Maybe I shock easily but I hope tomorrow won’t bring any more shocking news. The first thing that shocked me today is learning from sinoangle’s comment to a post of mine that in France you are allowed to legally abandon your baby by signing an X on the birth certificate. Quelles horreurs, quelle barbarie!

And then I learn about discrimination in the matter of drug offenses as reported by Harlow’s Monkey. Women who use crack (mostly black) are sentenced at rates as high as 100 times greater than women who use powder cocaine (mostly white). That’s my calculation considering there is a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison for possession of 5 grams of crack versus 500 grams for powder cocaine. Add to that higher imprisonment rates for blacks in general.

Last but not least, I read this today about new Hague-compliant procedures in Guatemala adoptions:

After almost 25,000 adoptions over the past 18 years, this is the first time mothers have been required to legally relinquish their children in front of a government official. Before, U.S. and Guatemalan authorities simply accepted a sworn statement provided by the same lawyer who handled the adoption.

Of 66 women called in each day, only half show up.

Authorities suspect that those not showing up are lying low in order not to be charged with crimes. That’s a 50% no-show/suspect rate! Unglaublich! Given this figure it’s hard to understand the following statement from the same AP report:

The old system was riddled with conflicts of interest, false paperwork and illegal payments, but it quickly delivered babies to U.S. homes, and birth mothers could console themselves that their babies would have the chance for a better life.

How about the mothers whose children were stolen because the old system failed them?