Madonna publicly defended her adoption of a 13-month-old Malawian boy named David Banda, releasing an open letter through Britain's Press Association after the child arrived in the UK on Tuesday following a private flight from Lilongwe.
The pop star and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, said the adoption process had been underway for several months and was conducted fully within the law. Critics in Malawi, however, alleged the adoption violated local regulations.
Additional opposition came from human rights organizations and children's charities, which argued that Madonna's considerable wealth could do more good by helping African parents cope with the AIDS crisis and keeping orphaned children within their own communities.
In her letter, Madonna said the decision to adopt was not taken lightly, and that she wanted to give one child a chance to escape severe poverty and hardship. She cited Malawi's status as one of the world's poorest nations, with more than 1 million orphans, as central to her choice.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in October 2006, in its own words.