Opinion: A Fundamental Solution to Adoption Problems

Occasionally, we will link to media opinions on aspects of adoption and child welfare that you may never have thought about. This opinion piece discusses stopping the vicious cycle of poverty –the underlying problem for many adoption cases.

 A fundamental solution to adoption problems [Korea Herald 5/14/12 by Park Hee-jung] is a must-read.

Some excerpts:

Poverty the original cause

“The government’s adoption policy is still going on without change. About 1,000 children are being adopted to foreign countries each year. Absolute poverty was the fundamental reason for adoption until the 1970s. Recently relative poverty, unequal earnings, social prejudice, and especially the fact that the unmarried mothers can’t raise their children, are the main reasons such adoption continues. ”

Corruption and Poverty

“It is very important to keep track of what the United Nations is recommending to Korea by the Human Rights Report made through the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. They urge Korea to establish an independent government organization to regulate and supervise adoption and post-adoption services.

This should include making new laws regarding underground businesses such as Internet adoption. In order to implement this recommendation, we should focus on what the fundamental solution is and how to prevent the problem from getting worse than it is. ”

We need to continue to study what the main causes are. The statistics from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs was shocking to me. They show that number of adoptees from unmarried mothers has increased a lot. They show that 94 percent of domestic adoptees were from unmarried mothers. For overseas adoptees, the figure was 65 percent.

Based on this, it seems the main reason women give up their babies is related to poverty of unmarried mothers. Therefore policy makers should keep in mind the status and needs of unmarried mothers.

This poverty causes a vicious circle. I participated in the investigation of the status of the adopted and unmarried mothers, and post-adoption service while I was working at the adoption agency in Korea.

The greed of the adoption agencies plays a significant role in sustaining the problem by urging unmarried mothers who are in poverty to give up the custody of their children. While the adoption agencies receive a commission of $2,000 when they carry out the adoption to a domestic family, they can receive a commission close to $20,000 for an overseas adoption.
Often, unmarried mothers live in the adoption facilities to allow them to hide their pregnancies. There are 25 such facilities in Korea, of which 17 are run by the adoption agencies. The mothers can stay in there only if they promise to put their babies forward for adoption. ”

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