Death Draws Public's Eye To Adoption
Death Draws Public's Eye To Adoption
By E. R. SHIPP
LEAD: The death of 6-year-old Lisa Steinberg has focused attention on New York State's complex adoption laws. While many experts in the field say the Steinberg case has nothing to do with adoption, others say it highlights flaws in the system.
The death of 6-year-old Lisa Steinberg has focused attention on New York State's complex adoption laws. While many experts in the field say the Steinberg case has nothing to do with adoption, others say it highlights flaws in the system.
To relatives, neighbors and friends, Joel B. Steinberg, a lawyer, and Hedda Nussbaum, an author and editor of children's books, were the adoptive parents of Lisa, and of the 17-month-old boy they called Mitchell, who has now been reclaimed by his mother. It is now evident that neither child was adopted by the couple, who were charged with murder in Lisa's beating.
New York, like most states, recognizes three legal paths to adopting children: through public agencies like New York City's Department of Social Services, through private agencies like Spence-Chapin and through private arrangements. These arrangements, known variously as independent or private-placement adoptions, are chosen by hundreds of New Yorkers each year. Speed of Private Adoptions
Healthy white infants are in heavy demand. According to the National Committee for Adoption, an advocacy organization based in Washington that represents a network of adoption agencies, few healthy white infants are available from public agencies and there can be a wait of 2 to 10 years to obtain one from a private agency. But by making independent arrangements, adoptive parents can obtain white infants within months.
For the truly desperate, innumerable illegal paths can be taken to acquire healthy white infants. Adoption experts cite a booming market that traffics in these infants for prices that may range from $20,000 to $75,000. Doctors and lawyers are often involved in this selling of babies, the experts said.
In addition, to get around the adoption laws a pregnant woman may enter the hospital under a false name - that of the woman to whom she intends to give or sell her child. The name on the birth certificate would thus give no hint that the child had been adopted.
Baby selling, involving unlawful exchanges of large sums of money, is not the same as independent adoption, where the amount that can lawfully be spent is ultimately regulated by the courts.
The experts say that whether people pursue legal adoptions or the illegal market there is a common denominator - desperation.
''The problem in any adoption case is that everyone is so desperate,'' said Katherine G. Thompson, a lawyer who specializes in matrimonial and family law in the firm of Beldock, Levine & Hoffman. 'Sense of Service'
''There are so many people desperate for a child. The mother is also desperate in another way. I hate to say it, but I think attorneys take advantage of that, and that is what is giving private adoptions a bad name.''
It is not unusual to find newspaper advertisements seeking pregnant women who want to find happy, healthy and affluent homes for their children. This can be quite legal. It is also common for doctors, members of the clergy, friends or relatives to bring together a pregnant woman who does not want to keep her baby and a couple or single person who wants an infant. This, too, is legal.
''Many people who do independent adoptions do so primarily out of a sense of service,'' said William L. Pierce, president of the National Committee for Adoption.
While it is illegal in New York for lawyers to place children, adoption experts say they frequently do. Costs and Guidelines
According to Mr. Pierce's organization, most adoptions in the United States are handled through public agencies, followed by independent arrangements and then the private agencies. There is generally little or no fee for adopting through public agencies; independent adoptions may be just slightly more costly than private agency adoptions. Estimates for both range from $6,000 to $15,000.
Agencies, public or private, are frequently criticized as cold and bureaucratic, for prying too much into the backgrounds of the people involved and for sometimes being more interested in the needs of the adoptive family than in the needs of the biological mother.
They are also faulted for having such rigid guidelines that many people are disqualified for seemingly arbitrary reasons. These include being over 40 years old, being of a different race than the child, already having children, or the wife and husband being of different religions.
But when agencies operate properly, adoption experts said, their advantages include counseling for the biological mother to insure that she understands her legal rights and knows her options, screening of prospective adoptive families before a child is placed and follow-up visits afterward.
There is also a built-in system to insure that the adoptive couples follow through with legal proceedings to make the arrangement formal. Opportunity to Choose
From the biological mother's point of view, the primary advantage of private placement is the control she can exercise over who gets her baby.
''In private adoption, they choose the person who is going to adopt the baby,'' said Lucille S. Rosenstock of law firm of Rosenstock & Lowe, which handles two or three private adoptions each week.
