Swiss babies exported all over the world

The St. Gallen adoption broker Alice Honegger placed babies from “fallen mothers” abroad – sometimes with the knowledge of the authorities. 

An “illegitimate” child often brought women into great distress in the 1950s and 1960s. They became the focus of the authorities, they were put into homes, institutions and women's prisons and “ administratively cared for ”. At the same time, they were pressured to give their babies up for adoption.

Now research by the Observer shows for the first time what happened to the babies: an unknown number were sold off to childless couples abroad. The controversial adoption broker Alice Honegger was also the puller.

It is known and confirmed by various research studies that the St. Gallen woman fulfilled the desire of Swiss couples to have children for 50 years - using ethically questionable methods. Various research studies prove this. Starting in the 1970s, she brought hundreds of babies from Sri Lanka to Switzerland under illegal circumstances . The entries on the adoption certificates were often fictitious; women in Sri Lanka signed them for money, even though they were not the birth mothers (see “Questionable adoptions are investigated,” below).