Selling Babies, Pt. 3

A couple may try to go the independent adoption route, but this route is haphazard and disorganized, and information about babies available for adoption through it is hard to come by. Some states, moreover, have outlawed independent adoptions. 6 It goes without saying that both adoption through an agency and independent adoption favor the wealthy and well connected. The final alternative is the black market, a form of independent adoption. The black market is by definition illegal, 7 and illegality forces price up and quality down and makes prospective buyers uneasy. Long queues, shortages, uncertain quality, a black market — these are the classic symptoms of excess demand, whether in the baby market or the Soviet food market.

67 B.U.L. Rev. 59, 62 (also here)

 

The above is a quote from a 1987 law review article by Judge Richard Posner, discussing and defending his position on taking a market approach to adoptions. In this article, as well as at least one earlier one, he argues:

Selling Babies

Selling kidneys is a popular topic of debate among the libertarian crowd. Alex Tabarrok over at Marginal Revolution recently noted that in Iran, not only is selling your kidneys legal, but they have eliminated any waiting lists for those transplants. Without getting into that debate at the moment, it seems from the evidence, that this market-transplant system saves lives by increasing the number of available (living-donor) organs for transplant.

So why can’t the market do other things for us?

The Globalization of Babymaking

Ellen Goodman points out in the International Herald Tribune, that there is a trend that has been growing (or at least becoming more noticeable) recently: outsourcing pregnancies, often to other countries. Just like the tech support jobs that are being moved to India.

Surrogate mothers exist in almost every country. In the USA, surrogate contracts are usually illegal. You won’t get arrested for signing one, but the courts will not uphold them. Nonetheless, desperate women who cannot carry a child of their own have been entering into such deals with  people who they trust and hoping for the best.

It turns out, however, that for a fee (of course), there are plenty of women in places like India who are willing to carry your child for nine months. In many of these countries, these contracts are enforceable as well.