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From Korea JoongAng Daily, July 07, 2011
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2938514
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A new era for adoption
On June 29, the National Assembly revised the law governing international adoptions and some domestic adoptions, giving adoptees the right to access their adoption information and showing its commitment to family preservation as the best way to protect children’s rights.
This shift towards family preservation is shown by the name change of the standing law from “The Special Act Relating to the Promotion and Procedure of Adoption” to “The Special Act Relating to Adoption.” The bill marks the end of an era in which adoption was equated with the best interests of a child versus empowering the child’s family of origin.
Bill #1812414 was sponsored by the government and approved with 188 yeas, zero nays and four abstentions after passing constitutional, legislative and committee review. This process of law reform was first put into play in 2008 when the Ministry of Health and Welfare commissioned an exploratory advisory group of adoption agency workers, social workers and academics to begin looking into revising the standing law on adoption as a preparatory step towards ratifying the Hague Adoption Convention. The problem with this initial government-appointed group was that it failed to consult single parents, birth family members and adoptees - the very persons who have been directly affected by the standing law.

From Groove Magazine, June 2011
http://issuu.com/dthw8s/docs/groovekorea
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Adoption Scapegoats: Single Moms
What do you say to a man that puts blame on 'promiscuous women'?
By Jenny Na
Adoption from Korea continues today because single mothers are promiscuous.

[LETTER TO THE EDITOR] Overseas Adoption

Once again, the issue of Korean adoption has gained attention in headlines across the world. This time, it is at the unfortunate expenses of an eight-year-old Korean-born girl adopted at the age of four months by a Dutch diplomat and his wife while they were posted in Seoul in 2000, and a one-year-old girl adopted in the American state of Indiana.
While international media has focused on the dubious circumstances surrounding the Poeterays decision to put Jade into the custody of Child Protection Services in Hong Kong, where they are currently stationed, the issue that ultimately needs addressing, is the state of international adoption out of Korea today.
And, in the case of one-year-old Chung Hei-min or Chaeli, adopted from Korea into the Kyrie family earlier this year, it is alleged that her adoptive mother, Rebecca, shook her to death in what is commonly known as shaken baby syndrome.
What these incidents bring up is not necessarily the plight of one particular family or even the future of one particular child. What questions come to mind are these: Why is South Korea still allowing its children to be adopted abroad? And why is this unnecessary, outdated practice still so widely accepted as a viable option? It is not the responsibility of the Dutch government to rectify this matter, or discipline its envoy. Nor is it necessarily the responsibility of Bethany Christian Services to know who may or may not be a suitable adoptive parent.

2007.10.21
Raising a Child Alone in Seoul, South Korea: One Single Mother’s Story
By Annie Sirgey
Eunjeong Park sat, tissue in hand, talking to an audience of about twenty people all gathered in the reception area of a building run by KOROOT, an organization in Seoul that helps connect Korean adoptees with their homeland.  With gaze cast downward, back hunched over, and legs tucked under, she quietly recounted the difficulties she has faced as a single mother raising a child on her own in Seoul today. Her interpreter, a compassionate woman in her early twenties, sat on her left, listening carefully to her every word. She interpreted slowly, her sentences carrying the slurs and monotones of a person who spent a lot of time in North America.

I could see the guest speakers and audience as I rushed toward the sliding glass doors of the building. I was late to this important gathering organized by Adoptee Solidarity Korea (ASK) of which I was a member and hoped I hadn’t missed too much. I wanted to get a first-hand account of the trials and tribulations single mothers in Korea face. It turns out I caught the tail end of the first talk given by a short woman with a small oval face sitting on Eunjeong’s right. I would have to get her story from another member of the audience later.

