ABA Family Legal Guide

Family Law

Children

Adoption

What is a private adoption?

Private adoptions bypass the use of agencies and may bypass the long waiting lists as well. The process may begin when people who seek to adopt a child contact a lawyer who specializes in adoptions. The lawyer may work with physicians who are aware of women willing to give up children for adoption. Sometimes would-be parents will place ads in newspapers seeking women who are willing to place their babies for adoption.

In most states, adoptive parents are allowed to pay a biological mother's medical expenses and certain other costs during the pregnancy. But adoptive parents are not allowed to pay the biological mother specifically to give up the child. The law treats this as a black-market adoption, the buying and selling of children, and it is a crime in every state.