Madonna's Adoption Only Hurts Malawi

By adopting Mercy James, Madonna has actually endangered other Malawian orphans, writes Anna Feuchtwang in the Daily Mail. “Corrupt adoption agencies and child traffickers, newly alerted to the ease with which Malawian laws can be circumvented, are even now planning to target the country,” writes Feuchtwang, chief executive of a charity that helps families stay together, citing examples of orphans sold into “forced labor or prostitution.”

“Mercy may have gained the ultimate Material Girl as her new mum, but I fear she might have lost far more,” Feuchtwang continues. As opposed to Mercy’s “fairy tale” life with Madonna, “children prosper best within their own families and communities, however poor they are” and a “misguided” Madonna would do more good by giving children like Mercy “a future among the families that love them.” (More Madonna stories.)