April 26, 2012

300,000 Spanish Newborns Stolen and Sold to Infertile Parents

It’s been recently released that hundreds of thousands of babies were stolen by the Catholic Church in Spain and sold to infertile families who wanted to have children. According to an article on CNN.com, this practice dates back to the 50s, and was continued as recently as the 1990s.

This situation is devastating all around — not only for the families whose children were stolen from them, but also for the children who are realizing that they’ve not been raised by their biological parents, but rather were bought and sold in an illegal trade.  The article even mentions a family who continued to pay an annual fee to the nun behind this scandal — Sister Maria Gomez — for their children even though they are now in their 40s.

These are the types of crimes in the adoption world that deserve as much discussion, knowledge and awareness as possible. Adoption should be a safe, consensual process for everyone involved — anything less is unacceptable. Here’s a video discussing the situation more in-depth. We also recommend checking out the CNN special “World’s Untold Story” on today at 11.30 a.m. ET, Saturday at 9 a.m. ET and Sunday at 4.30 p.m. ET.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2xf3M5bYdI