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arundohle.bsky.social
@arundohle.bsky.social
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notalegalrecord.net
i think most people would find the thought-experiment question “how much would my parents have paid for me?” appalling, but when you’re #adopted it’s supposed to be a reason for gratitude.
The "gray-market," adoption fees, and board payments illustrate some of the cultural contours of the modern adoption market. Pricing the priceless child is a unique commercial venture; child 'rental' and child sales are profoundly constrained by twentieth-century conceptions of children. Ironically, even market ideologists and practicians ultimately justify baby selling by criteria other than profit. Payments are legitimized as symbolic expressions of sentimental concern. For Landes and Posner, for instance, "the willingness to pay money for a baby would seem on the whole a reassuring factor from the standpoint of child welfare." Stanley Michelman, a noted baby broker, reportedly reassured his clients by pointing out the emotional payoffs of purchasing a child, "How would I feel if my father paid ten thousand dollars to adopt me? Boy, that guy really wanted me. ... He paid that much tor me, he really wanted me that much. ... What could be a greater sense of self than that somebody sacrificed so much to have me? ..."
January 25, 2025 at 12:53 PM