Mexican doctors arrested for allegedly selling newborns

November 6, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

Three Mexican doctors have been arrested for their alleged role in selling newborns after telling parents the children had died.

In October of 2008, Vanessa Castillo went to Central West Hospital, ready to give birth to her baby girl. What she didn’t realize was that she was going to inadvertently fall into a complex scheme of child trafficking.

Shortly after giving birth through caesarean section, Castillo was told that her baby had been transferred to another hospital due to medical conditions, and a day later, she was told her baby had died from complications and had been cremated.

Believing her baby girl to be dead, Castillo was surprised to receive an e-mail from the son of a director at Central West Hospital, stating that her baby girl had been nabbed and sold to another family.

Castillo notified the police, and an investigation began, leading to the arrest of three doctors, a nurse, and a receptionist. Luis Genaro, deputy attorney general of Mexico City, said that the baby had been sold to a woman for 13,000 pesos ($1,130 U.S.), and that the woman who bought the child is now in custody for allegedly paying the hospital to falsify the child’s birth certificate.

Genaro also said that investigations are ongoing to determine how many other babies were similarly kidnapped and sold. The arrested personnel from the hospital now face charges of falsifying documents, trafficking in minors, and organizing criminal activities.

Castillo was reunited with her baby girl, now one year old, on Thursday after a series of medical tests were performed to verify that Castillo was the mother of the child.