US alleges baby-selling in Vietnam

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: AP

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam has failed to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish, the U.S. Embassy says in a new report obtained by The Associated Press.

The nine-page document describes brokers scouring villages for babies, hospitals selling infants whose mothers cannot pay their bills, and a grandmother giving away her grandchild — without telling the child's mother.

"I'm shocked and deeply troubled by the worst of the worst cases," said Jonathan Aloisi, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.

Vietnam's top adoption official called the concerns "groundless." Bribery of orphanage officials may occur, but serious offenses such as baby-selling or kidnapping are not a problem, said Vu Duc Long, director of the Department of International Adoptions.

The dispute comes amid a boom in adoptions from Vietnam. Americans — including actress Angelina Jolie — adopted more than 1,200 Vietnamese children over the 18 months ending March 31. In 2007, adoptions surged more than 400 percent from a year earlier, with 828 Vietnamese children adopted by American families.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5glMEDDL7fjUBcTw6pZgpPq9nf-UQD908I2J01

[thunder rising]

1. There it is! The Bush logic. It's not that baby buying is the problem, it's the selling.

We never have to take responsibility for our action ... EVER.

[LeftyMom]

2. People here get pissed at anybody who points out that this is a big problem with foreign adoptions.

But fuck it, it's true.

[AlphaCentauri]

3. Same with drugs

[DaveJ]

4. Lack of opportunity (same may happen to Iraq)

I'm guessing lack of financial resources would drive a family to sell their children.

It's not like they are just lazy people who want to push out babies and send them to the U.S. to make a profit, forcing their children to become American work-slaves who in a cyclical manner purchase more babies while they lay around reproducing for us.

What else is supposed to happen when we deprive other nations of their ability to fend for themselves. Before long, the M.E. may have no more resources to survive with dignity either. What else can they do? Nobody seems to be asking that.

[David__77]

5. If America apologizes for kidnapping thousands of Vietnamese children, it'd be more credible.

When the war ended, as Vietnam was being liberated from foreign occupation, America kidnapped thousands of babies and children from Vietnam, and now they are pointing fingers?