ADOPTION: Private Contracts Vs The Legal System?
Contributed by Sunil K. Arora

Having worked in adoption for 7 years now, I get cold and worried whenever I hear of cases where the prospective adoptive parents want to contact the birth mother directly or even give money to a parent to have a child for them.  

In circumstances such as these, I always wonder if the people who are considering this kind of a measure have given serious thought to how this could turn out.  At the end of the day after having put in thousands of rupees or dollars to get through the process, endless time and also suffering the hardship from the emotional waves which you are subjected to every minute - finally, what it the result? 

I have heard of a number of such cases in my work in this field but there was one case, which I came across personally. The family in question had opted to enter into a private contract directly with a mother, who was paid a good amount. They engaged a lawyer to help them through the process, who made them promises and charged them a heavy fee in advance, but turned out to be nothing other than a money eating bug. 

As expected they put everything down on paper and then went to the passport office to get a passport. There the family got a shock of their lives when the passport office told them that they were unable to issue the passport as according to Indian Laws the child was not legally theirs despite the lengthy procedure.  Finally what did happen, I feel sorry to say, was that the family returned to their residential country without the child who still remains legally bound to the biological mother.*  

There are a number of important points which must be considered with regard to a private contact such as this one which will effect the family, including: 

When you directly enter into a contract with any person who wants to give up his/her child, you lose the advantage of anonymity as both parties have to reveal their identities. If that person is giving up his/her child for money, then you are asking for trouble. Similarly, the party wanting to adopt or their intermediaries can also harass the person who is giving up his/her child.