If you are concerned about foul play being an issue in adopting internationally, then adopting from Guatemala might ease your mind. Before a child can be placed for adoption in Guatemala, the placing mother and child must undergo DNA testing to prove that the placing mother is, in fact, the child’s biological mother.

Before DNA testing was required, some women would pretend to be a child’s biological mother and place the child for adoption after either kidnapping or “buying” the baby. Requiring a DNA test helps to reduce the frequency with which this happens today. In Lisa’s post Department of State FAQs, she quotes the Department of State as providing the following reasons for mandatory DNA testing:

For example, in 1998 the United States instituted mandatory DNA testing for Guatemalan women who stated intentions to relinquish their children. This measure was taken in response to numerous cases in which impostors who were not the children’s actual birth mothers attempted to relinquish rights to children who were not theirs.

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In his article Guatemala Adoption Medical Issues, Dr. George Rogu states that Guatemala is the only country that provides DNA testing to prove that the woman who placed the child for adoption was, in fact, the biological mother. The article is not dated (although it quotes a source printed in 2004), so I cannot state with certainty that Guatemala continues to be the only country with this safeguard in place.

Dr. Rogu says that mandatory DNA testing was put into effect to reduce the number of children placed for adoption through illegal means, such as the following:

• Baby-buying


• Coercion


• Kidnapping

I do not, personally, understand how a DNA test can prevent a woman from being coerced into placing a baby for adoption, but I can definitely understand how DNA testing can reduce the number of children being placed for adoption that were either kidnapped or “sold.”

It is a sad reality that there are unscrupulous people who will take advantage of the poor by “buying” their babies. I am glad to see that Guatemala has taken a stand against this practice. It is one thing for a woman to choose a different life for her child in another country. It is a completely different matter for people to “buy” or steal babies to make a profit.

Related Topics:

• Answers from the ADA


• Department of State FAQs


• What’s Involved in Adopting a Child From Guatemala?