''I think that makes a big difference,'' she continued. ''It's the difference between giving away a baby or giving a baby to a life that she's chosen for it.''
As with agency adoptions, there can be disadvantages in independent ones.
One risk is that a mother may be coerced by lawyers for the adoptive couple, by physicians and by family members into giving up her child without knowing her legal rights or her alternatives.
She often does not have a lawyer to represent her interests. Frequently the child is placed with a couple whose fitness to be parents has never been judged by a professional. And, as was clear with the transfer of Lisa to Mr. Steinberg, the mother can only hope that the people to whom she gives her baby will follow through with legal requirements for adoption.
Though they are not required to do so, many adoption lawyers said they insist that the mother have a lawyer, whose fees can be paid by the adoptive parents, and that home studies be conducted before a child is placed. Granting of Consent
In New York, unlike some other states, the mother's consent to the adoption of her child can be obtained out of court as soon as the baby is born - even in the hospital. And the baby can be transferred immediately to the prospective adoptive parents by the mother or someone designated by her.
At that point the courts would know nothing about the transaction; they would become involved only when the prospective adoptive parents file a petition seeking to be legally declared the child's parents.
But if, like Mr. Steinberg and Miss Nussbaum, they never file the petition - something that is believed to be quite rare - the court would never know about the baby's transfer. And a home study is required only if a petition is filed.
Surrogate Marie M. Lambert of Manhattan, who determined two weeks ago that Lisa Steinberg had never been adopted, said in an interview, ''The problem that exists, which is highlighted by this case, is we as a court have no way of knowing when a child is given up. 'Disappear Into the Woodwork'
''When you take a child right out of the hospital, and either a doctor or a lawyer transfers the child to a prospective adoptive family, the court knows nothing about it. That child can disappear into the woodwork.''
Apparently, until her death, Lisa Steinberg did just that. While her mother, Michelle Launders, thought her child was being reared in Manhattan by an affluent Roman Catholic family, the child was instead being raised by Mr. Steinberg and Miss Nussbaum, a Jewish couple who had never formally adopted her.
Adoption advocates, whether they favor or oppose independent adoptions, agree that the Steinberg case is an anomaly. Most adoptive parents, they said, want to complete the adoptions; they have lawyers file petitions as soon as they have obtained the mother's consent.
''Adoptive parents want to make sure that no one is going to come and take their baby away,'' said Benjamin J. Rosin, a lawyer in the Manhattan firm of Beilenson, Rosin & Reiniger.
''The only way they can assure that is to get an order of adoption, added Mr. Rosin, who represents adoption agencies and is himself an adoptive parent. ''The only way an adoptive couple can sleep soundly at night is to know that the adoption is completed.'' #6,000 in New York State In New York State last year more than 6,000 adoptions were completed in proceedings in the Surrogate's Court and the Family Court, which both have jurisdiction over adoptions.
There are many suggestions for improvements. The Child Welfare League, a Washington-based advocacy organization, would do away with independent adoptions. Others, including some who favor agency adoptions, say that would be a mistake.
''I think it would be very sad because, if done properly, it can be very beneficial both for the birth mother and for the adoptive couple,'' said Ms. Thompson, who has handled about 10 private adoptions.
Mr. Rosin said that to outlaw independent adoptions - as Connecticut and a half-dozen other states have -could mean that more couples would seek children from other states or, indeed, from other countries and that there would be even fewer safeguards against children being sold.
Other suggestions include requiring special licenses for anyone who arranges private adoptions and establishing a central registry of all children whose biological parents have given their consent for adoption. Home Studies
Surrogate Lambert said she would like to see greater court control over the home studies, which, in the private setting, are often conducted by persons chosen by the parties who want to adopt.
She recalled one case in which a person who was legally blind conducted a home study and gave the prospective parents a high recommendation. Through other sources, however, she learned that the child was being abused and refused to approve the adoption.
Surrogate Lambert would also like unannounced spot visits during the first year after the adoption has been completed. ''When they are waiting to adopt, everyone is on their best behavior,'' she said. ''What happens after the child is in the home?''
She added: ''I know they are going to say it's an invasion of privacy. But you don't have a right to adopt. It's a privilege.''
Correction: December 9, 1987, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition