Whos Your Daddy Uproar Unfounded

In the midst of much controversy surrounding FOX's "Who's Your Daddy?", one anti-adoption group blames the adoption industry for exploitation. RE: FOX Network Not to Blame for Exploitative Aspects of Adoption (PRWEB) January 4, 2005 -- Amidst myriad complaints about FOX Network's adoption game show, "Who's Your Daddy?" one anti-adoption group says the adoption industry, not FOX, is to blame for the exploitation of adopted people and their family members. "Activist groups have been quick to blame FOX for an agreeably distasteful production," says Adoption: Legalized Lies founder Jessica DelBalzo, "But we should be pointing fingers at the adoption industry itself. Adoption promoters are the ones who have cornered the market on exploitation." Citing a variety of tactics used by adoption agencies and social workers to pressure young, single women into allowing their newborns to be adopted by strangers, those involved in the anti-adoption movement often use the term "reproductive exploitation" to describe adoption practices. According to DelBalzo, agency tactics include shame, guilt, false promises and misinformation about the consequences adoption has on adopted children and surrendering mothers. The business of adoption brings in approximately $1.5 billion per year, according to research conducted by MarketData Enterprises. Anti-adoption activists feel that pro-adoption groups have managed to purchase favorable public opinion of adoption by denying accurate statistics and stories about people negatively affected by adoption. "It's no surprise that adopters and adoption agencies are outraged by ‘Who's Your Daddy?" says DelBalzo, "Just the fact that someone would be willing to go through so much, so publically, for the chance to know her family proves how painful adoption separation is." "We are certainly not saying this show is a great idea – not even close," DelBalzo adds, "But if our society valued families instead of adoption, we wouldn't have adults going to such desperate measures just to meet their parents. FOX is in the wrong, but the crime of adoption is the source of the problem." Adoption: Legalized Lies, with members from coast to coast and on several continents, advocates abolishing adoption and opening records for adopted adults and parents who have lost children to adoption.