Gov't warns mothers against selling babies for profit

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The government warned today women who are selling their babies for profit, saying their acts violate the adoption law and should be punished.

Corazon Soliman, secretary for Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), issued the warning following reports of children being sold by their mothers who could not raise the babies.

"We should be alarmed by reports of babies being sold. This is also a form of birth simulation which evades the legal adoption process thereby violating Republic Act 8552 (the Domestic Adoption Act of 1998)," she said.

According to Soliman, any person who tampers the birth registration of a child or any physician, nurse, or health personnel who collaborate in such an illegal act are  guilty of birth simulation.

Birth simulation, or the tampering of the civil registry birth records of a certain child, will cause the child to lose her or his true identity and status.

Without giving any statistics, Soliman, however, said that some poor pregnant women unable to raise their babies offered them to childless couples for illegal adoption in exchange for money.

Instead of selling their babies, she encouraged these women to resort to proper legal adoption process.