Desiree and her husband found through much trial and tribualation that their daughters, adopted at older ages from India, were telling the truth about their first family, despite all that was told them to the contrary. Their daughters have been reunited with their first family in India. Desiree and her husband have not rested in their labors to make this more known to others. That is why I consider them heroes, though I doubt they would call themselves heroes. You can read more about their story at her blog, by clicking on her name below.

Karin

Child Laundering As Exploitation: Applying Anti-Trafficking Norms to Intercountry Adoption Under the Coming Hague Regime David M. Smolin, Cumberland Law School, Samford University

Abstract
Child laundering occurs when children are illicitly obtained by fraud, force, or funds, and then processed through false paperwork into “orphans” and then adoptees. Child laundering thus involves illegally obtaining children by abduction or purchase for purposes of adoption. My prior work has documented and analyzed the widespread existence of child laundering in the intercountry adoption system. This article argues that child laundering is a form of exploitation, and hence qualifies as a form of human trafficking. Once child laundering is understood as an exploitative form of child trafficking, legal and ethical norms currently applied to human trafficking become applicable. Thus, the Hague Convention on
Intercountry Adoption should be implemented according to its intent as an anti-trafficking Convention.
———————–

This is my husband David’s latest adoption-related law review article. It can be found at:

This latest article is a follow-up to another article from last year entitled:

Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children

(you can access this article and his others on adoption at )

The irksome question that my husband would constantly get at the end of conversations about the issue with colleagues and others was:

Is child laundering–obtaining children for intercountry adoption by abduction or purchase–really exploitative or harmful to anyone? Aren’t the children better off anyway?

This leads to the legal issue as whether child laundering should be viewed ethically and legally as a form of child trafficking. Right now it is NOT always viewed that way–child trafficking is ONLY trafficking only when it is for sex or labor or slavery.

Buying, selling, and stealing for children adoption is outside of some child trafficking definitions.

The article uses analysis and narratives to explore the impact of child laundering on first families and children.

My husband’s current article represents the answer to these questions. It uses analysis and narrative explore the impact of child laundering on first families and children and to establish that trafficking for adoption IS harmful to these families and their children.

Desiree

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