Last year, more than 4,000 Guatemalan babies and children were adopted by US citizens.

Adoption has become so widespread that some Guatemala City hotels, there are special play rooms for babies and the parents who are staying there while finalizing the adoption process.

Acquiring a baby in Guatamala usually costs around $30,000, although the US embassy has evidence of local lawyers milking adopting parents for as much as $70,000. Since the adoption process in Guatemala is so lacking in controls, stories of abuse are abundant.

For many couples adopting from Guatemala say they have had few problems. They see themselves as fortunate, in that they can easily adopt a baby, and that they believe they are rescuing these children from what would be a life of poverty.

But not all babies put up for adoption come from dire poverty and human rights groups argue that foreigners wishing to adopt tend to ignore some of the children in most need of adoption, mostly older children who have been abused or neglected.

There are also strong rumours of baby-snatching, baby selling and kidnapping.

But things may be about to change, as both Guatemala and the United States plan to commit to the Hague Convention, an international agreement that sets standards for adoption programs.

For more information visit International Adoption

international adoption

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 11:36 am and is filed under International adoption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.