The adoption market has been examined from a number of perspectives with an eye to reform and improvement and to provide a more socially beneficial structure to the placement of children. One issue that has been much discussed is baby-selling, which might also be designated as the "sale of parental rights," as Boudreaux (1995) prefers to call it. Richard Posner is one legal and economic theorist who has called for a change in the adoption rules to liberalize the process and make the process more in keeping with the demands of the marketplace, and others have taken up the same argument and called for a major shift in thinking regarding the way the adoption market is handled.
Posner (1992) examines the legal protection of children and the proper role of the state in relation to children. He begins with the assumption that the state desires to maximize the welfare of all its citizens, including children, and that the state has a stake in the development of the full potential of children once they reach adulthood. Legal duties are imposed on parents to provide care and support for their children, and various social responses point to the fact that there is an underinvestment in children's human capital. The problem Posner sees as in need of attention is the neglected or unwanted child, a problem that needs a solution. One solution is the threat of a fine or imprisonment for the parents of the child to assure that they do not neglect it. Removing children to a foster home is not a solution because the foster parents have no property rights in the child's lifetime earnings, and though they may be paid by the state to perform their duties, monitoring is a problem in that foster parents cannot be trusted by the state. A second solution is to allow the parents to put the child up for adoption, which allows the child to be transferred from the custody of people not likely to invest properly in their upbringing to people more likely to ...