MIRAH RIBEN is author of two internationally acclaimed books, "shedding light
on...The Dark Side of Adoption" (1988) and "The Stork Market: America’s
Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry" (2007) and numerous articles. 

Riben, former Associate editor of three national magazines is retired from Rutgers
Univertsity. 

Riben is former Director of the American Adoption Congress and Past Vice President of
Communications of Origins-USA, a national non-profit that advocates for mothers'
rights and keeping natural families together. Riben has been researching, writing and
speaking about the need to reform, humanize, and de-commercialize American adoption
practices since 1979. She has appeared on several national television programs, and was
keynote speaker at many conferences. She blogs at http://FamilyPreservation.blogspot.com 

Riben was among the very first mothers to go public in order to put a face on women who
had been called the invisible party in adoption, publicly addressing the lifelong pain of
losing a child to adoption. Risking imprisonment, she reunited hundreds of families
separated by adoption and helped mothers prevent unnecessary adoptions. In 1980 Riben
co-founded the original Origins, a New Jersey-based national organization for women who
lost children to adoption (unaffiliated with any other similarly named organization). 

After the 1987 murder by Joel Steinberg of his illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, Riben
reunited the toddler boy found in the home Steinberg shared with Hedda Nussbaum with his
original family who had been pressured into allowing him to be adopted. Riben has housed
expectant mothers in need, is a former foster parent and raised three children. She
mourns the loss of her firstborn child who she was pressured to relinquish to adoption in
1968 and who departed this earthly plane at age 27 in 1995. 

As a proponent of human rights with a focus on the rights of mothers, children and
families in crisis, Riben supports family preservation and opposes all profiteering in
adoption and falsification of original birth certificates. She speaks out against all
coercive and exploitative tactics in both domestic and international adoption. She
supports repeal of the laws that sealed original birth certificates from American
citizens who are and the replacement of closed, secret adoptions with simple or guardian
adoption, after all attempts to provide resources for children to remain safely within
their extended family have been exhausted. Such alternative child care would legally
maintain the child’s name as well as integrity of, and allow for knowledge of and contact
with, the original family. 

Riben has been keynote and invited speaker at numerous national and state adoption
conferences as well as the 6th Annual PLI Adoption Law Institute Conference panel, “Costs
of Adoption: A Survey and Ethical Considerations”; the 7th Annual NJ Research Conference
on Women, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; the 2007 Adoption Ethics and
Accountability Conference sponsored by The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and
Ethica, Inc; Association for Research on Mothering Conference, York University, Toronto,
Canada 2009. 

Adoption / Family Preservation

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Adoption Hype: Media Misrepresentations and Accepted Myths, Dissident Voice (2013)

The author argues that media reliance solely on adoption industry experts is akin to interviewing...

 

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Child Removal for Adoption: As a Financial “Solution” Versus Humane and Cost Effective Remedies, DissidentVoice (2012)

"Solutions" to single parenthood, is often punative for moral/religious resosns or now as a financial...

 

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The Ironies of Adoption, AAC Decree: American Adoption Congress (2011)

The author points out the irony of the extent people will go to in an...

 

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Defining Ethics in Domestic and Global Adoption Practice, Open Arms, Open Minds: The Ethics of Adoption in the 21st Century (2010)

Adoption practitioners and agencies all speak about ethics. However, without definition, the term is as...

 

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Universality of grief experienced by mothers who lose children to adoption, Adoption Community of New England. Inc. (2010)

Mothers who lose children to adoption, voluntarily or involuntarily, suffer grief that is not socially...

 

Adoption: Access to birth certificates

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Alison Larkin: The English American Speaks Her Truth About Adoption, The Beacon: American Adoption Congress (2012)

Mirah Riben interviews Alison Larkin, adoptee, author and one-woman show writer-performer, about her adoption, international...

 

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Adopted Citizens Denied Access to Their Birth Certificates: A Little-Known Civil Rights issue, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton (2011)

American citizens who were adopted are denied the right to access their own original birth...

 

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Repeal the Seal!, AAC Decree: American Adoption Congress (2011)

Instead of introducing legislation to give back rights to adoptees taken from them during the...

 

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American Adoption Access Laws are and Policies are Upside Down and Backwards, AAC Decree: American AdoptionCongress (2010)

Adoption seals original birth certificates not just from the public, but from the parties named...

 

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"Open Records" versus "Equal Access": Reframing our Issues, American Adoption Congress (2009)

Adoption reform activists have for decades used the phrase "open records". Riben argues that "Equal...

 

Adoption as a women's issues

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Is the war on Abortion Heating Up?, News Blaze (2012)

The war on abortion is heating up. This article exposes the connection from the legislative...

 

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Reverse Robinhoodism: Pitting Poor Against Affluent Women in the Adoption Industry (with Bernadette Wright), Conducive Magazine (2009)

This article was originally submitted to a Canadian feminist journal, for a special issue on...

 

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Adoption Loss, Pain, Irresolvable and Universal Grief (2009)

Adoption loss is a limbo loss with no ritual or closure, that has been recognized...

