[Reg Niles]

I recently learned of the death of Arthur D. Sorosky, M.D. (1936-2003) by checking the Social Security Death Index.

I did not know him personally, but regarded as heroes of the adoptees’ reform movement the three authors of The Adoption Triangle, which was first published in 1978. I shared a podium with him at an ALMA presentation in that year, and he was a little disappointed when he learned he would not be allowed to sell copies of his book then and there to ALMA members in the audience.

But the book sold well and was of immense benefit to the movement against sealed adoption records. Dr. Sorosky and his co-authors formed the Adoption Research Project in California five years earlier--at a time when it was not too easy to find adult adoptees and birth mothers. In 1998, E. Wayne Carp published Family Matters. Prof. Carp, who is smarter than me, wrote that the three authors’ methodology was flawed and “their conclusions were all but worthless.” (Family Matters, p. 155)

Part of the problem was that the sample was self-selected. Prof. Carp does not seem sympathetic to the difficulties in assembling a sample in the 1970s. In any case, I am unaware of how Dr. Sorosky felt about this criticism, but I would like to know that.

Dr. Sorosky’s name was on television briefly because he was being sued by the brother of a murderess. It was alleged that the doctor (a psychiatrist) gave a free sample of a prescription drug to his patient, the murderess. The victim of the 1998 murder was Phil Hartman, a beloved comedian who appeared on Saturday Night Live many times. Further details can be found at Wikipedia’s entry for Phil Hartman.

I can only imagine how Dr. Sorosky must have felt when he heard he was being sued. I have nothing further about Dr. Sorosky, but I hope others will post comments on the Internet about him.

Reg Niles
e-mail: RegNMINiles#cs.com
(change pound sign to at sign)