What a Chilean Adoptee can stumble upon when going through the adoption papers

A translation from a letter sent on the 10th of July 1974 to aspirant adoption parents

Cascavel, 10 juli, 1974

A while ago I received your letter of 30 May 1974 and it has taken a while to answer you, especially as I wanted to find out something in this area.

After all, there is a possibility to “adopt” children here who are unlawful and it was the very degree of illegitimacy that I wanted to check.

To be clearer, the following:

Many children born here are not wanted or too much, as in many other countries. As a rule, these children are cared for by neighbors or friends, who then either simply raise the child while it remains officially registered in the name of the natural parents or immediately after birth, register the child as if it were their own. That is actually a false declaration, which will never cause further problems, especially when the natural parents are partially unknown. At least it is a much used way to adopt a child without much hassle: after all, once registered, it is just your own.

Real adoption in Brazil is just as complicated and laborious as in the Netherlands:

Now you can also apply the above method of “false declaration” as a foreigner. One of the parents or both parents then come here, with a tourist visa, they “get” a child here, report it as if it were their own and natural child. That child is a Brazilian citizen according to Brazilian law – here the place of birth determines the nationality – and according to Dutch law it is a Dutch – because it is “born” of Dutch parents. Then have a passport made – Brazilian of course – for that child, ask permission from the juvenile judge to travel with the child “abroad”, go back to the Netherlands and have the child registered there in the civil register.

In short, this is the way in which it is clandestinely possible.

You can feel that this maneuver is rather costly in the first place. You have to stay in Brazil for some time. It is difficult to say how long, but it will take some time. If you have the child here – you indicate that it is your own – then the woman was pregnant before she went to travel. Because you can’t fly anymore when the woman is, I believe, six months pregnant. If you do not want to arouse suspicion, the stay here must be for a few months.

Once there was a Swedish organization that organized adoption for people in this way and some time ago this was stopped by the government. Logically, because the semi-illegal system can lead to a huge child trafficking.

Moreover, difficulties may arise when you want to register the child obtained in this way in the Netherlands. I don’t know exactly which one, but a Dutch authority can certainly inform you about this.

In short: this illegal road is not recommended, no matter how tempting it may seem. I understand your desire – we have recently received more letters and again: sometimes children are just “given away” here. You would love to do more. But on the other hand, I can also understand that governments – both the Brazilian and the Dutch – are holding all kinds of talks here in order not to open a broad way for trafficking in children and babies, which would turn all kinds of dirty people into a profitable business.

Hoping that I have helped you with this information, also hoping that some other way might open up for you to see your wishes fulfilled,

Wishing you God’s blessing in your life,
P. Gilhuis