By MARC LACEY
Published: December 12, 2007
Lawmakers endorsed an overhaul of the country’s adoption system, ending what critics called a largely unregulated business in which poor mothers were paid to turn over their children to American couples. The new law, pushed by the United States government, allows thousands of pending adoptions, most to Americans, to proceed. Guatemala sends more adopted children to the United States than any other country except China; this year it has sent 4,700. The new law also creates a government authority to handle future adoptions, bringing Guatemala in line with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and wresting the system away from lawyers who charge as much as $30,000 per child.
Guatemala: U.S. Adoptions to Go Through
