The “Legal Trafficking” of Brazilian Children : Adoption as a Solution to Poverty Following the “scandal” surrounding the trafficking of children in the state of São Paolo, Brazil, in the 1990’s, legislative and judicial reports stipulated that the adoptions were carried out without giving the biological families the opportunity to legally defend themselves against the seizure of their children. Those responsible for allowing the adoptions were acquitted despite the fact that in many cases, the accusations of abandonment and mistreatment were never proven. These questionable verdicts are explained by the widely-held belief in Brazil that the adoption of Brazil’s poorest children by well-off families (both Brazilian and foreign) is a necessary solution to the problems of the country, a chance for these children to escape a “miserable life” where they most likely would have become delinquents or prostitutes. Now, rather than being abandoned, these children have become the objects of debate in Brazil.