International Adoption: Understanding the Realities, Ethical Questions, and What Prospective Parents Should Consider

Adoption is often rooted in hope, love, and the desire to build a family. For some prospective parents, international adoption can seem like a meaningful way to welcome a child into their home while also providing opportunities and stability. At the same time, international adoption is complex. It involves legal systems, cultural identities, and ethical considerations that are often far more complicated than many people initially realize.

At Choice Adoptions, we believe it is important for prospective adoptive parents to fully understand the realities of all types of adoption, including international adoption, before deciding what path is right for their family. This includes recognizing both the potential benefits and the serious challenges that can exist within the international adoption system.

What Is International Adoption?

International adoption occurs when adoptive parents bring a child from another country into the United States and legally adopt them. Historically, international adoption grew significantly in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries as families sought to adopt children from countries experiencing poverty, war, or large numbers of children in institutional care.

Many families have built loving, supportive homes through international adoption. For some children, adoption abroad has provided access to stability, education, healthcare, and permanent family connections they might not otherwise have had.

However, international adoption also raises unique considerations that families must thoughtfully explore.

The Transracial and Transcultural Reality

Most international adoptions are both transracial and transcultural. This means the child is often raised in a family whose race, ethnicity, and culture differ from their own.

This dynamic can bring opportunities for cultural learning and connection, but it also requires significant preparation from adoptive parents. Children adopted across racial and cultural lines often face questions about identity, belonging, and heritage as they grow up.

Prospective adoptive parents should be prepared to actively honor their child’s cultural heritage, help their child navigate experiences with racism or discrimination, ensure their child has access to people and communities who share their background, and support ongoing conversations about identity and belonging.

These are lifelong commitments that require intentional learning and reflection.

Ethical Concerns in International Adoption

While many international adoptions are conducted ethically, the system has historically included cases of deception, coercion, and illegal activity.

In some documented situations around the world, families have been misled into believing their children would receive temporary care or education abroad only for those children to be adopted internationally without their full understanding or consent. Other cases have involved falsified documents, trafficking, or financial incentives that pressure vulnerable families to relinquish children.

These unethical practices have led to global concern about how international adoption systems operate. In response, governments and international organizations have worked to strengthen safeguards.

One of the most significant agreements addressing these issues is the Hague Adoption Convention. This international treaty was designed to prevent child trafficking, ensure that adoptions occur in the best interests of the child, require transparency and legal oversight, and prioritize keeping children with their biological families whenever possible.

While these protections are important, they have also made the international adoption process significantly more complex.

Why International Adoption Has Become More Difficult

Over the past two decades, international adoption has declined dramatically.

Many countries have closed their international adoption programs entirely or have added strict regulations and requirements. These policies were implemented largely to prevent unethical practices and protect children and families.

For agencies, these changes often mean higher costs, extensive international compliance requirements, long timelines, and significant legal oversight. Because of these challenges, many adoption agencies in the United States have stopped facilitating international adoptions.

Families considering this path may encounter wait times that stretch for years along with significant financial costs. Even after completing the process, placements are not always guaranteed due to shifting international policies.

The Challenges of Closed International Adoptions

Another major issue in international adoption is that many of these adoptions are closed. This means adoptees often grow up with little or no information about their biological families or early life history.

Closed adoptions can create lifelong questions for adoptees. These may include uncertainty about their origins, limited access to medical history, difficulty locating biological relatives, and identity struggles related to culture and heritage.

Adoptees have increasingly shared their experiences with these challenges. A recent example appeared on the newest season of Love Is Blind, where one participant discussed being internationally adopted and the emotional difficulties she experienced growing up without access to information about her origins. Stories like this have helped bring greater awareness to the complexity of adoption experiences.

Listening to adoptee voices is an important part of understanding the full picture of adoption.

A Recent Example in Popular Culture

One way to better understand the complex realities adoptees can face is by listening to adoptee voices and stories.

A recent example appeared on the newest season of the Netflix show Love Is Blind.

