Children For Sale

1991

13 minutes - English

If you know the right person in Bucharest, you can buy just about anything.
Before the fall of Communist dictator Ceaușescu, Americans never went to Bucharest to shop. Today, they are arriving and they are eager to spend. But they aren't looking for clothes, gifts or perfume. 
They are looking to buy children. 
Prices range from $500 to $5000 per head. Middlemen are easy to find. They broker deals between foreigners and Romanian parents looking to make money by selling their young children, with newborns fetching the highest prices. 
60 Minutes' correspondent Lesley Stahl sported a wig and went undercover in Romania looking to purchase a child. She met with 'dealers' of kids and the parents of small children up for sale, and even had a chance to speak with Americans who had bought one themselves.
Armed with a hidden camera, she wanted to know how children have become the hottest commodity on the Romanian black market.