As part of the Mother’s Day-a-palooza all over the net Sunday, Slate included a piece focusing on international adoption corruption with profiles of ten cases,

The Orphan Trade, A look at families affected by corrupt international adoptions.

As always, the article leads off with an assumption, that most couples would never willingly participate in the act of international child buying, an assumption I question deeply in some cases,

Who wants to buy a baby? Certainly not most people who are trying to adopt internationally. And yet too often—without their knowledge—that’s what happens with their dollars and euros.

The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University report gets a quick mention as well.

Again, as I’ve mentioned before, the full report, “The Lie we Love” and accompanying materials are well worth spending some time with.

It also points out what many of us have been saying for years, that the industry comes into a country, does “resource extraction” pulling out as many kids as possible before a country closes down usually amidst various charges of fraud and corruption.

Then the industry moves on to the next country only to begin the cycle again. Sometimes countries that have closed down attempt “reforms” and reopen, though the corruption often continues. (Vietnam being a perfect example. This older post I did some time back covers a lot of ground and a lot of history pertaining to the “reopened” mess that led to Vietnam closing down yet again.)

Back to the Slate article,

When one country’s adoptions are closed down to regulate or stop the trafficking, the adoption industry moves to the next “hot” and under-regulated country. (For Americans, these are currently Ethiopia and, to a lesser degree, Nepal.)

Be sure to follow across to the slide show for the pictures and profiles,

Click here to read a slide-show essay about international adoption.