Was this adoption ethical? What are your opinions?
A 17 year old girl had a baby. The mother's parents had legal guardianship and were assisting her raising the baby. One day in school, she told her guidance counselor she was having stress. The guidance counselor arranged a meeting with an adoption agency the next day, and had the minor sign adoption papers without her parent's knowledge. The guidance counselor and adoption agency assisted the teenager in running away from home and hiding her whle she signed the papers. They then took the baby away and sold her for upwards of $10,000.
What do you think of this? All opinions welcome. For more information you can search the web at
to read more, but I'm curious on your thoughts. Was this an ethical adoption? Should a minor be able to sign a contract without their parent's knowledge or consent?
2007-04-16T11:45:29Z
Thank you for your opinions everyone. I found a better link that has the original news story article
That was wrong on so many levels! Shame on the counselor and adoption agency! She was minor, and therefore LEGALLY needed her parents signatures as well! What the counselor and adoption agency did was not only unethical and unmoral, but illegal as well! The parents should try to get the child back, and take both the counselor and agency to court and sue!
No, it was not an ethical adoption. Nothing about any of this was ethical.
I understand Stephanie being scared. Hopefully any parents who read this will encourage their teens to come to them with ANY problem at all. Perhaps the parents could have contacted authorites about the threatening father of the baby.
Some things about this story (and I do believe the story) are odd though. If the parents had legal custody that would have had to be taken away before the child could be adopted. I don't understand how the young mother and the baby could have been on Medicaid if the parents had legal custody.
It sounds to me as if the parents did not get proper advice and thought the legal custody protected them.
No way was this ethical. They are proper channels that this girl could have gone through if she wanted to give her baby up for adoption. I think that in general a minor should not be able to sign a contract without parent consent. But in the case of abortion or adoption it gets tricky. So that should be on a case by case basis. But what this counselor did should be illegal and the the counselor, as well as the adoption agency should be held accountable.
I think that the girl should have the right to give her baby up for adoption if that is what she really wants, but they way they went about it was unethical. Of course she will be understress having a baby, but the counselor should have tried giving her techniques to deal with the stress. The counselor should have sat down and talked with the whole family before this decision was to be made. Unless the girl was in some abusive situation at home there is no reason for this to go down like it did.
No a minor should not be able to sign a contract without her parent's knowledge not consent. The counselor should be in jail. That baby was sold on the black market. I hope that the family that got the baby treats that baby right/