Buying babies not as harmless as it seems

How much does a baby cost in Guatemala?

This question, as absurd as it sounds, is one I might face as I grow older, and not even as a cold-hearted economist but as an aspiring parent.

Indeed, I, and many other young altruists thinking down the road to parenthood, at times have considered ““ and will consider ““ whether international adoption is the best choice when that paternal urge hits.

Certainly, with global population growth increasing rapidly, why create a new kid to suck up scarce resources when I can give a poor, unwanted one access to my unconditional love and deep American pockets?

As it turns out, if we found this argument convincing, my spouse and I could carry $30,000 ““ average net administrative fees according to a recent NPR report by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro ““ down to Central America and adopt ourselves a cherubic baby girl. Let us call her Margot.

It also turns out, however, that Margot might not have been as unwanted as we had presumed.

Guatemala’s adoption industry is rife with corruption, and Margot could easily have been kidnapped after her mother was forced to give birth by some entrepreneurs trying to make a buck ““ or 30,000 ““ in the adoption market.

Where there’s demand, supply follows.

This sad situation is an example of how genuine goodwill for the world’s poor can have unintended and even disastrous consequences.

It shows how little altruists sometimes know about the people they are trying to help and how charity can quickly become ““ in this case quite literally ““ paternalism.

In many cases, we’re not fully interested in whether or not we’re actually doing good, only in asserting that our lives are somehow better and that we can improve others’ lives by bringing them into our own.

All we require is the impression of good and not necessarily the substance.

Guatemala is indeed a poor country with many needs. Sixty percent of Guatemalan children are born into poverty, according to UNICEF, and just under 50 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer stunted growth because of poor nutrition.

For Lisa, an American who runs the Guatemala Adoption Blog, these statistics only emphasize the imperative of adoption. The implication ““ though misguided ““ is that if life there is so bad, Americans should import as many babies as possible.

Her site heavily publicizes a campaign to stop Guatemala’s accession to Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption next January.

The convention would heavily regulate Guatemala’s markedly unregulated adoption industry, making it less profitable, consequently constricting the supply of babies for people like Lisa to adopt.

“In my mind are the faces of thousands of children that need to come home to loving families,” she wrote of her activism to delay the convention.

For Lisa, “need” is often equivalent to poverty and not explicitly the absence of parents or relatives. There is talk on her blog of the hypothetical notion, unsubstantiated because Guatemalan officials keep few records on adoptions, that there exist parents who want to give up their children for wealthier lives.

Guatemalan babies have become, according to Manuel Manrique, a UNICEF officer in the country, “a nontraditional export product.”

Under current Guatemalan law, a mother can, with the help of a notary and a lawyer, sign away her baby to an adoption agency.

With American adoption agencies offering large sums for children, these intermediaries stand to make huge profits.

While no comprehensive data exist, stories abound of mothers being coerced into signing over their children or simply being offered money for their babies.

It’s not that Guatemala doesn’t have plenty of needy orphans. In fact, it has 370,000 of them, according to UNICEF. Unfortunately, not all of them are cute infants.

Some are as old as 17 and carry with them all the baggage of a rough life without parents. These are the needy kids who need good homes but unfortunately aren’t demanded by American families.

We are after the idealized infant.

The U.S. should continue to strengthen its support of Guatemala in its effort to regulate the adoption industry there, for the sake of the children’s right to be with their birth parents.

But U.S. support will not stop the coerced adoptions until Americans stop fantasizing about the realities of charity in poor countries.

Adoption, like other acts of charity, involves a component of self-interest. For many Americans, it’s more about getting a baby than improving the welfare of Guatemalans. We do it, in short, because it makes us feel good about ourselves.

Too frequently, however, self-interest causes us to ask too few questions of our charities.

As the situation in Guatemala shows, too frequently that oversight can have awful consequences.

Considering importing your own baby? Tell Reed about it at treed@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.

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