Contestant Emma Betsinger shared that she was adopted from China as a toddler and raised in the United States by parents of a different racial background. During the show, she discussed some of the complicated emotions tied to her adoption story, including how being adopted and not having access to a full medical history has influenced how she thinks about having children of her own.

Her story highlights some of the long term questions that internationally adopted people may experience, including identity development, cultural connection, and gaps in personal or medical history. It also shows how adoption can continue to shape a person’s life well into adulthood.

Stories like Emma’s help illustrate that adoption is not only a childhood event but a lifelong experience that can include many layers of identity, emotion, and unanswered questions. For prospective adoptive parents, listening to adoptee perspectives can be an important part of understanding the full realities of adoption.

You can read more about her story here.

Why Choice Adoptions Does Not Facilitate International Adoptions

At Choice Adoptions, we have chosen to focus our work on ethical domestic adoptions within Oregon and Washington.

Our agency prioritizes ethical and transparent practices, support for expectant parents making adoption plans, comprehensive education and preparation for adoptive families, and open adoption relationships whenever possible.

Domestic adoption allows us to maintain close oversight throughout the process and ensure that ethical standards are upheld.

Our goal is to center the long term wellbeing of the child while also respecting the dignity and agency of biological families.

This also gives us the space to care for birth parents and provide them with counseling, direct support, and essential needs such as housing and food. This way, we know birth parents are not being coerced or taken advantage of, but rather give access to information, education, and help in navigating the best decision for them and their child.

The Importance of Examining Motivation

Regardless of the path families consider, one of the most important questions prospective adoptive parents can ask themselves is why they want to adopt. Understanding motivation matters, especially in the case of international adoption.

Some families are drawn to international adoption because they want to help children in need. While compassion is meaningful, adoption should not be approached primarily as a form of rescue. Adoption is a lifelong commitment that involves supporting a child’s identity, history, and relationships.

Prospective parents should take time to reflect on whether they are prepared for the lifelong identity aspects of adoption, open to learning from adoptee experiences, ready to support cultural and racial identity development, and comfortable with the possibility of ongoing relationships with biological families.

Thoughtful reflection helps ensure adoption decisions are made with the child’s best interests at the center.

Ethical Adoption Practices

Ethical adoption includes transparency throughout the process, informed consent from biological parents, the absence of financial coercion, and decision making that centers the wellbeing of the child.

At Choice Adoptions, these principles guide every step of our work.

We provide education and training for adoptive families on topics such as transracial and transcultural adoption, trauma informed parenting, maintaining open adoption relationships, and supporting adoptee identity development.

Our goal is to ensure that every child placed through our agency enters a safe, loving, and prepared home.

Why We Prioritize Open Adoption

One of the ways we promote ethical adoption is by prioritizing open adoption relationships whenever possible.

Open adoption allows for ongoing communication or connection between adoptive families and biological families. This may include letters and photos, periodic updates, or visits depending on what both families agree to.

For many adoptees, having access to their biological history and family relationships can help provide clarity about their identity and background. Open adoption also allows adoptive parents to honor the child’s full story rather than separating them from their past.

Exploring Adoption Options

Families considering adoption may explore several paths, including domestic infant adoption, foster care adoption, and foster to adopt programs.

Each path has its own requirements, timelines, and experiences. The best option depends on each family’s readiness, openness, and long term goals.

Learning about the realities of adoption, including both the joys and the complexities, is an important step in preparing for the journey.

Learn More from Choice Adoptions

If you are exploring adoption and want to learn more about ethical and child centered adoption practices, you can explore additional resources from Choice Adoptions.

Read about Open Adoption vs. Closed Adoption

Read about Older Child Adoption

Read about Adoption Grants and Financial Resources

Considering adoption? Check out our options and resources for adoptive families.

Adoption is a lifelong journey. Taking time to educate yourself, reflect on your motivations, and prepare for the realities of adoption can help ensure that every child is welcomed into a home where they are supported, understood, and deeply valued.