Child smuggling is good business - official

[dArKeR]

Guatemala City - A recently-busted child smuggling ring charged handsomely for children sent to prospective United States and Japanese parents, say investigating prosecutors.

Ringleaders charged US couples up to $80 000 (about R568 000) for a child, and Japanese couples around $40 000 (about R284 000), say the government prosecutors who are looking into 85 cases from the past two years.

On Sunday, Costa Rican investigators in San Jose rescued nine Guatemalan infants assumed to have been for sale to foreigners.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw106436052192B235&set_id=1

[displacedtexan]

1. on an extremely basis level

this is, imho, part of the reason that repukes jumped on the anti-abortion bandwagon: baby selling is big biz, right in our own backyard.

[Samurai_Writer]

2. This is happening in the US as well...

The adoption industry in the US is big business. As people put off having children until late 30s and even into their 40s, they find that getting pregnant isn't easy at those ages. If you want to read about this non-regulated, unethical industry, there is a website full of information at http://www.exiledmothers.com/adoption_facts/adoption_industry.html .

Now, before all the adoptive parents come in here and start bashing me, let me say that they are usually lied to just as much as we birthmothers are.

I have been active in adoption education and reform for 13 years, and it seems this industry is only getting more and more corrupt as time goes on.

My own adoption website is at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2991/.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. A friend of mine...

Adopted two beautiful Korean children and gave them a very loving home. The upshot? Each child cost about $50,000-60,000 dollars. The larger upshot? A blonde, blue-eyed US baby would have cost in excess of $100,000.

The Child Trade even exists here. It is all wrapped up in the shiny giftwrap of niceties of good intentions, soothing words and legalese, but a child trade it is.

[demdave]

4. You have a friend that is involved in the baby buying trade?

And you continue to associate with them? Sounds like condoning the actions. What is the rational? The ends justifies the means?

[Samurai_Writer]

5. I wouldn't be too harsh...

on these friends. My sister and brother-in-law adopted a girl from China, and are going to be adopting another soon. It didn't cost them $50,000, probably $20,000 including all the airfare, attorney's fees, 'gifts' to Chinese officials and the orphanage, etc. Yes, it is a corrupt industry, but I think in cases where children languish in orphanages their entire lives, like in China, it's better for them to be adopted. However, most of the South and Central American countries and Korea in particular are infamous for kidnapping these children from their natural parents to sell to wealthy Americans. Whenever I hear anyone expressing a desire to adopt from overseas, I always tell them to adopt an older child from local foster care, if at all possible, and if not, to go to China, where at least the children are in actual need of a home.

[smallprint]

8. thanks for the links-- very eye-opening

:kick:

[speakfree]

6. Apparently Guatemalan immigrants are an easy target for "legal" (DHR)

...baby trading as well...


This is a long and involved story, but take a few miutes and read the article.

Athens doctor on case to return baby to mom

Guatemalan girl's infant son set for adoption by DHR

excerpts:

"Speak out and get attacked, says Dr. Ernie Hendrix, an Athens family physician who has taken public his fight to see a baby returned to its mother from the custody of the Department of Human Resources."

<snip>

"Hendrix has been stirring up trouble for the department for some time. Last year, he intercepted DHR workers as they prepared to take a newborn from the hospital. Hendrix said they told him the mother had relinquished parental rights. When Hendrix demanded that the hospital's interpreter explain the situation to the new mother, a Hispanic woman in her 20s, she gasped with horror at what she had signed, he said. The mother and her family moved from Athens soon after."

<snip>

"DHR officials have not commented on that case, nor the case that brought Hendrix his subpoena: Marta, 17, and her son, Javier, 11 months."

<snip>

"Since February, both Marta and her son have been in separate foster homes. DHR documents indicate that Javier is to be adopted but make no allegations of abuse or neglect of the baby."

"Marta wants to have her baby back, to live with her cousins in Athens and return to work at Con-Agra, or to return with the child to her parents in Guatemala, Hendrix and Marta's family members say."

<snip>

"At first, documents indicated the plan for Marta and the child was "reunification."

<snip>

"By June, DHR documents suddenly stated that the long-term plan for Javier was adoption, despite Marta's progress in her classes, the clearance of the Lopez home for Marta to visit and Marta's cooperation with counseling. When DHR officials would not explain why adoption was being considered for Javier, the Hendrixes began to seek help outside the system."


http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1063993582219191.xml

[newyawker99]

7. Hi speakfree!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[shrike]

9. I know a number of folks who've adopted

and they say it's like anything else ... you have to be EXTREMELY careful who you deal with. Do a thorough search, contact the feds, the state attorney general, etc. If it looks to good to be true, it usually is, and be aware what is an exorbitant fee and what is typical of the industry. I have never heard of $50,000 for a child via a legit source. A couple I know adopted from Romania and were extremely happy with the people they met and dealt with. They also pointed out they spent far more on fertility treatments than they did in adopting their son. A couple I know of modest means have adopted from both China and Vietnam.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. Shat's the problem? This is a fine example of capitalism at its finest!

Willing buyers and sellers... Profits are made.

Sounds like a perfect American endeavor to me.

/Sarcasm off.

Christ, America's leading the world back into the dark ages.

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. The headline

and the quote are both misleading.

Doctors, nurses, midwives, attorneys, notaries, taxi drivers and funeral home workers are all involved in the network, said Sandra Sayas, the head of the office handling women's affairs in Guatemala.

Sayas refused to confirm the dollar figures but did say that child smuggling was "good business."

The headline and the use of her quote infer that Sayas condones baby smuggling. When, to me, Sayas was commenting on her observation that it's an illegal trade that does a lot of business.

Poor journalism, and so similar to the spin the American media whores put on filtered pablum meted out to the US public.

Just my observation. :-)