Part 1 of 4

Good Intentions Gone Awry
A couple of weeks ago a series in The Waterloo/Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier detailed the story of a potential adoption gone sour. The story, reported by Dan Gearino, brings up some of the issues that plague the U.S. independent adoption system.

In this four-part series, I’ll summarize the story and I’ll reflect on several of the concerns that it raises about independent or private adoption.

Here’s a recap of the story:
Christine Kilmer, 41, of Florida, panicked when she learned she was pregnant. She was on the verge of getting her life together after some run-ins with the law and she had broken up with the father of her baby.

Kilmer headed west to visit her brother, and on the way she picked up a newspaper in Arkansas, in which she saw a classified ad for a California adoption facilitator called Adoption Insight.

Kilmer called the facilitator, Laurie Aragon, to inquire about adoption. According to Aragon, Kilmer told her she was homeless, feuding with her family, and eager to make an adoption plan.

An offer she couldn’t refuse
Kilmer says that Aragon asked her if she’d be willing to relocate to Iowa, where she’d live in a Sioux City apartment complex and have her rent and other expenses paid by the prospective adoptive parents.

According to Iowa law, prospective adoptive parents can pay some living expenses (of a pregnant woman) as long as the payments aren’t made directly to the woman. Apparently, Sioux City attorney Maxine Buckmeier’s law-office made out $75 weekly checks to Wal-Mart, which Kilmer could live on. The government provided Kilmer’s food and medical assistance.

About two months after Kilmer moved to Sioux City, she and a couple from Nebraska agreed to be matched with one another in an open adoption plan. A few weeks later, Kilmer gave birth to a girl, with the prospective adoptive parents present in the delivery room.

Continued in the next post