Adopting children from poor countries is becoming more and more popular. Pop stars and actors have made inter-country adoption trendy and the reduced fertility rate in the West leaves many families desperate for a child. The pressure on the international adoption market is intense and the competition for the children is tough.
A Baby Business reveals how cynical child traders in India are willing to do anything to provide children for waiting adoptive parents in Europe, America and Australia. It reveals how children have become a precious commodity worldwide and how inter-country adoption has become a lucrative baby business.
In this investigative documentary, the reporters go under cover as representatives from a European adoption agency and reveal how money – and not the best interest of the child – is the most important factor on a market riddled with corruption on all levels of the adoption process.
India has been the centre of several adoption scandals. A number of Indian orphanages have been closed, having systematically bought and kidnapped children with the purpose of selling them to foreign adoption agencies. The documentary goes behind the scandals and reveals how international adoption agencies are playing an important role as purchasers of children in a corrupt adoption industry.
Poor families are tricked into giving their children up for adoption. One of them is an Indian father whose children were taken from him against his will. When his wife died he temporarily admitted the children to an orphanage. What he didn’t know was that soon after his children were adopted by a European family.
LEARN MORE:
Center for Adoption Policy
U.S. Dept. of State - Children and Family
The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction
About Spotlight
Spotlight is a Link TV weekly presentation of investigative reports from around the world. Commentary is provided by prominent authors and journalists. This episode is hosted by Lakshmi Chaudhry, who has been a reporter and editor for independent publications, including Mother Jones and AlterNet, for over six years. She is currently a senior editor at In These Times.
