Ms. Cobosh agreed to give her child up, she said, in part because the attorney promised to pay her hospital bills. Within a few weeks of the birth, Ms. Cobosh changed her mind. He told me I'd go to jail. I was scared, so I did it. A sketch of how these brokers work is outlined in dozens of complaints filed with the Guatemalan attorney general's office, and in the testimony of investigators and of mothers who say their babies have been taken from them without their full understanding or consent.
Assistants scour poor neighborhoods looking for prospective donors.
Brothel owners sell the babies of prostitutes to help offset the down time of their pregnant employees, Covenant House investigators said. When she arrived, another young girl, also pregnant, already was working there. Her employer took her for medical checkups and, a week before she was due, drove Ms. Godinez to the hospital. She was given drugs to induce labor, and when they didn't work, she was given a Caesarean section. I ask to see my baby, but the doctor told me it wasn't permitted.