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The American Fertility Association’s Monthly Newsletter

November 29, 2007

Carolyn Berger, LCSW

National Adoption Month - Fostering New Attitudes

By Carolyn Berger, LCSW, Adoption Coordinator of The AFA

This year’s National Adoption Month has been set aside to raise awareness of adopting children from foster care. Adopting from foster care is on the rise: Before the 1990s children were removed from homes where they were abused and/or neglected, and they were placed in foster homes just as they are today. Back then, though, there was a reluctance to free these children for adoption. Efforts were focused on reunifying children with their parents. Sometimes those efforts went on for years with the child remaining in foster care and without a permanent home indefinitely.

But with the 1997 enactment of a federal law, The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), all that changed. While attempts are still made to reunite children with their families, efforts are also undertaken simultaneously to find permanent homes for these children—either with their foster family or with another family who wishes to adopt
through foster care. Fost/adoption, where children are placed in homes that could become permanent if parental rights are terminated, has become an option for people wishing to adopt. And, because the process is overseen by state departments of social service rather than private agencies, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to adopt. Indeed, many of the children placed this way come with Medicaid as well as subsidies to cover some of cost of raising them.

Since the ASFA was enacted, more children have achieved permanence faster. While 17,000 children were adopted through foster care in 1990, the number jumped to 50,000 in 2003. Still, more children are entering foster care each year than are adopted out of foster care. And too many children (about 19,000 each year) remain in foster care until they “age out,” turning 18 without finding permanent homes. This last statistic is saddening: How many of the children we know are ready to parent themselves at 18?

Right now there are about 518,000 children in the foster care system. Among these, 118,000 are available for adoption. Of the people who will adopt them, 66% are married couples, 30% are single women, 2% are unmarried couples, and 2% are single men. The median age of children adopted through foster care is 10.6 years. Thirty-eight percent of available children are African American, 37% are Caucasian, 17% are Hispanic and 8% are of other backgrounds.

Regardless of how we ultimately choose to build our families—whether through Advanced Reproductive Technology, third-party reproduction, or the many ways we can adopt, we need to be more aware of children in our country who need homes. We go to Guatemala, Russia, Ethiopia, and China to adopt—in a heartbeat. We bring children home from these countries and many of them are suffering from having lived in institutions from the time they were born. Many of them have health issues; some suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and a lot of them are traumatized by events that took place early in their young lives. Like kids in the foster care system, these children need lots of help. And when adoptive parents bring them home, they dig in their heels, get their children the services they need, and try, in all ways possible, to help them get them healthy and back on track developmentally so they can live happy, productive lives.

We need not look at adopting internationally versus adopting here through foster care as an either/or proposition. There are more than enough children worldwide in need of homes, and the reality is that most of them will not be adopted. But shouldn’t we be more aware of the many children looking for “forever families” in the United States? Can we keep these children in mind when we begin exploring adoption? At The American Fertility Association we haven’t given fost/adopt the attention it deserves and this is something we intend to correct—right now.

The road to family building is often a road of unexpected twists and turns: One country closes, another country opens. We learn that the child we plan to adopt has a sibling who is now available for adoption. Or our adopted child’s birthmother has another baby and calls us up to find out if we want to adopt again. Then the shape of our family changes and expands to accommodate additional children.

When people adopt through foster care it is no different: Sometimes they decide to be foster parents, just foster parents, and suddenly the child they are fostering becomes available for adoption. They search their hearts to figure out whether they are up for the challenge. Often they discover that they are.

Carolyn Berger, LCSW, is AFA’s Adoption Coordinator. She has two sons, one biological and one who came to her family through adoption.

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Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is David S. from Scotland and I am enquiring about an aspect of Californian law on surrogacy on behalf of a friend.

My friend has undergone 6 unsuccessful IVF treatments here in Scotland and is desperate to bear a child. Thankfully her sister offered to act as a surrogate mother by means of having her fertilized eggs surgically implanted. However, her sister lives in California and from what I have heard Californian law prohibits its citizens from being surrogate mothers to overseas donors - is this true? If so, is there any way around it e.g. how long would it take for my friend to be considered "domiciled" if she moved over there? If you cannot help I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Thank for your help in advance. Kind regards,
David S.

The issue is not a legal one as it is perfectly fine to do a surrogacy with her sister using her own eggs in California. They'll need a contract and to sign documents at the IVF facility (they can use www.nationalfertilitylaw.com or another attorney in CA to draw up the required paperwork). The "mother" will be the donor sister and her partner if she wants and the sisters name will never appear on the b/c. She should also discuss getting the baby back into her home country with her attorney but this is routine.

The issue is FDA guidelines which are federal and designed to protect the population from infection. They will not allow the transfer of eggs from individuals who reside in some specific countries, however, this can be waived if it is a known donor which it is in this case. So, depending on where the sister who is going to be the surrogate lives, I would recommend suggesting one of the clinics we work closely with in either SF, LA, or San Diego. This should all be very doable assuming that the reason for the 6 failed IVF attempts is not related to egg quality or age.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Stuart H. Miller
CEO
Growing Generations, LLC
Fertility Futures, LLC

My girlfriend is very worried she won't be able to have children with me. She had half a hysterectomy when she was 18 (she is 32 now) due to endometriosis. I'm sure you come across cases like this regularly. Our question is, what are our options? And do we have a chance of regular childbirth? And if not, what are our other options? Please email me back at your earliest convenience so I can be educated on the subject.

Thank You
Danny

Without medical records I am unsure what half a hysterectomy is? If she has ovaries she can do gestational carrier using her eggs and her partner's sperm. She really needs to see a doc who will read her op note to better evaluate her situation.

James Grifo, M.D., Ph.D.
NYU Program for IVF, Reproductive Surgery & Infertility

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