Adoption has been around for as long as families have. There may not have been official terms or laws in place, but willing parents have always been given children who would not or could not have been taken care of otherwise. Before the 20th century, such actions were done in secret, and the children were deemed illegitimate, a word that came with devastating social ramifications. Most adoptions were done out of love for the children, but some were done merely for profit. For that reason, American adoption has a bit of a tawdry past.
The Massachusetts Adoption Act in 1891 is widely considered the first “modern” adoption law. It recognized adoption as a social and legal operation based on a child’s welfare. From 1854 to 1929, orphan trains took as many as 250,000 orphans from New York and other Eastern cities to Midwestern and Western states, as well as Canada and Mexico, for adoption. Adults chose children from on display at the train station with little to no regulation or oversight. The practice started as a way to help the 30,000 abandoned children on the streets of New York. It ended with the beginning of organized foster care.
Minnesota passed laws in 1917 requiring investigations prior to adoption and the closing of records. That later led to the national standards including pre-placement inquiry, post-placement probation, and confidentiality. The intention was to benefit children, but adult preferences sometimes came before children’s needs. Baby farming was common then. Unregulated and untrained women would care for children for pay. Many of the children were abused, neglected, or murdered. The adoptions were more profitable if the kids didn’t survive to accrue additional costs. During that time, babies were bought and sold like commodities. Some doctors and midwives worked as for-profit adoption brokers for unwed mothers and prostitutes. Legal action was taken against baby farming in the 1920s.
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