I.   Introduction to Adoption
           Adoption has a negative stigma in our current society that it does not necessarily deserve. There is a strong need to change this stigma so that young women, when thinking about placing their newborn for adoption give more thought to giving up their baby. This is not to say that women should have their babies removed from them, but they should be educated so that they know exactly what they are getting into. Adoption Resource Services (ARS) is one place that provides this information. Ruth Mark, the social worker that runs ARS, has a wealth of knowledge of this field. During an interview she shared information and experiences that she has had over the 21 years of placing children in adoptive homes (Mark, 2007).

A)  Stigmas
           When one first has a child there is attachment, but simply because one has this attachment does not mean that they are able to take care of this child. Taking care of a child is more than just making sure that it has food and clothing, children must also be cared for and this becomes difficult when you are undereducated, have to work more than one job, and have to pay someone to take care of the child while you are at work. One birthmother, who placed a baby through ARS when she was 17, said that it was easier to place a baby for adoption than to keep a baby when she got pregnant a year after placing. Even though there is an emotional attachment to the baby, in the end, having a baby before you are prepared - emotional, physically, and financially - is an enormous strain (Mark, 2007).

Thesis: There needs to be more education opportunities on adoptions so that birthparents can consider putting their baby up for adoption and there will be less need for Intrauterine Injections (IUI) and In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

B)  Adoption Process 
           The adoption process is tailored to make sure that both the adoptive parents and the birthparents, primarily the birthmother, can get through the process as effortlessly as possible. During the pregnancy the mother’s expenses are paid for by the adoptive couple. This is to make sure that the baby is gets the care that it needs. Other costs that go along with the adoption are: the medical costs of for the birthmother, the legal costs of the adoption, and as the expense of running the adoption agency. Adoption Resources Services mainly focuses on birth adoptions, where the birthparents relinquish the legal rights to their child at birth and legal guardianship is given to the adoptive couple. This sounds like the beginning of the adoption process but there is a lot that has to happen before any of these events can take place. Adoptive couples must be found and home studied, in order to determine if they are good candidates. If they are deemed capable to receive an adoptive child they must wait on a waiting list until a baby is available. When a baby is made available the adoptive couple will go to the hospital and pick up the baby. The adoption is finalized when the birthparents sign away their rights to the child to the adoptive couple. This is one way for a couple to obtain a child if they are infertile, but probably not the first that couples turn to. There are also ways to increase the chance of pregnancy and one of most practiced procedure is In-Vitro Fertilization (Mark, 2007).

II. In-Vitro Fertilization

A) In-Vitro Fertilization Introduction
           In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a process in which a physician removes eggs from a woman’s ovaries using a very small needle. This process is an out-patient procedure and is relatively painless as local anesthetic is used. After the eggs are removed, they are fertilized by injecting a sperm into the egg and allowing it to grow. After a few days of growth the embryos are sometimes tested for genetic disorders so that only the healthy embryos are used in implantation. This genetic testing on the embryos they can select the sex of the embryos, this is one of the ethical implications of IVF. For the actual implantation a catheter is used to transport some of the embryos to the upper portion of the uterus. The remaining healthy embryos are frozen in case the procedure does not result in a pregnancy. Another ethical implication with this procedure is what to do with the unused human embryos (Hansen, 2005).

B)  The Negatives of In-Vitro Fertilization
           The principal negative of IVF is that it may require one to spend a large amount money, upwards of $30,000 a try, and not produce a baby for the effort. Adoption is a better alternative as there is no useless spending; the biggest selling point of adoption is that it guarantees a child (Mark, 2007). Ethically speaking there are much better ways to use money than to spend it on a procedure that is trying to create life where, biologically speaking, there shouldn’t be. There are a multitude of things that we could use the potential billions spent on trying to create babies, namely things that would keep people from dying from preventable diseases.

1) Religious Perspective
           Marura Anna Ryan (2003) states in her essay The New Reproductive Technologies: Defying God’s Dominion that to use IVF is to “usurp God’s rightful dominion in human reproduction, allowing us to ‘make’ what should be received as a gift” and “involve us in a denial of human finitude.” In this statement she proposes that there is more to reproduction than the union of egg and sperm. The randomness in the combination of gametes is not something to be taken lightly because it is where God chooses which combinations make up the person that you become. Taking reproduction out of God’s hands and putting it in the hands of scientists, who pick and choose which embryo to implant, sounds dreadful. To say that these scientists are equal to God in choosing the next generation is preposterous. In Jeremiah chapter one, God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart,” he continues to say “I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5 New International Version).” If Jeremiah was formed by God in the womb, who is to say that God does not do this for all of his children? Unfortunately for the scientists they do not have the foresight that God has and simply have to choose based off of DNA, not based off the person that the baby will become. These babies are no longer a miracle of life and have instead become the product of a scientific experiment..

