China: family-planning officials kidnap, sell babies

August 12, 2011

Spurred on by the draconian one-child policy and a black market in children, some local officials in China have “treated babies as a source of revenue, routinely imposing fines of $1,000 or more--five times as much as an average local family’s yearly income.” The New York Times reports.

“If parents could not pay the fines, the babies were illegally taken from their families and often put up for adoption by foreigners, another big source of revenue.”

 

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Further information:

• Chinese Officials Seized and Sold Babies, Parents Say (New York Times)