单项选择题

MADONNA seems like a person used to getting her own way. So the pop star must have been dismayed when a court in Malawi refused to her request to adopt a three-year-old girl, Chifundo James. A judge ruled on Friday April 3rd that the adoption of Chifundo could not go ahead because Madonna had not fulfilled residency requirements. The last time Madonna tried to adopt a Malawian child she met with more success and a heap of criticism.
By plucking David Banda from grinding poverty in Malawi in 2006 she provoked mixed reactions. Some praised the singer for offering a child an escape from a life of misery. Others suggested that the pop queen might have used her wealth and stardom to bypass usual procedures and jump the queue. Detractors also suggested that it was wrong to take David away from his country of birth and his remaining family. The criticisms grew louder when it emerged that David was not, in fact, an orphan.
That circumstance is not particularly uncommon. Children given up for adoption often do have a surviving parent but one who cannot provide adequate care. David’s father was still alive but gave him up to an orphanage where he hoped his offspring would have a better life.
The number of families from rich countries wanting to adopt children from poor countries has grown substantially in the past 30 years. And there is little shortage of children who need additional help. In 2005 it was estimated that there were 132m children who had lost at least one parent in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Around 13m of these had lost both parents, although most of them lived with extended family.
But difficulties abound. (Would-be parents) typically want to adopt a healthy, young, orphan, usually a small baby. Older children, or those who suffer chronic illnesses, are not in demand.
Governments are understandably uneasy about outsiders removing their citizens. And as demand for children to adopt has grown, so have examples of abuse, including cases of children who have been kidnapped or parents who have been coerced or bribed. The absence of effective international regulation also allows middlemen to profit from the demand for children to adopt.
The Hague Convention on Inter Country Adoptions is intended to regulate international adoptions. It states that these can only go ahead if the parents’ consent, where applicable, has been obtained without any kind of payment or compensation. Costs and expenses can be paid, and a reasonable fee may go to the adoption agency involved, but nothing more.

The adoption regulations in the Hague Convention will ban （）.

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