What great sadness! It puts a new perspective on Guatemalan politics - is some of this racism behind the anti-adoption movement? Thank you for posting this.

It certainly makes the act of wanting a better life for their children through adoption much more understandable. I would in no want any of my children, especially a girl, to have to grow up like that.

I'm glad this story came out. I think it focuses on the social ills that plague Guatemala. These problems and the racial/gender issues must be addressed before there is any hope that women will not be oppressed by whichever adoption system is in place.

If the current government has only made it as far as saying that the women should just stay home...what provisions can we hope that they will provide for the children who are denied these options??

To answer some questions....YES, this racial/gender inequity are the seeds to many of the problems and beliefs in the adoption contraversy.

1) Many of the indiginous people have a hard time believing that we really want these children. That is why the organ harvesting fear is so prevalent.

2) The elite or upper class do not value these children the way we do...because of their indiginous roots. This inequity is sure to effect any social aid or equality for these poverty stricken children. If the women have no champion in Guatemala, then what will that mean for the children?

3) The women have very few places to turn when their human rights are being violated...whether it is being beaten or raped...or having their rights violated during an adoption.

It is a sad state of affairs and hopefully one can see that it makes any adoption solution complex.

Kelly
guatadopt.com

Thank you for sharing this most interesting article. I really appreciate the work you do.

I have tried posting this in the past, but for some reason it doesn't get put in. Please post it.

I keep hearing "a lot of children are adopted form guatemala." The number of adoptions is approximately 1% of the population, which is approximately 5000 per year. To put the 5000 per year in prespective, I did an internet search for number of births in Guatemala. The website http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3213606.html provided the following estimates based on studies:
405,017 births in 2003
32% were unintended pregnancies
43% use of contraceptives
65,000 abortions performed in 2003

I think that in light of these statistics, 1% of all children born being adopted actually sounds pretty small. I guess it all has to do with what numbers you are comparing. Certainly Guatemala puts a lot of children up for adoption in comparison to other countries. But if you look at how many children actually need homes, 5000 a year is an extremely small number.

Is there no one out there to champion this cause? I saw that Amnesty posted a story very similar to the one Kevin posted. Can't these perpetrators be prosecuted under some sort of International law? Yes, This is obviously tragic, but when I hear these stories I just get more angry and try to figure out a way to help these women. Which are basically the Mothers, not literal, of all of our children and they are being treated this way.

I have always respected Michael Parenti's work, thank you for posting his article, devastating as it is. I have to note the irony in obsessing about DNA testing for adoption and footprints and all the investigations of birthmother etc - all good things but so ironic when in the face of known atrocities, the same 'man'power is not employed with the same diligence to uncover the truth in those horrible crimes. I was uncomfortably aware at the upper class hotel in GC on visit trip, how my beautiful dark skinned boy cradled in my white arms made many of the well dressed lite skinned Guatemalan guests appear very uncomfortable. Of course the same could be experienced here for Americans adopting an African American baby. Anyways, keep up the great work educating us and humbling us.

Thank you for saying just what I was thinking kitkat.

Cheryl's comments reminded me a crude calculation I made a few months ago, and I was going to post but didn't. I pulled from the web (values from 2002-2006 http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/guatemala_adoption.php, and estimated 2007) the number of adoptions over the last 5 years, and how much money has been spent (I estimated an adoption costs about $25,000):
2007 5,000 125000000
2006 4,135 103375000
2005 3,783 94575000
2004 3,252 81300000
2003 2,328 58200000
2002 2,219 55475000
Total amount: 517925000

So, we've spent over a half BILLION dollars (although chump change compared with our wise investment in Iraq) on adoptions. Now, don't get me wrong, adoption is a wonderful and humane thing, and my wife and I just brought our daughter home last week. However, wouldn't it be better in the long run for the children if the US spent considerably on social and economic aid to Guatemala, and advocated for a fair, democratic, progressive society that provided a more equatable distribution of wealth? We really need to have a better foreign policy.