The American babies sold for as little as $100 in black-market adoption trade

Adoptionland.orgAdoption Trafficking, Excerpts

By Philip Sherwell, New York Gertrude Pitkanen conducted illegal abortions and sold unwanted babies in Montana from the 1920s for three decades. Now “Gertie’s Babies” are using new DNA-sharing websites to try to find relatives. They call themselves Gertie’s Babies, but they are all ageing adults now, connected only by the furtive manner in which their lives began as part …

Fraud and Heartbreak Can Plague Adoptions From Africa

Adoptionland.orgAdoption, Adoption Trafficking, Agency Complaints, Excerpts, Rights

Government officials say sometimes parents are told their children will get an education abroad, but the youths are being adopted through shady agencies. KAMPALA, Uganda—When impoverished mother Nakiwala Hasifa signed legal guardianship papers to let a Christian pair from Mississippi have custody of her five-year-old son, Stuart Bukenya, in 2009, she thought she would hear from him regularly and that …

Imagine being told your child is dead, only to find out he is actually alive!

Adoptionland.orgAdoption, Adoption Trafficking, Excerpts, Rights

With orphanages being closed, Grace Center is receiving more and more children in the full-time residential care facility, known to many as the children’s home or temporary care center. Six of our children came from one corrupt orphanage when it was closed. All of these children have different stories of how they actually came to be declared “abandoned”.  One of …

KPAI suspects trafficking behind missing “twin” case

holtproductAdoption, Adoption Trafficking, Agency Complaints, Excerpts, Rights

The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) has called on the HJ hospital, where a mother claims one of her twins was stolen after a cesarean section, to explain as the case indicates baby trafficking. Komnas PA chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said he had received a report from Raudiah Elva Ningsih, 37, and an ultrasound image showing two fetuses …

The Strange History of the Birth Certificate

Adoptionland.orgAdoption, Adoption Trafficking, Agency Complaints, Excerpts, Rights

Recently, my mother unearthed my birth certificate and sent it to me. There, typed on a manual typewriter, were my name, the date and time of birth, the name of the hospital, and the names and race of both my parents. According to the certificate, I was not a twin or triplet, did not have siblings who died or were …