Today’s reality is far different as a result of the Internet, and the changes – some or better, others for worse – are accelerating every day. That means people who want to make connections are being enabled to do so more easily and more quickly than had ever been possible before, but it also means that for-profit brokers and facilitators are expanding their reach, with virtually no monitoring or regulation. And so, for instance, highly commercialized and aggressive marketing is being aimed at expectant mothers and prospective adoptive parents, promising easy and quick solutions to very complex human situations. Ads pop up alongside almost any search related to adoption, sometimes offering “a baby in less than 3 months” or “a free college education” for women who place their infants. Would-be families advertise online, describing an almost perfect future for any baby they might adopt, the kinds of ads one adoptive parent in our study described as “butterflies and rainbows,” while ignoring the pain, loss and grief inherent in adoption. And “desperate” mothers-to-be (who may not be desperate or even pregnant) reach out over the Internet to offer unborn children in exchange for money.!

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This report was researched and written by Dr. Amy Whitesel, Assistant Research
Professor of Psychology, George Washington University, and Dr. Jeanne Howard,
Policy and Research Director, Donaldson Adoption Institute.