The expected reasoning behind adoption in China is to rescue the thousands of babies (mostly girls) from a harsh country where strict population control often leads to acts of desperation–in this case, abandoning unwanted babies. Some, though, are saying the reality is quite different: the LA Times reports that government officials often confiscate babies from impoverished families for orphanages to profit from the high adoption fee paid by adoptee parents.
“In the beginning, I think, adoption from China was a very good thing because there were so many abandoned girls. But then it became a supply-and-demand-driven market and a lot of people at the local level were making too much money,” said Ina Hut, who last month resigned as the head of the Netherlands’ largest adoption agency out of concern about baby trafficking.
The stories come as no surprise in a complex situation like foreign adoption in America, where issues of culture, racial identity and misplaced intentions always come to play. Could life get even more complicated for these adopted children?
