During the 1990s there was a dramatic fall in intercountry adoptions of Brazilian children — from over 2,000 per annum at the beginning of the decade to under 400 at the decade's close. On the basis of documentary material, Claudia Fonseca outlines possible reasons for this drop, considering hypotheses linked to the international market of adoptable children, legal restrictions on intercountry adoption imposed by the Brazilian government, and, finally, scandals in the mass media which stigmatise local intermediaries and officials involved in this activity.
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