Every  year, approximately  40,000  “intercountry”  adoptions take place  An intercountry  adoption entails “a change of the adopted child’s habitual country of residence but not necessarily of  the  child’s citizenship. Intercountry  adoptions  represent fifteen percent of the total number of worldwide adoption. The United   States   is   the   leading   country   for   adoptions,   both domestic  and intercountry,  with  intercountry  adoptions accounting  for  roughly  fifteen  percent  of  all  U.S. adoptions. 

 

Every  year,  a  number  of  children  are  offered  for  adoption through illegal means or are adopted by those who should not be adopting children. While these practices are not limited to intercountry adoptions, the instances of wrongdoing are difficult enough  to  uncover  in  adoptions  that  one  knows about,  and virtually   impossible   to   discover   when   an   adoption   occurs overseas, outside of the knowledge of the United States. Because of this difficulty, this Comment will talk about intercountry adoptions alone, but the principles  discussed  can be applied to domestic adoptions.