But I do know that Rev. Ken Hutcherson of the statement: “I know about discrimination, I don’t care who it’s against, it’s wrong” is a really scary kind of guy.

This is also the guy who said “God hates soft men . . . God hates effeminate men . . . If I was in a drug store and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”
(awaypoint.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!C0984…)

and is a co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate group Watchmen on the Walls. (www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp#s=W…)

There are a lot of studies on the mental health of adoptees, most of which relate to his or her interaction with adoptive parents — when they were told, how they were told, etc. The kinds of studies that you are looking for might be doable, but it depends on the state. In many cases, state agencies are really administered through private parties according to state rules, and they typically encompass children whose parents’ rights have been involuntarily terminated.

If adoptionworker works for the state, as I suspect, you are. Think of it as an investment: children adopted and raised in a stable family are less likely to need costly incarceration later in life.

It seems to me that what we need for this argument is some data. For example, how much does it cost to investigate parents, pay the birth mother’s medical costs, and otherwise prepare for adoption? Do children adopted through private agencies do better, worse, or no differently from those adopted through state agencies? Do state agencies have restrictions that keep obviously qualified parents from adopting (ie only married couples allowed, invalidating a number of perfectly qualified gay couples and single parents), creating the necessity of private adoption agencies? Do state agencies allow open adoption, which lessens, to some extent, the extreme trauma that the biological mother goes through in giving up her child? Do private agencies? Are the private agencies properly regulated such that they don’t give children to abusive or neglectful parents simply because they are, for example, of the “right” religion or economic group?

Pastor Hutcherson gave testimony at the State Capitol, in Olympia, Washington against House Bill 1515, which was wanting to give people of differing sexual orientation special rights under the law. The bill was defeated by one vote.

I think this guy wants to do more reforming in the adoption industry than merely adjusting the prices on these kids’ heads.

In Atlanta, I do not know of black babies being adopted for $4,000 - the price is more typically $20,000 after the agency fees and the attorney fees are factored in. So in conclusion I will say this - black babies have plenty of potential homes out there in black families. Black families adopt disproportionately more children than white families so we know they are out there. But we make adoption out of reach for them with fees that more white families can afford. After all, even black families who are college educated and professionals often do not have the benefits of generations weath to booster their wallets - so $20, 000 hits them hard. Black babies are wanted and desired, but those who want them are not because they often do not have the kinds of disposible income agencies are looking for.

Yes, I definitely want to see all MY dealings with adoptive and step children to be administered by government officials. That would be delightful. Then let’s stick needles in our eyes and inject salt water! And watch “The View”!

That wou[ld] solve the problem…

No, it would just relocate any profit-seeking from the realm of economics (where at least we can see and measure the motivating factors) into the realm of power. Cf. public choice theory.

Otherwise, my two cents are that I’m in an adoptive family, and I agree with Auguste

Be really, really careful here. How do you know that people are getting rich? Just because you perceive $35,000 to be a lot of money on its face doesn’t mean that the subsidy to black babies is insignificant. It is likely that the relative desirability of black babies vs. their quantity produces this skewed effect.

—Myca

No. They lose money on black babies and make it up on white ones.

All that can be done for $4000? Or do black and hispanic children get parents who have been less extensively screened? And if $4000 is adequate, what does the rest of the money paid by adoptive parents of white babies go towards?

Do they do more work when the baby is white? Arguably they do less work since such babies are usually easier to place.