Adopt-a-baby
sites common on web
The Daily Telegraph
January 18, 2001
It takes only a few
minutes to uncover hundreds of foreign websites offering children for
adoption.
Some are run by
non-profit-making Christian organisations trying to discourage abortions
and promote nuclear families; others are commercial enterprises, making
use of the growing availability of children from Eastern Europe, China,
Vietnam and Latin America.
Although Britain
adopts fewer children from overseas than almost any other Western
country, the Kilshaw case shows how determined couples can find foreign
mothers willing to give up their children.
In 47 of the 50
states in America private adoptions are legal. It is up to the birth
parents who should adopt their child.
To prevent a black
market trade in babies, almost every state bans agencies and parents
from taking fees for finding or placing a child but it is acceptable to
pay a sum to the natural mother to cover her medical expenses.
A typical
non-profit-making site is Adoptions from the Heart, founded 16 years
ago, with a website that boasts: "We create beautiful
families".
It finds families
for children from Vietnam, Eastern Europe, Guatemala or the Ukraine but,
like most of the non-profit services, it is available only to American
couples.
British couples are
more likely to find babies using classified advert sites.