SELLING BABIES

From ert The Bulgarian authorities broke up a five-member ring that was bringing pregnant women to Greece to give birth, while the babies were being put up for adoption illegally. Each baby was sold for 15,000 euros, while on many occasions the gang forced the women to deliver prematurely by having a c-section, so as to avoid arrest as their leave had expired. The Bulgarian police discovered 13 cases of illegal adoption just in 2004. Poor gypsy women from Bulgaria were being tempted to sell their newborns in exchange for 500-5,000 euros. In fact, in some cases, the masterminds of the ring would grant loans to their perspective victims charging exorbitant interest rates, thus forcing them to sell their babies in Greece to repay their debt. Most of the babies were sold in Athens, Volos, Katerini and Larissa over the last six years. The members of the gang are facing up to eight-year prison sentences. There are so many things wrong with this, where do you start? Who are the doctors performing these early c-sections? Who is buying these babies? How? Surely it is not enough just to arrest the ringleaders. There are many others involved in this situation. Excuse me while I bang my head on my desk... eight years for forcing women to undergo surgery and to sell their babies? Are the lives of these women and children worth so little? UPDATE: Tanner over at The News from Kisbacs links to this post and brings up another side of this story. A view from someone wishing to adopt a child. My point in the article was that these women are being forced to give up their children for money. Tanner brings up the issue of legal adoption for cash versus the current system that, as he puts it, is "adoption-in-exchange-for-bureaucratic-nightmare alongside a thriving (and criminal) black market".

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