BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) _ Government and international officials on Friday urged Romania’s Senate to pass a controversial adoption law that would crack down on a growing practice of selling babies.
The proposed law establishes jail sentences of up to five years for biological parents and baby dealers who accept payment to facilitate adoptions. It also forbids the adoption of children who have been abandoned less than six months.
On Monday, the Senate postponed debate on the bill, which was proposed by the government last month and was passed two weeks ago by Parliament’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies.
If the law is passed, a government committee would control all adoptions instead of the present practice of allowing local courts to handle many of the procedures. This means adoptions would be halted about three months because the government’s Adoption Committee stopped operating last week and doesn’t plan to resume before September.
That has raised a furor of dissent among hundreds of Western couples who are in Romania searching for children to adopt. Some have begun lobbying senators to block the bill.