An independent voice for ethical adoption
About Ethica
Ethica is a nonprofit corporation that seeks to be an impartial voice for ethical adoption practices worldwide, and provides education, assistance, and advocacy to the adoption and foster care communities.
In order to maintain an impartial voice:
- Ethica does not accept donations from adoption agencies or other entities that place children for adoption.
- Ethica’s staff, volunteers, and Board of Directors consists of persons who have an interest in ethical adoption practices, but are not currently affiliated with agencies or other entities that place children for adoption
- Ethica strives to develop organizational policy and recommendations based solely on the basic ethical principles underlying best practices in adoption and the best interests of children.
Some frequently asked questions about us:
Is Ethica pro-adoption?
Yes! All of us at Ethica are ardent supporters of ethical adoption. Done well, adoption is a blessing to the children of the world who need families, and to the families who want to parent more children. While Ethica speaks out about the difficulties and problems in the adoption community, we do so out of a desire to improve adoption, not eliminate it.
What is Your Goal?
Ethica strives to educate and inform the adoption community about global issues impacting adoptions. Without reform, adoption will cease to be an option for children in need of homes.
It is our belief that the term “ethical adoption services” pertains to more than just the actual act of adopting a child. For services to be truly ethical, they must involve family preservation efforts, birth family counseling and advocacy, adequate pre-adoption training for adoptive parents, ethical placement practices, post-adoption services which include disruption assistance, and the fulfillment of life-long responsibilities to adoptees and their families.
The People Behind Ethica
Rachel Schatz Wegner (rwegner@ethicanet.org) is the president of Ethica. She became a passionate proponent of adoption ethics and transparency after she and her husband chose to abandon their plan to adopt from Vietnam amidst reports of corruption in the fall of 2007. Ms. Wegner holds graduate degrees in public health (Harvard School of Public Health) and social work (from the University of Michigan) and has devoted her professional life to championing social justice in a variety of arenas, through advocacy roles, clinical work, and research efforts both in the U.S. and overseas. Currently, she is a consultant for several research projects on developmental delays in children, adolescents, and adults.
Usha Rengachary Smerdon (usmerdon@ethicanet.org) is Vice President and a trial attorney with the federal government. Ms. Smerdon is the adoptive mother of two children from India who inspired her to become a passionate advocate for adoption reform and ethics. She began assisting Ethica in 2004 as a volunteer legal researcher and joined the Ethica Board of Directors in 2007. Ms. Smerdon regularly contributes to adoption education efforts, having written several articles for prospective and current adoptive parents on the topic of racism. She is a contributor to Fleas Biting (http://fleasbiting.blogspot.com/), a blog that reports on international adoption practices in need of reform. Ms. Smerdon considers herself an active learner in the field of adoption education, supporting the voices of adult adoptees and organizations concerned with sustaining ethical alternatives to international adoption.
Regina Reeves-Solomon (regina@ethicanet.org) is the Treasurer and a mother currently involved in custody proceedings for her son. Since 2004, Ms. Solomon has fought for the right to raise her child, having granted temporary custody to prospective adoptive parents who refused to honor her request for his return. In an unprecedented decision, a California judge ordered joint custody between Ms. Solomon and the son’s prospective adoptive parents, even though the court found that Ms. Solomon never consented to adoption and none of the adoption laws of California or Virginia were followed. Ms. Solomon moved to Johnson City, Tennessee in 2005, by order of the court, to have access to her child. She lives and works there as a high school math teacher and hopes someday to return home to California with her son. Ms. Solomon’s real-life experiences, and her quiet determination to improve the application of existing laws to support parents and children, inform Ethica’s daily work.
Linh Song (lsong@ethicanet.org) is Ethica’s Secretary. Ms. Song has a background in social work and nonprofit administration within the Vietnamese-American and adoption communities. Most recently, she founded and served as executive director of the Mam Non Organization, a group providing post-adoption support for families with adopted children. She holds a B.A. and M.S.W. from the University of Michigan, and is a Rockefeller Fellow at the Joiner Center for War and Social Consequences. Her career has been dedicated to social justice issues such as equal access to health care for underprivileged minorities at the University of Michigan School of Nursing Healthy Asian Americans Project, humanitarian work in foreign countries, research on the experiences of Vietnamese birthmothers, and the fostering of positive racial identities and cultural awareness within the transracial adoption community.
Tracy Desserich (tdesserich@ethicanet.org) is the mother of three: a biological son, a daughter who was adopted from Vietnam, and a son with special needs from a domestic open adoption. Ms. Desserich became interested in adoption ethics in 2007 when the province in Vietnam from which she and her husband adopted their daughter was shut down to U.S. adoptions due to allegations of corruption. She is a contributing editor to Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity (www.AdoptionIntegrity.com). Ms. Desserich is an advocate for adoption reform and open adoption. She holds a B.A. from Indiana University and a M.S. from Indiana Wesleyan University. She is also certified in nonprofit management. She is Director of Development for a nonprofit.
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