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NOTE: This page from the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism website offers documentation of and background about serious irregularities in international adoption. For the systemic analysis of corruption in international adoption, please read “The Lie We Love,” Foreign Policy magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008, and visit our webpages dedicated to international adoption. For ideas about fairer policy solutions, please read “The Baby Business,” Democracy Journal, Summer 2010.

News Reports of Adoption
 Irregularities in Moldova

“Effort To Place Orphans With Families Meets Surprising Resistance in Moldova,” Elena Moldoveanu, May 31, 2009, Radio Free Europe.

Chisinau—Thirty-seven children live in the run-down state orphanage in the village of Cupcui, some 80 kilometers south of Moldova's capital, Chisinau. Surprisingly, only one of them is actually an orphan.

Many children in Moldovan state institutions have been placed there by their parents, motivated by grinding poverty, alcoholism, or other family problems and encouraged by a paternalistic state. According to official figures, more than 90 percent of the children in Moldova's state institutions nationwide have at least one living parent.

Picture Gallery: “Moldova’s Cupcui Orphanage,” May 31, 2009, Radio Free Europe.

“Adopted Kids Sold Off for Body Parts,” Richard Peppiatt, April 14, 2009, Daily Star.

An evil couple who adopted children to butcher for their body parts have been arrested for murder. The crimes were uncovered after the mutilated corpse of a three-year-old was found battered and burned. Police fear the sick pair may have adopted dozens of impoverished children from orphanages in eastern Europe so they could sell their body parts on the black market.

“Moldova To Temporarily Ban International Adoptions,” January 30, 2009, Radio Free Europe.

Chisinau--Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said he plans to temporarily ban the adoption of Moldovan children by foreign couples, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service has reported.