contested adoption

I'd say to be very careful about the agency you choose and the state that agency is in. My son's parents both consented to the adoption. While I understand that there are cases where the father is unknown, I also think it is too easy for someone to say they don't know who the father is, only to have a mess after the child is born and in the home of the potential adoptive parents. Too many agencies don't look closely enough, because their purpose is placing children for adoption. Too many states have laws that strongly favor mothers over fathers and adoptive over biological parents. Unfortunately, unless the father is available to consent to the adoption and proven to be the father, there is always some risk that a father's rights are being circumvented. The way I see it is that there is a change needed in the laws to uphold the rights of fathers in adoption as well as to significantly penalize adoption agencies that attempt to circumvent those rights. With private adoption being such a profit-driven business, there will always be agencies that will be unscrupulous as long as they can get away with it, but if the risk outweighs the benefit, that behavior is more likely to change.