Black Market Adoption

The international adoption community is not regulated by one set of laws. In 1993, the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption convened to outline regulations for intercountry adoption practices. The laws went into effect in 1995 and focus primarily on child rights and protecting the adoption community from being flooded with child laundering and trafficking. At the beginning of 2011, there were 83 countries that had ratified the Hague Convention, meaning they agreed to abide to the same laws and standards of adoption.

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Black market adoption, then, breaks from the standards that the Hague Convention seeks to uphold. In the black market, the adoption of a child does not require a home study or adoption counseling. The means for the child to be declared an orphan may not have been ethically acquired. Adopting a child from the black market is usually done in exchange for large amounts of money. Sometimes this money may be given directly to the adoptee's birth parents, an agency or even an attorney or facilitator.

Black market adoptions are criminal offenses and the child will be removed from the adoptive family and placed with a new one in the event of prosecution. Children have been returned, homes and hearts have been broken. In no way can this type of adoption be best for the child. In some cases the children are brought into the USA without the proper permissions, documents, etc, and years later the children are deported back to their countries of origin.

In some instances the mothers are told their babies are still born or died after delivery. Black market adoptions are comprised of stolen babies that are literally sold for profit. There is no home study or protection for the infant. Know your agency and the sources of their infants.

To be safe about the origins of an adoptee, adoptive parents should make every effort possible to research an international agency and see if the country from which the child is being placed is a member of the Hague Convention. Guatemala was once one of the most-adopted from countries by American citizens but is no longer in the adoption community's good graces due to unethical adoption practices.