December 16, 2003
In Cambodia, corruption and lax regulations mean it's easy to get a child quickly. The problem is, many of them aren't abandoned - they're sold. Mark Baker investigates.
Chhay Toro was nine months old when he first arrived at this place - pale, emaciated and fighting for his life with a heart condition. Two smudged red thumbprints on a creased, handwritten page witness the wretched moment when his parents signed away their only son.
Destitute and unable to feed or care for their baby, Chhay Rithy, a disabled war veteran, and his wife, Eng Srei Nu, made the decision in which they had no choice: they gave him away to the Phnom Penh Nutrition Centre, a state-run orphanage in the Cambodian capital....
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