<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/sep/10/south-korea-finds-mothers-were-forced-to-give-up-babies-for-adoption-abroad>
"South Korea has found new evidence that mothers were forced to give up their
children for adoption in countries including Australia, Denmark and the United
States.
At least 200,000 South Korean children had been adopted abroad since the 1950s,
but allegations have emerged that hospitals, maternity wards and adoption
agencies systematically colluded to force parents – primarily single mothers –
to give up their children.
Adoption workers in some cases insisted that adoptees were abandoned children
and blamed the biological parents for not looking for them.
But a report from a government Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to
investigate the claims has detailed some of the coercive methods used to force
mothers living in welfare shelters to give up their sometimes day-old children.
In one case, a mother unwilling to be separated from her child was recorded as
being “a problem” and “mentally ill”. The record was later updated to explain
that the parental rights’ waiver had been secured and the baby transferred to
an adoption agency.
International adoption was not well understood at the time, according to
researchers who spoke to the
Guardian last year, with parents told that it
was like sending your child to study abroad and that they would come back.
Adoptees said they had grown up being told they were better off as an adoptee
in Denmark than living as an impoverished South Korean child.
Among its recommendations, the commission urged the government to issue a
formal apology and offer financial compensation to victims of the detention
centres."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
