ABC

ABC has been running a series of articles on adoption corruption, kidnapping and exploitation in Guatemala, China...and now an article focused on David Smolin’s case.

I suggest a thank you letter to ABC for the courage to expose this scourge and using it as an opp to speak about domestic coercion and exploitation.

Comments can be posted; below is mine:

I wish to thank ABC News for this entire series on corruption on the multi-billion dollar adoption industry.

With all due respect for my colleague Adam Pertman, his quote herein seems to downplay the seriousness of this.

The Smolins story is indicative of the fact that no matter how much diligence intelligent, well-meaning adopters use, there is an invisible line between the small number ethical, reputable agencies and the less scrupulous, all the way to baby brokers at the other end of the spectrum.

One can deal with an ethical agency (or one they believe to be) that has been lied to by the foreign agency or orphanage. This is what led Davd Smolin to research the subject extensively and coin the phrase "child laundering." Children are often passed through many hands and the end agency has no idea of the truth.

THIS MUST BE STOPPED. It is not going to be stopped by chalking it off as an anomaly. We are currently looking like very ugly Americans in Guatemala, China and worldwide for our participation in the trafficking of kidnapped children.

Again, thanks to ABC! I hope you will follow up with a story on coercion in domestic adoptions and US baby brokers who move from state to state, and the total lack of regulation of the industry. I also hope that Pertman uses his resources and influence to do the same. Police the industry and stop the profiteering in all adoption.