Pop icon Madonna has failed in her bid to adopt a second child from Malawi after a court rejected her application, warning that the case could open the door to trafficking in children.
Madonna did not attend the closed-door court hearing in the capital, Lilongwe.
But soon after the decision was made, Madonna's lawyer, Alan Chinula, said the singer had filed a notice to appeal.
Judge Esmie Chondo's ruling addressed concerns among rights groups that by facilitating international adoptions, Malawi's courts could inadvertently expose the nation's children to the threat of human traffickers.
"I must confess that there's a gripping temptation to throw caution to the wind and grant an adoption in the hope that there will be a difference in the life of just one child," she said.
"By removing the very safeguard that is supposed to protect our children, the courts by their pronouncements could actually facilitate trafficking of children by some unscrupulous individuals," she said.
The recently-divorced singer and actress jetted into the southern African state last Sunday accompanied by her 12-year-old daughter Lourdes and three-year-old David Banda, whom she adopted in 2006 after seeing him in a Malawian orphanage.
The following day she filed her application to adopt Chifundo "Mercy" James, sparking fresh controversy over foreign adoptions.
The judge also noted Chifundo had been placed in one of Malawi's best orphanages, and no longer suffered the grinding poverty endured after her mother died in childbirth.
