Baby-Stealing Charges Halt Adoptions

Guatemala and Vietnam, two of the most popular countries for international adoptions, recently halted their programs, following reports that some babies are kidnapped and put up for adoption or birth mothers coerced—fueled by the $30,000 an adoption can fetch. Vietnam says it will no longer allow adoptions to the US, while Guatemala will resume them only after slogging through a case-by-case review of pending adoptions.

The move leaves thousands of would-be parents in limbo. Last year US families adopted 828 children from Vietnam and 4,728 from Guatemala, CNN reports; as many as 1 in 100 children born in Guatemala winds up living in an adoptive family in the US. (More adoption stories.)