First published in the GOA'L Newsletter Spring 2007
Aeranwon Group Discussions
For the last few months, Adoptee Solidarity Korea (ASK) has been organizing meetings between adoptees and single mothers at Aeranwon (애란원), a home for single mothers.
These meetings, or Big Group Discussions, are mandatory for all single mothers staying at Aeranwon.  Most of the women are in the decision making stage about whether they are going to keep their baby, or give them up for adoption, domestic or international, though some have already made their decision prior to attending the discussion.
The main purpose is to facilitate dialog between adoptees and single mothers in a safe environment.  Adoptees are encouraged to share their stories about growing up in their respective countries.  Single mothers ask many questions about adoptees’ experiences, and the adoptees are also encouraged to ask the single mothers questions.
Su-Yoon Ko from ASK is currently the point person coordinating schedules between adoptees, Aeranwon and volunteer translators.  She encourages anyone who wants to speak, to come and do so.  She thinks it is extremely important for single mothers to hear a variety of adoptee experiences, not just the extremes.  Some adoptees feel they don’t have anything to say, or that their story is “typical”.  Su-Yoon asks you to reconsider.  “Typical” or not, your story is still unique because it’s yours, and it deserves the chance to be heard.
Su-Yoon has put together a “training” packet (for lack of a better word) for adoptees.  It describes the general format of the discussions, and questions birthmothers have asked in the past.  This is to help adoptees prepare since the questions can be intimate, complex and candid.  But it also is an opportunity for adoptees to give complex, unedited answers- which is often not possible because if time restraints, media portrayal choices beyond our control, or (for a variety of reasons) unsafe environments.  This is also an opportunity for adoptees to ask the single mothers questions.  For some, this may be the closest thing we get to speaking to our own birthmothers.

Why ASK?
By Kim Stoker
Published in The OAK/G.O.A.'L. Newsletter
Winter 2007
*한극어: 아래에있는글을 보세요*
I’m often asked about ASK (Adoptee Solidarity Korea) – what is it, what do we stand for, who’s in it – questions that, in of themselves are not really surprising since the notion of inquiring about adoption is something that ASK encourages people to do. But somehow the answers don’t always come easy. One reason for that is because international adoption is not always the simplest of issues to discuss. It is complicated, nuanced, emotional, and integrally important to all of our lives. Sometimes I might refer people to visit our website since it contains such information as our mission and vision statements as well as papers and news articles related to adoption. We also have announcements about our monthly forums and other activities that we sponsor. And yet the website doesn’t seem to say everything either. And then there is the confusion with our name in Korean, which is 국외 입양인 연대, not to be confused with the name of GOA’L 해외입양인 연대. This causes confusion not so much among the adoptee community, but more with the Korean community, in particular, news outlets. It’s true that our names are similar in Korean but what we represent is somewhat different.
Adoptee Solidarity Korea is, in essence, a group of adult adoptees living in Korea who are working towards a day where intercountry adoption (ICA) out of Korea is no longer necessary. We believe that while the issue of ICA is related to the past, it is not bound by it. The Republic of South Korea today is very different from the country that it was 15-20-30-40 years ago when the majority of us were sent abroad for adoption. Our opinions about ICA have, by and large, been directly informed by the experiences that we’ve had living in this country, the country of our birth. We’ve formed our opinions based on the knowledge that we’ve accumulated through reading articles about adoption, our own personal experiences with Korean society, adoption agencies, search, birth families, adoptive families, and most importantly – from each other, from all of us who are members of our community – this sometimes seemingly random assortment of diverse characters from all over the world.

Why Should Korean Intercountry Adoption End?
Written by Adoptee Solidarity Korea
Published in The OAK/G.O.A.'L. Newsletter
Fall 2006
*한극어: 아래에있는글을 보세요*
Over the past year, there has been a lot of activity involving the issue of intercountry adoption out of Korea. In the fall of 2005, the former Minister of Health and Welfare, Kim Geun Tae, announced that Korea would end intercountry adoption within 4 to 5 years. Around the same time, members of the National Assembly held 3 separate hearings on the issue of Korean intercountry adoption, at which adoptees were invited to speak. Finally, in the spring of last year, Assembly woman Ko Kyung-hwa began drafting legislation to end intercountry adoption, though at the time of this article the proposal has not yet been presented to the Assembly.
In response to these activities, adoption agencies have initiated a letter writing campaign. The campaign encourages adoptees to write to members of the National Assembly, stating that they support the continuation of intercountry adoption because they are happy with their lives and are grateful for being adopted.

