The Children Money Can Buy covers decades of dramatic societal change in foster care and adoption, including the pendulum swings regarding open adoption and attitudes toward birth parents, the gradual acceptance of gay and lesbian adoption, the proliferation of unregulated adoption facilitators in the U.S., ethical concerns related to international adoption, and the role money inevitably plays in the foster care and adoption systems. Special attention is given to the practice of baby brokering and the accompanying exorbitant finders fees and financial incentives encouraging birth mothers to relinquish (or pretend that they are planning to relinquish) their babies that permeate much of U.S. infant adoption today.
The Children Money Can Buy illuminates the worlds of foster care and adoption through the personal stories Moody witnessed and experienced in her many years working in the foster care and adoption systems. These compelling stories about real people and situations illustrate larger life lessons about the way our society valuesand fails to valueparents and children. They explore the root of ethical problems which are not only financially driven but reflect societys basic belief that some children are more valuable than others. Finally, Moody makes a plea for change and gives suggestions about how the foster care and adoption systems could work together for the benefit of children and families.
Anne Moody has enjoyed a long career in child welfare work and adoption counseling. Since the early 1980s, she has worked to improve upon the infant adoption process for both birth and adoptive parents. Anne is the Director of Adoption Connections in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and is also an adoptive parent.
As a young 20-something with a masters degree in social work, Moody took a job as a child-welfare caseworker that introduced her to the world of adoptions and foster care, beginning a lifelong commitment that is chronicled in this compassiolÓ7
![The Children Money Can Buy: Stories from the Frontlines of Foster Care and Adoption [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/4/6/0/2_6647058.jpg "The Children Money Can Buy: Stories from the Frontlines of Foster Care and Adoption [Hardcover]")