Yes, the child is saved from a chance at spending a lifetime in abject poverty. The financial benefit is clear ? the child will receive much more love and care than they would have if they remained in an orphanage bursting at the seams with other abandoned or orphaned children. The child will be kitted out in the best clothes, given the best toys, have the best medical care available and go to the best schools. They will have a life that they could never have imagined back home, and because of who their parents are, doors will be opened to them and the red carpet laid out for them.

But they also spend every moment in the public eye ? everything from their first steps to their first date is captured on camera by the overzealous paparazzi. In order to prevent this, some celebrity parents go overboard, covering up their children while rushing around from Point A to Point B. And they will be reminded of their adoption in every article about their mother and every photograph published of them with their father.

I suppose it is the question that arises with any adoption. How do we know, for a fact, that this child's life will be better now that it is part of the A-List family?

The celebrity adoption trend has also forced many countries to re-examine their adoption laws ? as they have in Malawi and Ukraine ? which may close the door to less famous hopeful parents with equally good intentions. And the fact that many celebrities make large donations or contributions to the countries they plan to adopt from raises the bar to levels most parents could not dream of. Adoption laws are often bent or broken outright for celebrities, allowing them to go on baby shopping trips. I have visions of some Paris Hilton-type clone strolling through an African orphanage pointing a long manicured finger at a baby with big eyes and all its teeth and demanding: "I'll take that one".

I believe that most ? if not all ? celebrities adopt foreign children with the very best of intentions. They have so much, why not share a little? Why not save one child from an uncertain future and bring them into the warmth? I just don't know if they realise the effect that their constant exposure to the world will have on their new brood.