A new class of participants in adoption has emerged in the past five or six years: Adoption Facilitators. They are in the business of linking up birth mother and potential adopting couples for a fee.California law regulates their advertising to some extent, although, unlike attorneys, adoption agencies and doctors, facilitators are unlicensed. In many states, their activities are illegal.

For many generations, doctors have been the link between a young patient with an accidental pregnancy and a couple who desperately wants a baby. Even though obstetricians rarely put cases together by themselves anymore, and call in lawyers and adoption agencies to help them, they are still instrumental in bringing couples and birth parents together.

Attorneys have traditionally presided over independent adoption and handled the court aspects of agency adoptions as well. Adoption law can be complicated and the suffering resulting from failure to know and follow the law can be profound. Unlike adoption agencies, lawyers may have a duty of full disclosure of relevant facts to all the parties. It is critical to a safe adoption for counsel to frankly discuss all the facts with birth parents and adopting parents alike.