
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Children were obtained through coercion, deception, or poverty-based pressure.
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Birth certificates were falsified or replaced, erasing a child’s original identity.
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Biological families were intentionally misled, unable to ever find or reconnect with their children.
For victims, this is not just unethical—it’s criminal. Stripping children of their identity, culture, family, and history under the guise of “rescue” is not salvation. It’s exploitation.
Where Are Our Families? The Cost of Permanent Separation
One of the cruelest consequences of the adoption industry is the severed connection between biological families. Many adoptees searching for their roots find falsified documents, sealed records, or untraceable histories.
Meanwhile, “birth” parents—many of whom were pressured into relinquishment—are left in lifelong anguish, unable to locate the children they never wanted to lose.
Forced Relinquishment is Coercion—Now Recognized as Child Trafficking
Tactics used to separate families include:
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Denying financial or housing support until a mother gives up her child
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Threatening to involve child protective services
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Offering adoption as the only loving choice
These practices are now being re-examined and exposed for what they truly are: coercion. In the context of international human rights law, this meets the definition of child trafficking.
Join the Movement for Adoption Truth
If you are an adoptee, birth parent, or concerned ally, you are not alone. The time has come to speak the truth about unnecessary family separation and the commodification of children.
Adopted? Join Adoption Truth and Transparency Worldwide Information Network to:
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Connect with others who share your experience
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Get peer support from adoptees and birth families
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Advocate for stopping adoption trafficking and family preservation
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Educate others on the hidden dangers of the adoption industry
Together, we can challenge the narrative and push for a future where saving family comes first and adoption is only a last resort, not a business.
ARTICLE INSPIRED BY ADOPTION: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
