What happens in countries that allow private parties to place children with adoptive families?
In the most extreme cases, pregnant women can be held hostage until they deliver, children can be kidnapped, or birth families can be paid to relinquish their children. It is for this reason that the US government has begun DNA testing and extensive interviews, to be certain that relinquishments from birth parents are legitimate in some countries, including Guatemala. It is important that adoption agencies, and parents adopting independently, take steps to address these concerns. According to US law, children must either be legally or anonymously abandoned (as is generally the case in China), or they must have been knowingly and willingly relinquished by birth families who were not coerced or financially rewarded for their choice, or the parental rights of the birth family must have been permanently terminated by the local government. Documentation must be provided to both you and US Immigration officials that show how the child came into the custody of an orphanage, foster home, or fa
