At home in rural Connecticut, with his 3-year-old son Vlad playing beside him, Jim Altman is checking to see how many hits he's gotten on his Web site. Two years after adopting Vlad from a Russian orphanage, Altman is using the Internet to wage a propaganda war against the agency he claims used his money to bribe court officials.
His story is a common one among a growing number of parents questioning the ethics of an allegedly corrupt system. "Most people agree with international adoption until they hear [about the amount] of money changing hands," Altman says, adding that fees often run as high as $26,000. "Then they hear of how it changes hands. At that point, people start to feel a purchase rather than an adoption is taking place."
Altman's feelings are not unusual. Among the postings on a recent adoption-support Internet bulletin board were numerous reports of scams, bribery and failed international adoptions, none of which went unnoticed by the named adoption agencies. According to Juli Briggs, another American who adopted from Russia, Cradle of Hope Adoption Center "shut them up" when she and her husband went public with the details of a failed adoption experience.