Oh dear: child star from Slumdog Millionaire put up for sale by father

This is one story that really can be seen in either a positive or overly negative light, depending on the reader's viewpoints. One side may argue that the father may actually be trying to do what's right for his daughter's future by reportedly trying to "sell" her to a wealthier family, from which she could then be opened to possibilities like a good education and better career and life options than staying in slumdog India, while the other may, of course, say that he's just trying to make a quick buck off his now-famous kid.

The father of Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali reportedly offered to sell his 9-year-old daughter for nearly $300,000, Britain's News of the World reports.

Trying to confirm that he is fielding several lucrative adoption offers, reporters from the paper posed as a wealthy Middle Eastern family interested in buying the girl.

"I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future," said Rubina's dad, Rafiq Qureshi, who claims to be broke and left with "nothing" from the Oscar-winning flick.

The paper claims that Rubina was originally being sold for $75,000, but her father raised the price after the success of Slumdog.

"The child is special now," the girl's uncle said, according to the paper. "This is an Oscar child!"

Personally, I'm not certain which to believe – the father does seem honest and genuine in his claims of only wanting what's best for his daughter, but then again, so do all the others who just want to give their flesh and blood away for some cash.

In the end, it does, of course, rest on what's best for the child. Should she be taken away from her parents who love her and her family and friends in India, just so she can live with a wealthier family (who may very well love her as well in the end as true adoptive parents) and have access to a better education and a better all-around quality of life, or should she forgo all that just to remain in her as-of-yet life's setting? Is either way "worth it"?

Personally, I'd say that if it was done and handled right, she should be given the chance to a better quality of life. Family and friends and loved ones may be good and all, of course, but it's not worth it to merely be loved if she isn't going to live the best life she could. Children (and the rest of people, of course) should have the chance to live their lives to their fullest – get the best education, land the best careers, and overall do whatever it is that they want to. But of course, that would depend on what's best for the child.

But I suppose that's for the courts to decide now.