The Orphan Market · Episode 3 of 10 · 37 min
The Demand Side: Infertility, Foster Care, and the Rescue Narrative
International adoption is often told as a supply story, but the engine was American demand. A squeeze on fertility, a foster-care system built around reuniting families rather than supplying infants, and a cultural rescue narrative combined to make families willing to pay $25,000 to $50,000. In poor countries those fees became an incentive to manufacture orphans.
Who's who
- Laura BriggsScholar; author of Somebody's Children
- David Smolin+1 more episodeLaw professor who coined the terms child laundering and paper orphans
- Kathryn Joyce+3 more episodesJournalist; author of The Child Catchers
Where it happens
- United States+16 more episodesSource of the demand: prospective parents, IVF clinics, and foster care
- Poor sending countries with weak regulationWhere large fees created incentives to expand the supply of orphans
Timeline
- 1945-1973Roughly 1.5 million U.S. women place babies for non-family adoption in the baby scoop era.
- 1973Roe v. Wade, with other changes, sharply reduces the domestic supply of adoptable infants.
- 1980The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act requires reasonable efforts to preserve families.
- 1997The Adoption and Safe Families Act adds a 15-of-22-months termination timeline.
- 2004Peak of 22,988 international adoptions to the United States.
- 2023International adoptions fall to 1,275, down about 94%.
Still debated
Scholars disagree on how much adopters were motivated by infertility versus a preference for younger, healthier, or white children. The share of corrupt placements is uncertain, and whether the Adoption and Safe Families Act favors adoption is disputed. Cost and wait figures come largely from agencies.
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