Palm Beach County Divorce And Family Law Blog

Divorce and Family Law Attorneys in Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Wellington and other sections of Palm Beach County sometimes are asked by prospective clients to assist them in adopting children. In doing so, these attorneys may refer their clients to private adoption agencies or the State of Florida Department of Human Services to assist their clients in obtaining a child to adopt. At the same time, these attorneys also know that you can find almost anything advertised on the internet. Seldom have divorce attorneys witnessed both concepts combined. However, recently a Craigslist adoption ad created this unlikely combination.

Recently, in Washington state, a young mother offered on Craigslist for her baby-to-be for adoption. Craigslist is an internet website that permits individuals to offer and seek a variety of services and items. I have blogged in the past about Craigslist being used in divorce situations.

However, the major question regarding this more recent Craigslist adoption posting is whether it is a scam or an anxious young woman seeking a home for her baby. That's the question that Federal Way, Washington police are trying to answer as they trace the person who posted an ad on Craigslist offering an unborn child for adoption. The advertisement described the mother as 22 years old and 5 months pregnant. She said she was looking for a wealthy couple to adopt the baby and pay her medical expenses.

Independent adoptions are legal in Washington and other states, and so is the practice of adoptive parents paying the birth mother's expenses.

However, in Washington, only licensed agencies or the Department of Social and Health Services can advertise a child for adoption. Experienced family lawyers in Florida know that it is unlikely that such advertisements will be permitted here. However, no one can dispute that the internet and the web are transforming our lives. Perhaps in the future, we will see such advertisements being permitted or more readily accepted. To learn more about this interesting case, please click here.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 1:16 pm and is filed under Divorce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.