 

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Who Deserves to be a Mother: The Impact of Class, Age and Powerlessness, (2009)

Worldwide, poverty far exceeds abuse, neglect or abandonment as adoption moves children from economically at-risk...

 

International Adoption

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RT Russian American Television Interview RE: Jan. 2013 Death of Max Shatto (2013)

Max Shatto was born in Russia and adopted by Americans, Alan and Laura Shatto. The...

 

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American Babies Exported for Adoption, Dissident Voice (2012)

Article explores the issue of US-born children being adopted out of the country while thousands...

 

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Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and Baby Selling?, OpEd News (2010)

International adoption (IA) is being debated. Some say it is necessary to continue in order...

 

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Facing the real issues in international adoption, Russia Beyond the Headlines (2010)

Americans adopt between 2,000 and 4,000 children from Russia annually, but six months after one...

 

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US tries to thaw Russia's adoption freeze, RT America (Russia Today TV) (2010)

Riben discusses whether Russia should resume adoptions which have been halted and suggests it does...

 

Adoption Ethics

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Where is the Line Between Adoption and Baby Buying?, Dissident Voice (2013)

Shaun Micheline, is in a California jail for grand theft and other felony charges. His...

 

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Defining Ethics in Domestic and Global Adoption Practice, Open Arms, Open Minds: The Ethics of Adoption in the 21st Century (2010)

Adoption practitioners and agencies all speak about ethics. However, without definition, the term is as...

 

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Adoption Fees: Ethical Considerations for all Parties in Adoption, Adoption Law Institute, PLI New York Center (2009)

A great deal is said about ethics in adoption. However, the term remains vague, undefined,...

 

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Alternatives Routes to Permanency: is adoption always the best option, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and Ethica, Inc., Adoption Ethics and Accountability Conference (2007)

A presentation that asks if current adoption practices are optimally in the best interests of...

 

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Radio Interview with Judyth Piazza, American Perspective Radio Program, American Perspective Radio Program (2007)

Mirah Riben speaks about her work in adoption reform. main goal: end the corruption fueled...

 

Adoption and the Religious Right

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Prophecy, Proselytizing and Profit: Adopting Christian Soldiers, Dissident Voice (2010)

The author explores adoption as encouraged by religion as a rescue mission. The push for...

 

Other

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Statistics, Politics, and Solutions in the Gun Discussion, DissidentVoice (2013)

Exposes how statistics are manipulated by pro-gun lobbyists and enthusiasts and makes a new suggestion...

 

Book Reviews

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Between the Lines: Seeking True Culpabaility, CUB Communicator, Concerned United Birthparents, Des Moines, IA (1995)
 

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Book Review: What Lisa Knew, CUB Communicator, Concerned United Birthparents, Des Moines, IA (1991)

review of Joyce Johnson's book, "What Lisa Knew"

 

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Book Review: Birth Bond, CUB Communicator, Concerned United Birthparents, Des Moines, IA (1990)

Review of Birth Bond by Goldman and brown CUB Communicator, June 1990 Concerned United Birthparents,...

 

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Book Review: Recreating Motherhood, CUB Communicator, Concerned United Birthparents, Des Moines, IA (1989)

Review of "Recreating Motherhood: Ideology and technology in a Patriarchal Society" by Barbara Katz Rothman....

 

Adopted Child Syndrome

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Adoption and Parenticide: Seeking Truth and Justice, Dissident Voice (2012)

The article explores cases of adoptees who murder one or both parents and explains Adopted...

 

Opinion

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Opinion: Author, Lecturer, Mirah Riben Repsonds, St. Michael Patch (2011)

Riben replies to adoptive parent concerns about privacy and innappropriate questions.

 

Gun control

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Statistics, Politics, and Solutions in the Gun Discussion, DissidentVoice (2013)

Exposes how statistics are manipulated by pro-gun lobbyists and enthusiasts and makes a new suggestion...

 

Adoption Mythology

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Adoption Hype: Media Misrepresentations and Accepted Myths, Dissident Voice (2013)

The author argues that media reliance solely on adoption industry experts is akin to interviewing...

 

Death by abuse in adoption

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RT Russian American Television Interview RE: Jan. 2013 Death of Max Shatto (2013)

Max Shatto was born in Russia and adopted by Americans, Alan and Laura Shatto. The...

 

Adoption Loss

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Sacrificial Firstborn (2013)

This is a poem I wrote in July 1998 that was first publsihed in the...

 

No subject area

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Russian Ban on U.S. Adoptions: Is if Fair?, DissidentVoice (2013)

The 2013 ban on American citizens adopting children from Russia has been called political, and...

 

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Putin Bans Americans from Adopting Russian Children (2012)

Russia Today (RT) television discusses Putin's banon Americans adopting Russian children. I discuss the abuses...

 

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Russia Today-TV Interview (2012)

Russian President Putin bans adoptions to America because of multiple abuses and lack of oversight.

 

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American Home for Russian Kids: A Curse or Blessing? (2012)

A Russia Today (RT) report on the proposed adoption ban, the lack of follow-up, the...

 

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Contract (2011)