Displaying 31 - 40 of 49
This article, from Korea Exposé, shines light on the many difficulties and obstacles that South Korean adoptees face in trying to identify and locate their birth families. The article describes the birth family search process of one Korean adoptee, David Zastrow, who was adopted from South Korea to the United States at 4 months old. Zastrow met several roadblocks along the way, including lack of transparency, unhelpful or disorganized agencies in the US and Korea, challenges with privacy laws in Korea, and loopholes in the 2011 revision to South Korea’s Special Adoption Law…
New research explores the traumatic experiences of children adopted from South Korean orphanages by American families following the end of the Korean War.
Since South Korea's adoption of a law banning adoption agencies from accepting undocumented babies, the number of infants abandoned in the country have increased.
The recent death of a deported Korean adoptee ignites adoptee-led organizations to call on the Korean government to end the "industrialized international adoption" system in South Korea.
Adam Crapser was adopted and brought to the U.S. from South Korea at four years old. Now, at 41, he's forced to return to a country he barely knows.
This article discusses how and why intercountry adoptions have dropped so dramatically in the recent years. According to the article, “sending” countries, like China, have adopted the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. Many countries and NGOs have promoted an adoption process, which only considers international adoption when all other alternatives have been tried. There has also been an increase in restrictions and requirements which favor domestic adoption. There are differing opinions as to whether or not these…
This article from the BBC News describes the phenomenon of child abandonment in South Korea in light of a recent change in the law which requires all births to be registered, leading many women to give birth in secret and abandon their infants so as to avoid being identified as unmarried mothers, a serious taboo in South Korea. The article features a video and interview with one mother who made the “heartbreaking decision” to give up her baby.
This articles shares the stories of two adoptees in the US from South Korea who are part of a group called Adoptee Solidarity of Korea, which campaigns for an end to international adoption.
This video report from the BBC examines South Koreans’ perspectives on domestic adoption. According to the news piece, South Korea used to be a “great exporter of babies” through foreign adoptions. In the last ten years, however, the South Korean government has been restricting foreign adoptions. Meanwhile, local South Koreans are often unwilling to adopt children, as the culture emphasizes blood ties and there is often stigma associated with raising someone else’s child. This reluctance to adopt has resulted in an increase in the number of children in orphanages, says the BBC. The short…
In the past ten years, South Korea has significantly restricted the adoption of South Korean children by foreigners, says the article. Such that the number of children adopted to other countries is one tenth what it was ten years ago. Though these restrictions were enacted with good intentions, says author Stephen Evans, the unforeseen result has been the dramatic increase in the number of children in South Korean orphanages due to the lingering cultural taboos surrounding adoption in South Korea. This article explores those taboos and the attempts currently underway to ease the stigma…