The Stork Market: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry (Perfect Paperback)

by Mirah Riben (Author), Evelyn Robinson (Foreword), Jena M. Gaines (Editor) "Throughout human history, people have not adopted except within kinship circles..." (more)
Key Phrases: adoption scam, personal email correspondence, adoption facilitators, New York, The Stork, New Jersey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Combines the historical and legal perspective with really hard hitting journalism. Maureen Flatley, political consultant and media advisor specializing in child welfare and adoption --Direct to author

Once again, as in Dark Side, Riben has pulled back the covers and exposed the unpleasant truths and problems that need to be addressed in American adoption practices....the conclusions that Riben comes to are inarguable. Most impressive on every count ....well researched and thought out. Annette Baran, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., co-author The Adoption Triangle --Direct to author

This book a wonderful and well-integrated mix of approaches part analysis, part case studies from the front lines, part hand-book, part up-to-date law and policy review is a testament to Riben's powerful and enduring commitment to the rights and needs of vulnerable women and their children. Riben's book is a clear, bright blueprint for change. Rickie Solinger, historian and author, Wake up Little Susie; Beggars and Choosers --Direct to author

Product Description
Expose of the privatization of the adoption industry; the indistinguishable line between gray and black market; the scams and rip-offs; exploitation in both domestic and international infant adoption markets where the children are the commodity and prices are set based on quality (i.e. age, race, health)while 143,000 children linger in foster care. Extensively researched and documented inside report of the lack of regulations that allow anyone to call themselves an adoption "professional" and arrange adoptions. Questions whether the money can be removed from adoption and return it to a service which puts the best interest of children first instead of simply allowing anyone who pay - including pedophiles - to "adopt" a child. Goes further than Riben's first book - "shedding light on...The Dark Side of Adoption" (1988) and reveals for the first time Riben's involvement in the notorious Stenberg murder case in NYC.

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: AdvocatePublications.com; 1st edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1427608954
• ISBN-13: 978-1427608956
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,006,687 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read adoption book., June 6, 2007

By	David Kirschner "PhD." (Woodbury, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Stork Market by Mirah Riben, is a must read, for anyone touched by adoption. It is an informative, well-documented and fascinating expose of the many abuses - permeating a muti-billion dollar, unregulated adoption industry. Written in a crusading, investigative reporting style, the Stork Market is a courageous book. It will please many in the adoption world, but is sure to threaten others - especially those who profit from the lucrative business of adoption.
As a pediatric/child psychologist, I have worked in the trenches and treated hundreds of the worst-case casualties, of our closed adoption system; so I can attest to the truth in this important book, and offer first person witness, to the validity of much that Ms Riben documents and is concerned about. Surely, a family system based on secrecy, lies, and a denial of human/civil rights can not ultimately be "in the best interest of the child;" and a passionate caring that the needs of the children be primary, "not secondary, or even worse, irrelevant to an adult's agenda," is evident throughout the book.
The Stork Market was especially touching, in my understanding of birth mothers and their feelings about the children they gave up for adoption. Treating troubled adopted children/teens and their adoptive parents, I have mainly known birth parents, only through their children's fantasies about them - or sketchy information (very often based on outright lies) told to the adoptive parents by agencies, lawyers or "facilitators." The book deepens insight into a piece of the adoption triangle, the "ghost mother," seldom seen by child or family therapists - even those specializing in adoption issues.
However, despite it's much needed focus on the many problems and abuses in the adoption world (or perhaps because of this), the Stork Market loses objectivity and balance - with barely any mention of successful outcomes in adoption - or loving, caring and even validating adoptive parents. There are risk factors in adoption; but we should give credit to those adoptive parents, who have given their children the support and strength to navigate so many uphill challenges.
As Ms Riben writes, "Adoption is a very personally and emotionally charged issue for those touched by it. Few can think about it without passion." Absolutely true - but passion can cloud objectivity, and we need to all be on the same team (adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, therapists), to fix this flawed system - and make adoption work better.
Nontheless, The Stork Market is an important book, and a must read for anyone interested in the subject of adoption.
David Kirschner, PhD., Author - Adoption: Uncharted Waters.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kudoos, Mirah, don't put down your pen! , August 26, 2007

By	Blancherose "blancherose" (Sag Harbor, New York USA) - See all my reviews

When I read Mirah Riben's brisk polemic against adoption as we know it in America I found myself internally screaming: How can we make this book required reading for every person considering adoption--both the women who give birth and the people who adopt? For good measure, let's get it to every legislator in this country who doesn't yet understand that the commerce of adoption has not served those for whom it was ostensibly designed: the children.

Perhaps I'm jaded: I'm one of the women still caught in the trap of a closed adoption of the mid-Sixties, when I surrendured a daughter to adoption. Do I feel abused by the system Riben so systematically takes apart? Yes. But our voices are lost in the din of would-be adopters who have delayed conception until their plan to build a family is through the taking of someone else's child--and severing as many ties as possible with the child's natural family and heritage.

Thankfully, Riben exposes this calculating and cruel mind-set--and what it has done to the children--with copious and well-documented research and a clear, engaging writing style. Given today's shortage of American babies available for adoption, Riben's chapters on the international adoption trade are especially revealing and moving. Case studies, statistics, analysis--Riben uses all the tools to make her point and delivers it with the crushing blow of a hammer.

No one who reads this book will come away without thinking that the adoption policies of America need to be re-thought and re-done. Riben, a longtime adoption-reform activist, deserves more attention and credit than I fear she will receive.
Kudoos, Mirah, don't put down your pen!
--Lorraine Dusky, author of "Birthmark" (1979), the first memoir from a birth mother.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling It Like It Is, August 1, 2007

By	Jane Edwards (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Stork Market" is a must read for those considering adoption or surrendering a child for adoption; and for public policy makers.

Adoption is usually thought of as a positive event - finding a family for an unwanted child; helping a woman go on with her life without a burden she cannot bear.

In fact, adoption has become a total distortion of the intended purpose of finding homes for orphaned children. It is a multi-billion dollar unregulated business which exploits mothers and commodifies children.

The demand for adoptable children - particularly healthy white infants -- far exceeds the supply. Couples and singles desperate to be parents pay thousands of dollars for the babies that become available. Meanwhile American children who need homes are languishing in foster care.

"The Stork Market" leads us through the seamy side of adoption: Trusting couples desiring a child scammed of thousands of dollars. Women convinced to travel across country to deliver a child in a state "friendly" to adoption. Women required to pay thousands of dollars because they did not turn over the "goods." Men denied their paternal rights by convoluted laws requiring them to sign up on "putative father registries." Poor children in Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America kidnapped and smuggled into the United States.

And its not just prospective adoptive parents and natural parents who suffer. Adoption cuts children off from blood relatives and denies them the right to know their origins. Unscrupulous adoption practioners place children with anyone who can pay their fees. Sadistic adopters abuse - even murder - children entrusted to them.

Riben not only exposes the problems but offers common-sense solutions. Mothers should be made aware of their options. They should have sufficient time to consider and re-consider their decision. Fathers should have actual notice of the birth of their child and the pending adoption so that they can assert their rights. International adoption should be curtailed and resources made available to poor women to allow them to raise their children. Adoption agencies should be licensed and regulated. Private adoptions conducted by "facilitators," attorneys, doctors, and others should be outlawed.

Finally Riben recommends that adoption - cutting off all legal ties between the child and his original family -- be replaced with guardianship-like arrangement. Adoptive parents would have custody but the child would retain a relationship with the original family.