When adopting a newborn through domestic adoption can you specify the gender or race?

Question

Just wondering. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, you can specify.

The birthmom can also specify the race/religion of the families she will consider.

Answer 2

It depends on where you are and what agency you are with.  Also, keep in mind that you are usually matched with a birthmother who has yet to give birth and so probably soed not know the gender of the baby.  Specifying gender could significantly increase your wait time as you would have to be matched with a baby that has already been born.

Answer 3

My wife and I have adopted both domestically and internationally and both times we were able to specify gender.  In fact, with our last one we specified male (We already had two girls) and we got a call about another little girl who needed a home and it was a "no brainer" for us to say "yes".  (she was 4 days old and had to be discharged from the hospital).  I'm sure someone else would have been more then pleased to accept her if we had passed but they knew that our preference was male but that it was not a strict requirement.  

We are expecting one more before the end of the year and for that one they know that we want a boy (but of course I would most likely bend again if a girl was available).

In my area at least you can also specify race if you wish.  It just means that you will most likely be waiting longer for the right combination to come available but at the end of the day the agencies are looking to build families that work, not families that don't.  My oldest is East Indian and my youngest is First Nations (North American Indian) with my natural daughter in the middle as white as can be.  For us, race was never an issue but for some it is.

Answer 4

Yes, you can. You can also specify, if you are willing to adopt a child with special needs.

Answer 5

Yes.  It's just like Burger King

Have it YOUR way.

Answer 6

Most private domestic adoptions are of newborns and gender and race selection is usually either prohibited or strongly discouraged.

Answer 7

They would try to match the race roughly with your's to make the child feel like they fit into the family and so you understand their culture.  However if you said you were willing to adopt children of another race they would take that into account as there are sometimes to many children of a certain racial background compared to number of adopters from that background.  

They would probably only allow you to specify gender if it was a family balancing issue such as you wanted a girl as you had already adopted two boys for example.  For a first baby you would probably not get the choice.  If you want to adopt a girl then there are usually more girls in foreign orphanages, particularly in China as due to the one-child policy the adoptees are almost exclusively girls.

Answer 8

In Domestic newborn adoption it is legal to specify your preferred race and gender as well as decline any "match", for whatever reason. This may, however, be against some agencies policies.

With international adoptions some countries allow you to specify your preferences, others don't. Some will let you review multiple children's files, some refer a specific child only.

Answer 9

Yes you can.

Answer 10

It will differ from agency to agency.  Most do not allow you to choose gender but you can choose race.