To save adopted girl, couple gives her up

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Jennifer and Todd Hemsley had to give up their child to save her.

Like thousands of other would-be parents, the California couple made a $15,500 down payment to a U.S. agency that guaranteed quick, hassle-free adoptions of Guatemalan babies. And like the others, they were caught in a bureaucratic limbo after Guatemala began cracking down on systemic fraud last year.

Many Americans with pending adoptions lobbied hard for quick approval of their cases, trying to bypass a new system designed to prevent identity fraud and the sale or even theft of children to feed Guatemala’s $100 million adoption business.

But Jennifer Hemsley did what Guatemala’s new National Adoptions Council says no other American has done this year: She refused to look the other way when she suspected her would-be daughter’s identity and DNA samples were faked.

She halted the adoption of Maria Eugenia Cua Yax, whom the couple named Hazel. And she stayed in Guatemala for months, spending thousands of dollars, until she could safely deliver the girl into state custody.

Her decision could mean the Hemsleys — Jennifer is a freelance designer and Todd creates visual effects in the film industry — may never be able to adopt the little girl.

Hemsley says it was the only thing she could have done, morally.

“It wasn’t even a choice. We did what I hope any parent would do: Put their child first.”

The Hemsleys say they had many reasons for suspicion. The final straw was a doctor’s statement that said DNA samples were taken from the baby and birth mother on a date when Hazel was with Jennifer Hemsley.

If all it takes is a doctor’s signature to hide a switch in DNA, it would challenge the bedrock evidence on which the U.S. Embassy has depended to guarantee the legitimacy of thousands of Guatemalan adoptions over the past 10 years. Doctors’ statements are routinely accepted on faith by the U.S. Embassy, Guatemalan authorities and adoptive American parents.

Guatemala’s quick adoptions made the nation of 13 million the world’s second-largest source of babies to the U.S. after China. But last year the industry was closed down, starting with an August 2007 raid on what had been considered one of the country’s most reputable adoption agencies.

Voluminous fraud has been exposed since then — false paperwork, fake birth certificates, women coerced into giving up their children and even baby theft. At least 25 cases resulted in criminal charges against doctors, lawyers, mothers and civil registrars.

Thousands of adoptions, including that of the Hemsleys, were put on hold until this year, when the newly formed National Adoptions Council began requiring birth mothers to personally verify they still wanted to give up their children. Of 3,032 pending cases, nearly 1,000 were dismissed because no birth mother showed up.

Understaffed and with few resources, the adoptions council ruled out new DNA tests as too costly and time-consuming. All but a few hundred cases have been pushed through in the months since.

“The ramifications are immense,” Hemsley said. “How many children adopted by U.S. families may have had DNA falsifications such as this, and the U.S. adopting family is unknowing of the fraud?”

Prompted by the Hemsleys, Guatemalan investigators are trying to determine Hazel’s true identity and have opened a criminal investigation into the people who vouched for her paperwork.

The new rules require authorities to consider Guatemalan citizens before Americans, and several dozen Guatemalan couples are in line ahead of the Hemsleys. But they aren’t giving up yet.

Jennifer Hemsley returned this month to Guatemala City, where she briefly held Hazel — now more than 19 months old — at a crowded orphanage. She emerged devastated.

“I think about her every day,” Hemsley said. “It’s horrifying on many levels.”