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[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 And why is this unnecessary, outdated practice still so widely accepted as a viable option?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.
Ultimately, it is the responsibility for the Korean government to make the necessary changes in social welfare policy that will ensure protection of its children so that they can stay within their own families in Korea, instead of being sent abroad to be raised by foreigners in Western countries. It is time that Korea sign and ratify the Hague Convention on International Adoption, and truly protect its own children. Clearly, the cases of Jade and Chaeli show that being adopted into a Western family is not always a better alternative. It is time for Korea to act like a developed country that can take care of its own.
By Kim Stoker
The writer is ASK Representative who addresses the problems associated with Korean overseas adoption. - Ed.
2007.12.24
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Adoption Scapegoats: Single Moms - June 2011
Raising a Child Alone in Seoul, South Korea: One Single Mother's Story...
