NEW YORK: A popular toy-marketing campaign in which girls browse through hospital-style nurseries to choose a doll to "adopt," has come under fire from adoption advocates who say the programme conveys a notion that adopted children are saleable commodities.

"Your campaign is insidiously offensive, stigmatising and demeaning, and it should end," wrote Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, in a letter sent to executives whose stores host the Newborn Nursery Adoption Centres. The centres feature employees dressed as nurses, provide make-believe adoption forms and offer 22 different models of $100 (about Rs. 4,500) baby dolls made by Lee Middleton Original Dolls. The company had been the last major dollmaker in the U.S. before moving its production to China.

In a statement, the company said the Newborn Nursery concept "presents the adoption process in a positive manner and does not debase in any way the real life practice." — AP

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