American families adopted 22,988 children from abroad in fiscal year 2004. By fiscal year 2024 the number was 1,172, a drop of roughly 95%. Bans, trafficking scandals, and grown adoptees asking who had really been saved took the system apart country by country, and the series asks when saving a child becomes buying one.
Who's who
- Harry Holt+1 more episodeOregon evangelical who, with his wife, adopted eight Korean orphans under the 1955 Holt Bill
- Bertha Holt+1 more episodeCo-founder of Holt International, the agency that set the template for Korean adoption
- Dwight D. Eisenhower+12 more episodesU.S. president who signed the 1955 Holt Bill
Where it happens
- South Korea+2 more episodesSource of the first mass intercountry adoptions after the Korean War
- The Hague, Netherlands+1 more episodeWhere the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention was concluded
- Guatemala+7 more episodesHalted adoptions in 2007 amid trafficking concerns
- Russia+3 more episodesBanned adoptions by U.S. citizens in 2012
- China+2 more episodesEnded its foreign-adoption program in 2024
- Ethiopia+1 more episodeBanned foreign adoptions in 2018
Timeline
- 1955The Holt Bill lets one Oregon couple adopt eight Korean orphans, seeding the modern system.
- May 29, 1993The Hague Adoption Convention is concluded.
- 2004Peak year: 22,988 intercountry adoptions to the United States.
- December 28, 2012Russia bans adoptions by U.S. citizens.
- August 28, 2024China announces the end of its foreign-adoption program.
- March 2025South Korea's truth commission finds the state responsible for fraud and abuse in its adoption program.
Still debated
The cause of the decline is contested: pro-adoption voices stress over-restriction and children left in institutions, while critics and many adoptee advocates say the boom was driven by demand and money and the closures corrected real abuses. The percentage drop depends on the year used, about 94% through 2023 or about 95% through 2024.
Connected episodes in other series
How White Evangelicals Moved From Democrat to RepublicanA Wall of Separation · Episode 7Also features Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Man Who Blamed Fat — Ancel Keys and the Diet-Heart HypothesisEat Real Food? Nutrition Advice · Episode 3Also features Dwight D. Eisenhower
Operation Ajax: How the CIA Overthrew Iran's Mosaddegh in 1953Iran & America: A Century and Counting · Episode 2Also features Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Infinite Dividend: The WPA's Legacy and the 2025 Funding FightThe Infinite Dividend: The WPA · Episode 13Also features Dwight D. Eisenhower