2) Genetic Alteration
           One of the largest ethical dilemmas that accompanies IVF is the fact that one can choose which embryos they wish to implant. Currently this means that one can choose the sex of the baby. Religious beliefs aside, once you are given the opportunity to choose the sex of the baby what other choices may come next? There are many alterations that can be done to the DNA to change how the resulting human looks. If you can choose the sex of the baby, what is to stop people from choosing the hair color or height?  Once we start to choose what the next generation looks like it starts to sound like Hilter’s Aryan Race.

3) Unused Embryos
           Currently the definition of life does not include three day old embryos. This does not mean that they should be treated as anything less than alive. While current culture thinks that they can simply discard unwanted embryos and fetuses, they are not necessarily ethically correct. My definition of the beginning of life for a human may be too conservative, but I believe that life begins at the union of the sperm and the egg. Couples that want to get pregnant do not wait until the 8th week when the embryo is partially developed. Pregnancy tests are based on human chorionic gonadotrophin, which is released even before implantation. Why should life “start” later simply because it is unable to survive on its own at that time? In the end, after the selection and freezing processes, 30% of the embryos survive. Effectively, scientists are killing many of the embryos that they are storing. If the procedure works the first time then there is no need for the rest of the embryos, which are created as a backup plan, and they are discarded (Mark, 2007).

4) Multiple Births
           The final issue with IVF is the fact that sometimes all of the eggs that are injected into the uterus implant. This is due to the fact that they inject more than one at a time, in hopes that the odds will increase with more chances. This along with the fertility drugs that the woman is taking sometimes allows for 4-6 babies to be born, depending on the amount of eggs that were injected. Fortunately, with the advances of modern healthcare even if these babies are born premature they will probably survive, though there is still a risk to both the babies and the mother.

III. Fertility Drugs (Clomid)

A) Clomid Introduction
           Clomid is a fertility drug that is used for people who have polycystic ovaries, usually in conjunction with glucophage. This condition is one where normal ovulation does not take place. When taking Clomid the body is tricked into more rapidly producing hormones that were too low previously to produce an egg for ovulation. Clomid has a success rate, as high as 80% according to Shur. This process costs $100 a cycle, so in the scheme of things this is a relatively inexpensive treatment (Shur, 2007).

B) Downsides of Clomid
           The biggest downside of Clomid is the way that it reacts with the body: whenever one introduces hormones to the body there are going to be side effects. Clomid can affect your mood and, in extreme cases, patients report hot flashes and seeing halos around lights. One must weigh these side effects with the possibility of getting pregnant; mind you it is are only a possibility. The mood swings, hot flashes, and halos could be for nothing. With any medical procedure or medicine there is the possibility that it doesn’t work. While the possibility for having children the natural way is there, once the woman is over 42 the chances to have children drop dramatically. Couples must understand that by taking these pills they are not going to magically be able to become pregnant (Shur, 2007).

IV. Stigmas of Adoption

A) Birthmother Returning for Child
           Adoption is a legally binding event; the birth parents literally sign all rights away for the child at the time of adoption. This means that unless the adoptive parents or the child want to make contact, the birth parents have no rights in relation to the child after the adoption. Nowadays there are many more Open Adoptions where the birthparents have contact with the adoptive parents and the child. Even within an adoption of this type, the adoptive couple can terminate the relationship and make it so that the birthparents are not able to visit the child (Mark, 2007).

B) Less of a Connection
           When adopting a child, adoptive couples think that they cannot have the same type of connection with the adopted child, as they would their own. This can be mitigated provided that the adoptive parents are open with child, this way it is not a secret that they find out and get mad. In general, these kids can and should be raised just like your own children; this will allow adoptive couples to have the same type of relationship with their adopted child as they would a birth child providing that they can conceive (Mark, 2007).

C) Stigmas of the Church
           Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner (2003) in her essay Womb-Love comments about the churches reluctance to go against society and accept adopted children as much as birth children would be. The Bible is full of evidence of the desire for having birth children, this allows for men to pass on their lineage and have a outlet for their material goods that they accrued over their life time. One prominent example of this is Abraham, Abraham was unable to bear children as his wife Sarah was barren. This prompted him to need to engage in relations with his servant girl in order to carry on his lineage. The need to have a blood heir was so important that he broke one of the Ten Commandments, though they didn’t exist at the time. It was so important to biblical people that the New Testament starts with a blood line. Though it is not commented on the fact that Joseph was not the birthfather of Christ, but rather was simply an adoptive father.
            When someone is adopted it doesn’t meant that the birth parents didn’t love them, it simply means that they did not have the means to take care of the child. This shouldn’t be a negative reflection on the child in the least, but rather should be a positive one for the adoptive parents. They came in and became the legal parents for a child, not because it was theirs, but because they wanted to love and take care of this child. Adopted children shouldn’t think less of themselves because they were adopted. They should realize that they were lucky enough that their birthparents cared enough about them to not be selfish and try to raise them without the means. In reality Christians should realize that adoption is the best thing that happened to them, when they were adopted into God’s family. While this is just a figurative type of adoption there are many different ways that an adoptive couple can adopt a child.

