Louis Theroux's Altered States: Take My Baby

Synopsis

California is the US adoption capital, with 85% of newborn adoptions carried out privately, rather than arranged by the state. It's a highly lucrative business for the agencies, facilitators and lawyers who match up birth mothers with adoptive parents willing to pay up to $50,000 for the privilege. ... California is the US adoption capital, with 85% of newborn adoptions carried out privately, rather than arranged by the state. It's a highly lucrative business for the agencies, facilitators and lawyers who match up birth mothers with adoptive parents willing to pay up to $50,000 for the privilege. Louis talks to women choosing to hand over their own flesh and blood in open adoptions. Adoptive parents financially support them through pregnancy, and there's the option to stay in touch afterwards. He learns how poverty, addiction and abuse can push them into making often heartbreaking decisions, and also hears from an adoptive mother as she prepares to welcome her son's birth mother back into their lives after years of drug addiction.