An article by ABC News entitled “Why it costs more to adopt a white baby” was recently posted on our Facebook wall. Many people on our staff found the article offensive, as did commenters on the Facebook page.
One Facebook follower commented that the last line of the article was classless, and I completely agree. There was no need to end the article with the quote “When it comes to adoption, America needs an enema and I’m hoping god made me the chocolate laxative.” First of all that sounds like a quote from a Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler movie, and while both are funny comedians, that line came out of left field in the article and not only was it in poor taste, it did not fit the tone of the rest of the story.
While parts of the article were offensive, as we said on the Facebook page earlier, we agree with the premise of the article that adoption fees should not be based on race. I thought the best case for not basing adoption fees based on the race of the child was made by Cindy Friedmutter, the Executive Director of the Adoption Institute. Friedmutter said “People who are willing to pay high fees for healthy kids don’t always get perfect children. If you pay $50,000, it doesn’t mean that (the) child is going to be healthy, gorgeous and smart.” Friedmutter is saying that by charging the higher fees for healthy (or Caucasian) babies, that adoption agencies are almost guaranteeing perfect children to these families, and obviously there is nothing guaranteed when it comes to children.
My biggest problem with the ABC News article was that it seemed to put all adoption agencies under the same category to fit their story. Why didn’t they interview more private agencies that don’t vary the rates dependent on the race of the child?
I think this article had the potential to be interesting and enlightening, but instead became offensive to positive adoption agencies by using quotes such as “”When it comes to adoption, America needs an enema…” and touting main subject Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who not only gave the laxative quote, but also said that he wanted to see all adoption agencies run only by volunteers and funded strictly by contributions. Hutcherson’s claims that this is the best way to manage adoption agencies nationwide, seems like an overreaction to the current issue of adoption fees.
What did everyone else think?