New America NYC: Broadly Speaking: The Child Exchange

A legal adoption is an arduous process that requires time, background checks and lots of paperwork. But giving a child away can be startlingly easy.

Desperate parents have increasingly turned to an online black market to find strangers willing to take their unwanted children. The practice, called “re-homing,” turns adoption into a dangerous, unregulated and frighteningly simple child handoff that often has grave consequences.

New America NYC hosted a discussion on rehoming and of what can be done, from a policy standpoint, to better protect children when adoptions fail. 

Participants
Megan Twohey
Investigative Reporter, Thomson Reuters
 
Stacey Patton
Senior Reporter, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author, That Mean Old Yesterday
 
April Dinwoodie
Chief Executive, The Donaldson Adoption Institute