The Two Faces of Intercountry Adoption: The Significance of the Indian Adoption Scandals

David M. Smolin, Cumberland Law School, Samford University

Abstract

This article summarizes international law, and the law of India and the United States, relevant to intercountry adoption. The article then presents extensive information and analysis of a major series of adoption scandals in Andhra Pradesh, India. The article uses this analysis of law and a major series of adoption scandals to present the "two sides of intercountry adoption:" positively, as a humanitarian act, and negatively as a form of child trafficking. The weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the intercountry adoption system that led to the Indian adoption scandals are extensively analyzed.

Publisher Statement

35 Seton Hall Law Review 403 (2005)