After enactment of the first “modern” state adoption statute by Massachusetts in 1851, and the subsequent abolishment of slavery and indentured servitude by the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adoption in the United States, for the next 120 plus years, evolved as both a state judicial process and a specialized child welfare service to promote the so-called best interests of children in need of permanent homes. During the last two decades, however, developments such as (1) increased involvement of the federal government in promoting adoption for children in state foster care, (2) the federally mandated elimination of race from all adoption or foster care placement decision making, and (3) the rapid growth of private adoptions of infants as a “business” should force us to ask whether U.S. adoption today is meeting its original child welfare intent, or is rather serving the interests of adults. President Clinton's heralded Adoption 2002 Initiative and the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption declared an intent to promote the best interests of children adopted within the country or from outside the country – but is this happening?

As we move into the second decade of the new millennium, all serious child advocates and responsible professionals working in the field of adoption should question the efficacy of the current federal prohibition against any consideration of race in adoption or foster care placement decision making.