Posted on 03/12/2002 1:26:04 PM PST by antaresequity
The practice, which is widespread among private adoption facilitators, of charging prospective parents different fees depending on the race or ethnicity of the child they adopt is one that Hutcherson is fighting to change from his Redmond, Wash., church. The Antioch Bible Church has established its own adoption agency, and is lobbying state legislators to change Washington's laws.
"I've got championship Rottweilers. I sell them by supply and demand," Hutcherson said. "I raise thoroughbred racehorses. I sell them by supply and demand. I'm not going to let people sell children by supply and demand. What's the difference between that and slavery?"
The campaign to change the law is directed at Washington state legislators, but Hutcherson said he would prefer to see the federal government step in and create one set of regulations governing adoption, rather than leaving the issue to the states to decide.
Current Washington law bans payments to a birth mother for placing a child for adoption, but does not address payments for arranging an adoption or the fees that may be charged.
"I think it's an issue that Americans have not looked at closely enough, because if they had, things wouldn't be the way they are," he said.
He hopes to get attention around Washington with a billboard campaign as soon as he can raise the $70,000 to $80,000 he needs. The billboards will feature a white baby, a latino baby and a black baby and next to each, the fees some adoption facilitators might charge for them: $35,000, $10,000 and $4,000.
He said that besides putting a price on children, the practice discriminates against white babies and people who seek to adopt them — an issue he said has been overlooked because white people, particularly those who can afford the high adoption fees charged, are not used to considering themselves victims of discrimination.
"I know about discrimination," said Hutcherson, who is black. "I don't care who it's against, it's wrong. Tell me that if it was black babies that cost $50,000 and white babies that cost $4,000, people would be screaming their heads off."
A. Cricket
Yes, but if such parents were conservative they might pass their conservatism onto their kid. And it just wouldn't be right to have a black kid who went through the supposed obstacles which supposedly blocked his way without properly complaining about how he couldn't accomplish anything because of all the roadblocks put up by the evil white man.
When will they learn...we only descriminate against socialists and idiots.
American Children
Not racist, just fact.
PA especially has horrid adoption law, even if everyone is gung ho to get the adoption done and no one is contesting can take 6months or more to finalize.
I think you need a strong stomach to work in adoption sometimes!
Your kidding right...you don't believe this is why there are more black kids to adopt do you?
Yes, I second antaresequity's question. You don't really believe this, do you?
Birthmothers sometimes back out. Hell, it is THEIR baby. Amazing how entitled some people get about other people's children.
I would rather have a raft of birthmother's back out on me than take children from countries who dont let their mothers have a choice and keep their babies. There is a big difference between a mother who chooses to place her child for adoption and a mother who has no choice. Continuing to adopt from these countries (if you have) supports a sick, tyranical system, and prevents change.
You can call me antares
This is so true. My cousin went overseas to adopt her son, for that reason alone.
I am not so sure that white skin is prized...I think that most people who adopt want their child to fit in with their lifestyle...they want them to blend, if you will...white babies resemble white adults...white adults have more money...fewer white girls get pregnant with unwanted kids (maybe) so there's fewer white babies to be adopted (maybe)...but I don't think that rich black people would 'prize' a light skinned child over a child that resembled them...most of the foreign adoptions I know of are white middle class couples adopting healthy newborns from Korea or South America...trendy-artsy multicultural but still not too radical...white people adopting black American children is also very un PC--no white person can communicate cultural heritage to a black orphan (I guess ethnic identity is more important to some people than the love of a family and a solid economic shot in life)
Its sheer lunacy! No, I am not making it up! It is no damned wonder that blacks in america think they are so kept down, when this literally is what they require and want you do with your child! I nearly hit the damned roof when I got this information... who the hell tells a young child, sorry, you can't be successful because your skin color is too dark????? But if I don't go along with it, can't get a kid... its truly pathetic.
"That's a racist concept, and you're a racist for even bringing it up. Off to the re-education camp for you."
So, "supply and demand" is a racist concept and it makes oldeconomybuyer a racist for even bringing it up? You are obviously a mole and not a very bright one at that. "Supply and Demand" is a basic concept of Capitalism, which we, a free society, thrives on. Hmmmmmmm.......
Okay, you have the freedom to go to any commie country of your choosing and provide supply for your government's demand anytime, preferably ASAP. But hurry, their days are numbered, thanks to our President Bush. Go! Go now! Don't let us "racists" stop you!
That's what everyone on this thread keeps saying. But it only makes sense if it is legal to sell children. It isn't.
But the cost has to be coming from somewhere. Is it paying people to search for a longer period of time? Or is there some legal slight of hand in which one can sell children without running afoul of the law.
Yes and no. But more no than yes. We all know the public schools are saturated with PC-think because of the NEA mentality. The professional social workers are much worse. White parents who even think of adopting Black kids are discouraged or worse, and birth-mothers who have a say in placement are almost invariably steered toward prospective parents of the same race, even if those "parents" are really single women themselves. All of this is done to prevent so-called cultural genocide, as the social workers began calling it back in the days of clenched fists and Afros. Sounds good to blame those nasty pro-lifers, but it just ain't so.
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