V. Types of Adoption

A) Introduction
           When one decides to either place a baby or adopt one they must decide what type of adoption they wish to do. There are two main types, going through an adoption attorney or going to an adoption agency. An adoption attorney will typically charge you a retainer simply for working with you and more if they do indeed place a baby. This money is to cover expenses that the attorney may have during their time representing you and trying to find a baby to place with you. Working through an adoption agency is the other type of adoption the money that is paid is after the adoption has taken place (Mark, 2007).

B) Adoption Attorneys
           As stated before Adoption Attorneys begin by charging a retainer simply to work with you. This money that you give them is non-refundable even if they do not place a baby with you. As attorneys they simply place the baby with you and then charge you for the adoption, one of the advantages that they have is the fact that they are attorneys and can handle all of the legal processes without having to outsource their legal knowledge (Mark, 2007).

C) Adoption Resource Services

1) Introduction
           Adoption Resources Services is different from the adoption attorneys as they not only place the baby with you, but also help you along with the process. When a couple wants to adopt they have probably gone through a fairly traumatic time of trying to conceive. They want to raise children but cannot conceive, and are using adoption as a replacement to having their own child. This mentality is positive as it expresses the grief of not being able to have children then is passed on to the adoptive children. They do not feel like they belong, as they were adopted in place of a birth child (Mark, 2007).

2)  Getting over being Angry
          The fact that the couple is infertile means that they probably have gone to many doctors and have had unsuccessful procedures. This is an expensive process monetarily, but also extremely taxing to the emotions of the couple. They often become angry, angry at themselves for not being able to conceive, possibly even angry at a higher power. While this anger is not always visible to the parents it is to the social worker conducting the home study. If the adoptive parents do not get over this anger, when they become adoptive parents, it could show itself in the years to come. In the beginning it is easy for the parents to love a baby even though they have to change diapers and wake up in the middle of the night. These are things that everyone expects as parents of a newborn so there is no judgment. The issue comes later when the child becomes a teenager and begins to act out, adoptive parents then might say that, “Birth children of mine wouldn’t act out.” This is detrimental to the child’s self esteem as it presents a relationship that is not parent-child, rather its parent-adopted child. Even though there are adoptive couples that are getting the counseling that they need to adopt a child, there are numerous couples that are unable to adopt. Due the current trend of birthmother keeping their babies, when in the past they would have placed their baby (Mark, 2007).

3) Current Trend
           Currently Adoption Resource Services is seeing a slump in   the amount of placements that they are making every year. Over the twenty-one years that they have been in operation they have placed 298 babies. This means that they have averaged fourteen placements a year, mind you this average was brought up by the bumper year of 2005 when ARS placed 35 babies. Recently this number has been down to 5 in 2006 and only 4 placements have been made in 2007, as of October 27, 2007 (Mark, 2007).

VI. Conclusion

           The yearly number of adoptions are dropping because of stigmas and increasing amounts of people keeping their children, when they are unable to raise them. This is increasing the amount of costly, often unsuccessful procedures, such as IVF and Fertility Pills. We as a society think that everything can be fixed with medical procedures and pills when in fact the issue of infertility can be solved socially. Perhaps, instead of trying to fix everything with new technology we can rely on the tried and true methods that work every time and do not have side effects, if counseled properly.

VII. References
Gauthier, L., Stollak, G., Messe, L., & Arnoff, J. (1996). Recall of childhood neglect and physical abuse as differential predictors of current psychological functioning. Child Abuse and Neglect 20, 549-559

Greenberg, M. (1999). Attachment and Psychopathology in Childhood. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.). Handbook of Attachment (pp.469-496). NY: Guilford Press

Hansen, M., Bower, C., Milne, E. (2005).  Assisted reproductive technologies and the risk of birth defects—a systematic review. Human Reproduction Vol.20, No.2 pp. 328–338.

Lyons-Ruth, K. (1996). Attachment relationships among children with aggressive behavior problems: The role of disorganized early attachment patterns. Journal of    Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64, 64-73

Mark, R. (2007, October 5). Adoption Theory. (A. Mark, Interviewer)

Ryan, Maura. (2003). The New Reproductive Technologies: Defying God’s Dominion. In P. B. Jung, & S. Jung, Moral Issues & Christian Responses. Chicago: Thomson/Walsworth.

Shur, M. (2007). Clomid - Clomiphene Citrate - Fertility Drugs and Medications.   Retrieved Nov. 26, 2007, from http://infertility.about.com/cs/clomi1/a/Clomid.htm.

Stevenson-Moessner, Jeanne. (2003). Womb-Love. In P. B. Jung, & S. Jung, Moral Issues &         Christian Responses. Chicago: Thomson/Walsworth.

Verhey, A. (2003). Cloning the Human Family. In P. B. Jung, & S. Jung, Moral Issues & Christian Responses. Chicago: Thomson/Walsworth.