Those restrictions are stricter than the Massachusetts adoption requirements. Yet, it is difficult to adopt in Cuba. This may be an area where the Cuban party line overshadows fact. It was claimed that there are less than 700 abandoned children at any given time in Cuba, as a result of strong community-level protection for children, numerous health and education programs, the Cuban Woman's Federation and similar associations, and the average couple in Cuba having only two children. Our delegation was skeptical, but we were told that children available for adoption generally come from parents being in prison or mental hospitals.
International adoptions are very rare in Cuba, although they are legal.
The national policy is to try to keep children in Cuba to preserve their culture and national identity. There is an extreme fear of trafficking in children or organs. Requests from other countries for Cuban children are almost always denied, although not legally forbidden. The Cubans claim that early detection of malformed babies usually results in a termination of the pregnancy, so that most children are born healthy. Driving by a number of Cuban hospitals, however, and knowing that Cuban doctors earn somewhere in the range of Cuban lawyers, raised doubts as to how sophisticated the Cuban medical system is, keeping in mind the oft-mentioned embargo of medical supplies.