Greece: 12-year-old girl arrested for selling her baby
Policemen shout slogans during a demonstration of Greek security forces against the new austerity measures in Athens on February 28, 2012.
A 12-year-old girl was arrested in Greece today after she tried to sell her baby to undercover police officers, Athens News reported. The baby was 10-weeks-old.
The girl was not acting alone, according to police. They also arrested her 44-year-old aunt and her aunt's parents, ages 65 and 71. They are charged with illegal adoption.
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The young woman was arrested in the small town of Xrysoupoli. She was selling the baby for $16,400, CBS News reported. The baby is now hospitalized for observation.
The news comes after another woman was sentenced in a much larger baby-selling scandal last month in the United States. Theresa Erickson, 43, was sentenced to five months in prison and fined $70,000 for recruiting women to act as surrogates. Erickson would then pretend that the original parents had backed out of the surrogacy and instead put the babies up for adoption. Parents looking to adopt paid about $100,000 for each baby, while the surrogates who completed the pregnancy were paid about $40,00, ABC News reported.
The young Greek girl, however, will not stay in jail long. Police told Athens News that they plan to release her after she is interviewed by a public prosecutor, Athens News reported.
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