Adoptive Parents, Adoptees & Birth Parent Coalition Protests Adoption Reality Show

A loose coalition of adoptees, adoptive parents and birth parents has launched a nationwide effort to force Fox to cancel the "Who's Your Daddy?" reality show.

Angry over the reality show, the adoption coalition says it trivializes the complex feelings surrounding adoption. In the show, an adult woman adopted as an infant has a chance to win $100,000 if she can correctly choose her biological father from among eight men. If she chooses a fake, he will win the money. Five other father-and-child reunions have been taped but not scheduled.

"The adoption reality show takes a deeply intimate, important personal experience and trivializes it, turning it into a money-grubbing game show,'' stated Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a New York research, policy and education organization. The Adoption Institute first alerted media and other groups about the show earlier this month.

An estimated 5,000 e-mails had been sent to Fox in protest of the show, most using a formatted protest letter provided by As Simple As That, an adoption advocacy group.

Earlier this year a birth-parents group demonstrated against an ABC Barbara Walters special, "Be My Baby'. This show featured a pregnant teenager choosing her child's adoptive parents from among several hopeful couples through the television special.