EHbabes.com was created by a mother who surrendered her child to adoption via Easter House.
EHbabes.com is intended to be a search, reunion and support site for Easter House mothers, fathers, adoptive parents and our children.
This article explains that Easter House was part of a complex network begun by a man named Seymour Kurtz. According to Lynne Taggart who interviewed Kurtz for a book about baby brokers, Kurtz received his license to set up his agency as a non-profit adoption agency in the early 1960’s. However, around 1973, the person that he hired to run the agency warned him that due to a lack of babies, they might need to shut down.
Seymour Kurtz allegedly immediately began looking to other countries for babies. He flew to Italy and Greece, but eventually decided that Mexico was his best source. Kurtz founded some adoption agencies in Mexico, and began an advertising campaign to convince pregnant women to choose adoption for their babies. He developed many corporations and developed an elaborate system to skirt laws which interferred with his practices.
“Seymour Kurtz has come up with the perfect setup… Kurtz has found a way to circumvent the laws and regulations of the entire world,” said Lynn McTaggart.
Kurtz apparently brokered babies for many years, often charging very high fees. Eventually, the Mexican government shut down Kurtz’s operation in one city where he had been operating. He applied several more times to open another agency in the same location, but was turned down. However, he opened another agency in another part of Mexico and continued his baby selling operations.
Search and reunions can be difficult to begin with, but black market type operations make reunions even more problematic. There are reunions in this type of situation, but finding each other can be much more difficult. There are several other groups that have formed to help with black market searches from specific places.
Photo copyright 2007 by Jan Baker
Further reading:
Birth parents and adults adopted through Easter House should know that while Easter House does not provide search service, they can use the state of Illinois Confidential Intermediary program. By Court order the CI does obtain information from Easter House files, the OBC, the sealed Court file, etc. Illinois CI’s have a high rate of success. This program is provided by a not for profit agency, for a fee of $295. Information at http://www.ci-illinois.org