According to Adoption Mosaic, a Pennsylvania adoptive family has sued Holt International adoption agency, alleging that the family was misled about the medical and psychological needs of a child from Thailand that Holt placed with them.
Here’s is the link their post on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Facebook Post
Adoption Mosaic notes:
“While this lawsuit centers on one family’s experience, it also raises broader questions that many adoptees, first families, adoptive parents, advocates, and researchers have been asking for decades:
• What information is shared, and what isn’t?
• How transparent are adoption agencies throughout the adoption process?
• What accountability exists when families receive incomplete or misleading information?
• How can we better protect children and families while centering ethics over placement?
As this case unfolds, it has the potential to become an important moment in the ongoing conversation about transparency, ethics, and reform within intercountry adoption.”
Holt is one of the largest adoption agencies In the US, and perhaps the world. In recent time, they have been under fire, including last week when a group of adult adoptees held a “funeral” for Holt at their Eugene, OR, office.
The Eugene, Or, based newspaper Register Guard also has stories about the Holt lawsuit, behind a paywall,
This recent Pennsylvania case is not the first wrongful adoption suit that Holt has faced. In 2019, Adam Crapser was the first Korean adoptee to sue Holt in Korea. Last year, a Korean birth mother sued Holt.
Holt, of course, is not the only adoption agency that has been sued for wrongful adoption. My understanding is that these lawsuits have been filed since the late 1980’s in connection with U.S. adoptions, including from foster care. More recently, international adoptions have also been the subject of these lawsuits, which involve charges of fraud, inaccurate and undocumented medical conditions; coercion, exploitation, and more.
While the suits have historically been brought primarily by adoptive parents, there are increasing examples of suits from adoptees and from birth parents. And there are ramifications: The Netherlands decided to ban foreign adoptions completely by 2030 after lawsuits revealed fraud, corruption, kidnapping, and other abuses.