Complexity of Intercountry Adoption
August 2006
by Boon Young Han
The past year has been a busy one for those concerned with legislation on child welfare in Korea. 2005 ended with the controversial announcement from the former minister of Health and Welfare Kim Gun Tae that intercountry adoption would be brought to an end within 4 to 5 years. As various congressmen and women are working on legislation to carry out the practical aspects of a ban to intercountry adoption, criticism is coming from all parties having a stake in the current practice.
As an overseas adoptee based in Korea the last 4 years, involvement in the politically active adoptee community in Korea has become a conscious choice along with my pursuit of a masters degree in Korean Studies. I often see the adoption issue simplified at the expense of valuable information. Thus, most literature and other sources on adoption are still primarily grounded in personal stories. A representation carried out by only a small percentage of the more than 150,000 overseas Korean adoptees sent to more than 30 different cultures since the Korean War. My involvement in the adoptee community tells me that we have great diversity and thus is it of equal importance to show this span of experiences. However, though these statements are valuable from an anthropological point of view, I hope the discourse of the practice of intercountry adoption will allow itself to be directed by factual statements over those of emotional character.
Being new to the issue of child welfare and the structure of intercountry adoption in Korea, I was surprised to learn that children send overseas today mainly come from single mothers. Thus are the images we have of the post-war abandoned street children far from relevant to the 2006 situation. Only 8 of the 11,447 children sent overseas between 2001-2005 came from an institutional background. During the same period 32 children came from broken families, leaving the majority, being 99.7% born to single mothers. Regardless of how intercountry adoption from Korea started, and regardless of my experiences in both my adoptive country and Korea, the children likely to be affected by the upcoming bill on intercountry adoption are those from single mothers. Thus, giving them a family outside of Korea, is not only an act of providing them with a family environment, but it becomes an act of depriving them of their ties to their birth family, original environment, culture and linguistic heritage. These are the issues to take into consideration in the discussion of intercountry adoption.
Single mothers dominated the picture of reason for adoption as early as the 80’s. Close to three out of four children left a family behind upon their adoption in that decade and it has steadily increased since then. Thus, adoption, and in particular intercountry adoption, has most of all today become a means to separate Korean mothers from their children. Furthermore, as adoption is a privately run activity in Korea, the government, by default benefits from the practice. The four agencies licensed to handle intercountry adoption receive government funding, but largely operate on the profit made by the adoptions, including donations. Knowing that the adoption agencies by law are allowed to charge close to 10 mill won per intercountry adoption, this being 5 times more the limit for domestic adoptions, reasonable doubt can be directed towards them, their incentives and reasons for being.

To The Editor:
More than a week has passed since the Adoptee Gathering 2004 was held for the first time in Seoul.  From August 4 through August 8 over 400 adult adoptees representing 15 nations returned to Korea, the land of their birth. Yet for the vast majority of the approximately 200,000 Korean adoptees dispersed throughout the world since 1953, they will never return. And for the scores of adoptees who have chosen to live and work here in Korea who did not attend the Gathering – whether by choice, lack of financial means, or working conflicts, the decision to be here is neither simple nor easy. And never will it be so.
Certainly we are small in numbers, but what we represent, what the product of our pasts reveals about this small peninsular country which in the 50 years since the end of the Korean War has become the 12th largest economy in the world, is a history that continues to allow itself to be marred by the unequal circumstances of poverty, social conservatism, political inferiority, missionary zeal, racism, prejudice, ignorance, the unequal status of women (hoju-je), and a lack of social welfare and sex education.  The simple fact that South Korea continues to export its children abroad, at the rate of more than 2,000 babies per year, especially when the domestic birthrate is at its all-time lowest, is nothing less than a disgrace.
Now that the Korean press has filed away its reports, the television crews have packed up their bags, and the stories about “successful” adoptees, tearful reunions, and adoptees’ struggles with identity can once again be forgotten, what does that leave us, the adoptees, with?  Now that the press, with the aim to assuage and indulge the guilty consciences of the public, has gone on to the next newsworthy item, what will be done as a result of all those editorials calling for the ceasing of international adoption?  What changes will be done as a result of Koreans’ embarrassment and shame about the adoption “issue?”
I think nothing will be done – by Koreans, that is.  Because if the government was going to do something about changing the policy of international adoption, it would have done so already, like it has promised to do in the past.  Despite every obstacle we face, it is we, the Korean Adoptees, who are now taking the initiative to organize ourselves into a Network of like-minded adoptees and allies who aim to reform the practice of international adoption out of Korea.  International adoption should not be an option.
Kim Stoker, Duksung Women's University, Seoul
18 August 2004