Inquiries Into U.S. Baby Selling Trade

Press, Volume C, Issue 29556, 4 July 1961, Page 8

Inquiries Into U.S. Baby Selling Trade

(N.ZP.A. -Reuter— Copyright)

CARSON CITY (Nevada). July 2. State Government authorities in Nevada today are examining their adoption laws and the laws of • other American States after receiving a report that large-scale baby-rackets are flourishing in Nevada, United Press International reported. The report was submitted by the Nevada AttorneyGeneral (Mr Roger Foley).

It said that babies were being sold for as much as 4000 dollars without any regard to the fitness of the people who adopted the infants.

In one case an infant bought in Las Vegas, Nevada, was sold in Los Angeles, California, for 3925 dollars to a man with a record of sexual misconduct with children.

He bought the infant and gave it to his wife as a present for their home, the reoort said. In another incident, a disbarred California lawyer bought a baby in Las Vegas and carried it in a suitcase to Los Angeles where he sold ;i(All are within the law. since baby-selling is not a crime in Nevada, and

licensing laws were loose, the report added. Other incidents mentioned in the report were: In Sparks, about three miles east of Reno, a woman had for the past 25 years operated the “test organised interstate child placing business in Nevada, sending many babies to homes in California. Utah, Arizona and Oklahoma f.r amounts ranging from 400 dollars to 1200 dollars.”

The report said Nevada was the only State where it was not a crime to sell a baby. The State’s Legislature Commission is expected to submit a draft adoption law to the Legislature at its next session.