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.
MIRAH RIBEN has been researching, writing and speaking about the need to reform, humanize, and de-commercialize American adoption practices since 1979.
Riben is author of "shedding light on ...the Dark Side of Adoption" (1988) and "THE STORK MARKET: America's multi-billion dollar unregulated adoption industry" (2007) and many articles.
She is a former Director-at-Large of the American Adoption Congress, and co-founded Origins, a New Jersey-based national organization for women who lost children to adoption in 1980, the original Origins. She is past Vice President of Communications of Origins-USA, Inc, a national non-profit that advocates for mothers' rights and keeping natural families together.
Riben has been keynote speaker for the American Adoption Congress (national and regional conferences) and has spoken at countless other adoption conferences including: Parents of Tomorrow, Adoption Forum, Council on Equal Rights in Adoption, Origins (NJ), and Concerned United Birthparents. Riben was an invited speaker at the 7th Annual NJ Research Conference on Women, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, and the 2007 Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference sponsored by The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Ethica, Inc. She has substitute taught at Staten Island College and guest lectured at Rutgers University. She has has presented at academic and legal venues, including Practising Law Institute as well as appearing on national television, including Joan Rivers to discuss the Steinberg/Nussbaum murder of their illegally adopted child.
After the 1987 murder by Joel Steinberg of his illegally adopted child, Lisa, Riben reunited the toddler boy found in the home Steinberg shared with Hedda Nussbaum. Travis Smeigel is back with the family who thought they couldn't parent him. The account is detailed and documented in her second book.
Riben, who Was nominated 2009 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Public Citizen of the Year for her work in adoption, was among the very first mothers to publicly speak about the lifelong effects of losing a child to adoption. Risking imprisonment, she reunited hundreds of families separated by adoption and helped mothers prevent unnecessary adoption providing them temporary shelter in her home.
A former magazine editor and administrator at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, she is a staunch advocate of family preservation, and opposes all profiteering in adoption and falsified birth certificates. Riben is the mother of four, one of whom was lost to adoption in 1968 with whom she was reunited, and who is now deceased.
Mirah blogs at http://FamilyPreservation.blogspot.com
Complete bibliography of published works and CV available at:
http://www.AdvocatePublications.com
Author contact for media interviews and speaking engagements, etc: MRiben@AdvocatePublications.com
Last edited 4/27/11
