BLACK MARKET IN BABIES

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27709, 13 July 1955, Page 11

BLACK MARKET IN BABIES

SENATE INQUIRY IN CHICAGO (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, July 10. The Senate Juvenile Delinquency Sub-committee will open hearings in Chicago on Thursday on reported interstate -dealings in black market babies, Senator Estes Kefauver said today. The sub-committee will look into reports that a growing number of young, unmarried mothers are involved in what appears to be a racket in the placing of babies for adoption, he added. Senator Kefauver (Democrat. Tennessee), who is chairman of the subcommittee, said the demand for babies to adopt had grown so much faster than the supply that it had resulted in gross abuses by certain individuals, who had exploited this situation commercially. The aim of the Chicago hearings would be to find out what legislation was needed to break up the “hot baby” racket, he said. Hearings would continue for three days, with witnesses from California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Canada. Senator Kefauver said homes for the babies were selected “not for their suitability, but because of the ability of a family to put up a sum of money. This promiscuous practice results in legal and social difficulties which can jeopardise the happifiess of a family adopting a child and conceivably blight the life of that child,” he said.