Children Bought for Transplant Use, Honduran Aide Says

Foreigners have adopted Honduran babies and then sold their body parts for use in organ implants, a Honduran official said in a newspaper interview published Friday.

Leonardo Villeda Bermudez, secretary general of the National Social Welfare Commission, said that many of the babies adopted for organ implants had physical deformities.

“At first it was believed that they were noble people who took these children because they really felt affection for them,” Villeda said in an interview with La Tribuna newspaper. “But with time it was discovered that they wanted to sell them for parts.”

“For example, they would take out their eyes for needy children and use them in body parts trafficking . . . ,” he said.

He said the practice was discovered by government investigators and that adoption procedures had been tightened to prevent such practices.

Cases have also been uncovered of Honduran children being adopted for use in Satanic rites and sexual abuse, according to La Tribuna.

Hundreds of U.S. couples visit Honduras yearly because of the relatively lenient adoption practices here, Honduran lawyers say.