David M. Smolin
David M. Smolin is a professor of law at Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also the director for Cumberland Law School's Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics. He is a nationally recognized expert in Bioethics and Biotechnology Issues; Reproductive Constitutional Issues; International Children's Issues (adoption, children's rights, child labor, child trafficking); Family & Juvenile Law; and Law and Religion. Additionally, he has testified before legislative committees in the U.S. Congress, as well as five states on constitutional issues.
Biotechnology, Law and Ethics
Professor Smolin heads Cumberland Law School's Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics, a unique center unlike any other of its kind in the United States. Research focuses on current bioethical dilemmas and specific issues regarding the Center's Annual Symposium (see listing below), which is typically co-sponsored by the Cumberland Law Review. For the past several years an issue of the Cumberland Law Review has been devoted to the Symposium topic.
Human Rights and Intercountry Adoption
His recent work regards International Adoption. One article gaining attention is available for download on bepress Legal Repository. The title is: Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children download site
Two other recent law review articles pend publication: The Two Faces of Intercountry Adoption: The Significance of the Indian Adoption Scandals, Seton Hall Law Review (forthcoming 2005); and Intercountry Adoption as Child Trafficking, Valparaiso Law Review (forthcoming 2005).
On April 15th, 2005 Cumberland hosted a Symposium on Intercountry Adoption.[1]. Guest speaker Richard Cross's entire lecture and audio file from the lecture are available for download on Cumberland's Website. He is a is a senior special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] assigned to the ICE Human Trafficking Unit in Seattle, Washington.scroll to bottom of page. The Symposium goal was to "expertise to explore the question of how intercountry adoption can be reformed to ensure that all parties to the adoption triad (birth families, children and adoptive families) have their rights and human dignity respected."[2]
Other Notable Facts
His brother is quantum physicist Lee Smolin whose publications include the Life of the Cosmos, and Three Roads to Quantum Gravity.