City officials are trying to shut down an advertising agency that has found a legal loophole allowing it sell babies to adoptive parents. ``For You Too: A Child from the Third World for 12,000 marks ($7,270),'' reads an advertising flier from the Frankfurt-based Hamel and Keller agency. Strict laws bar private adoption agencies. ``We are completely legal,'' Uwe Hamel, 32, told The Associated Press. ``All we are doing is breaking through the monopoly of state-run offices that put couples wanting to adopt through the torture of long waits and tests before they get a child.'' To circumvent the adoption law, Hamel says, a prospective adoptive father declares himself the father of an illegitimate child and signs a contract with the baby's mother, who is paid to verify his claim. The adoptive father then applies to a West German court for the child to be declared his legitimate offspring, Hamel said. Hamel said he makes about $3,000 as the go-between, with the rest of the fee going to the mother. ``There is nothing in our law that forbids this,'' he said. The agency sends its advertising fliers to prospective adoptive parents and gynecologists. ``I can arrange immediately for a child. The prices: 30,000 marks ($18,000) for a child from the Middle East; 15,000 marks ($9,000) for a child from the Far East; 45,000 marks ($27,000) for a German child,'' one flier said. Frankfurt city officials are working to shut down Hamel's office ``because it is morally and ethically wrong to profit by selling human beings,'' city spokesman Stefan Lauer told the AP. Last year, Frankfurt won a court order to shut down United Families International, an information office for the Infertility Center of Michigan, Inc. The Michigan office is operated by American lawyer Noel P. Keane, who gained fame in the ``Baby M'' surrogate motherhood case. ``We closed down the Keane office last year, and in this case we also think it is morally and ethically wrong to make a profit by trading in children,'' Lauer said. The case has been getting heavy publicity. The Frankfurter Rundschau published an article about Hamel's operation under the headline, ``Businessman Deals in Babies from the Third World.'' The Frankfurt Abendpost newspaper wrote: ``Frankfurt Office Takes Advantage of Law's Loopholes for Scandalous Baby Trade.'' Different prices does not mean the agency considers one baby more valuable than another because of race, Hamel said. ``In West Germany a mother is entitled to as much as 2,000 marks ($1,480) per month to support herself and a child. ``A Third World mother can often support herself and a baby for about 200 marks ($120) per month, depending on which country she's from,'' he added. Hamel said he has so far arranged the adoption of nine babies. His office has been operating for two months.
