To the editors:
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The article entitled “Babies Wanted,” in your May 12, 1989 edition, contained much misinformation about the advantages and disadvantages of adoption through a private placement or through a licensed adoption agency. For example, regarding adoptive parents, your article stated, “all prospective adoptive parents are screened–financially, medically, and for character–by a county agency or by a private agency, and their homes must be licensed.” The truth is that only families who adopt through an agency are required to be screened for criminal records and child abuse or neglect charges, and to open their home to inspection in order to be licensed, BEFORE a child can be placed with them. In private adoption the Court orders placement of the child with the family and then orders an investigation to be done some time in the next six months, after the child is already in the adoptive home.
Vivian Soballe says that agency adoptions cost more than average private adoptions. Family Counseling Clinic’s average adoption fee, including payment of medical and legal costs, amounts to $1,200.00 to $4,200.00 less than her stated averages for private adoptions. Why do those private adoptions cost so much more?
Sandra Arbit
