Madonna: Malawi adoption 'saved a life'

Madonna said today she was “saving a life” when she initiated the adoption of Malawian boy David Banda.

The singer also called for increased adoption from the African nation.

“There’s over a million orphans in Malawi, and in my opinion the laws need to change because these children need to be rescued,” the Material Girl told David Letterman’s Late Show on CBS.

Madonna, 48, said she had been warned that pursuing an adoption from the country could be difficult.

“My social worker ... said, ‘Good luck. You’re going to be making it up as you go along’,” the pop star recalled.

“She didn’t say don’t do it, but she just said expect challenges, and, boy, did we get them.”

Madonna and her British husband, film director Guy Ritchie, 38, have been allowed to take one-year-old David to their home in London. She has two other children, Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, six.

Yohane Banda surrendered his son to an orphanage after his wife died last year. The couple’s two other sons died in infancy from malaria. Banda has said he wants David to stay with Madonna and Ritchie.

But human rights groups in Malawi have said they are concerned the government cut legal corners to fast-track the adoption and they want adoption laws there clarified. A November court ruling allowed a coalition of rights groups to monitor the process.

On the show, Letterman expressed support for the adoption.

“I found it a little upsetting that there was such a tumult and furore over this when in fact the net result was here we have a human being that now has a life,” he said.