Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Dream Come True - Termination of Parental Rights in Korea

It took over 15 years to accomplish this in Korea, and the dream has finally been achieved at last.

The Korean National Assembly has just passed a new bill yesterday (December 29, 2011) that would allow more children to be available for adoption by terminating the parental rights.  The new law allows the following:  1) The termination of parental rights to those parents that have given up their parental relationship with their children for three years, especially those children in 280 institutions in Korea, 2) Termination of parental rights for those parents that abuse or neglect their children or unfit to raise them, and 3) That all adoption decisions will be handled by the Children's Court, and that any adoption disruptions must go through a due process of the law through the Children's Court. 
Also, the law raised the adoptable age of a minor from 15 to 18.   This new law will go into effect on July 1, 2013.

Up to now, the knowledge that an orphan has been registered into a family after the birth disqualified children from being available for adoption. This for fear that somewhere in Korea may live a parent of an orphan, and that parent may someday come back to reclaim the child. Currently only the children that have been officially relinquished by their birthmothers, or by the orphanage directors who could sign the relinquishment papers for those children that didn't have any birth registry records, were allowed to be adopted.

Over the years, thousands of children had to grow up into their adulthood as orphans because of their family registry binded them into the families that weren't there for them.  For example, a child is born and the birth family registers the child into the family.  But due to various reasons such as economic hardship or marital conflict, the birth parents decide to put the child into an orphanage, promising that they will someday come back to reclaim the child if their economic or marriage conditions improve.  It is typical that the child will never hear from the birth parents again.  The child has been physically abandoned, but not adoptable due to the fact that he was registered into a family, and due to a fact that somewhere there is a birth parent in Korea that might one day come back to reclaim the child.  In the mean time the child grows up in the orphanage, and never once visited or contacted by his birth parent, and is forced out of the orphanage when he turns 18.  I cannot forget a comment by an orphanage director who really cared for her children.  She said, “The fact that there are birth parents living somewhere in Korea has been the most detrimental to children’s rights to grow up in homes.”

This is a very typical scenario of most of the orphans in Korea.  While many parents promise to take their children back once their condition at home improve, in truth they have abandoned their children completely.  I have been told around 80% of the orphans living in various institutions fall into this category.  Now the orphans will have chance to have families of their own.  Thanks to the new law that was just passed. 

I mentioned at the beginning that it took 15 years to accomplish this.  I first mentioned this issue to the visiting Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) officials at the KAAN Conference in 1997 held at Los Angeles using a message written on a piece of paper.  While the Ministry went through many personnel changes, I never failed to mention this again and again and again each time I visited Korea.  I talked with my MPAK members, and talked with a few professors and a few lawmakers as well.  MPAK has been at the forefront to push for this change for the past 15 years.

In the year 2000, at the very first MPAK National Conference to Promote Domestic Adoption in Korea, we at MPAK put together the Ten Propositions to the Korean Government improve the domestic adoption in Korea ( 대정부건의안).  As of today, nine of those propositions came true. One of them was the establishment of the National Adoption Day, which became reality in 2006, and yesterday’s passage on the termination of parental rights became our ninth proposition that became reality.  I will post in another blog what the other eight propositions were. 

I would like to give a special thanks to Mrs. Han, Youn Hee of MPAK Korea president who shared this same vision and pushed for this many years, and to all the MPAK members who worked as one body to be a voice for so many voiceless children in Korea.  While the three years wait before the parental rights termination is still too long (whereas in the US depending on states the wait is between six to 15 months), nevertheless it is a start. 

I would also like to thank all the adoption agencies that shared the same values and saw the needs of many children and came to their rescue time and time again despite all the criticisms they had to endure over the years. 

14 comments:

  1. Praise the Lord! What a wonderful beginning for many of these kids who have always just wanted to be part of a family! Wonderful news indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is wonderful news on so many levels! Thank you for your committment to seeing this law realized. Now I will begin praying for homes for the many children who will be legally freed for adoption! --Carrie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank God for you and MPAK. I soooo appreciate what your organization does to advocate for those who can't advocate for themselves. You are amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve,

    My daughter's twin sister was adopted domestically out of an orphanage in Korea and I have seen MPAK's amazing work to equip and support adoptive families there first hand when we visited her. Our family and hers are so grateful for MPAK's tireless advocacy for orphans. Thinking about this new law, I wonder: with the domestic disruption rate still high, and international adoptions increasingly difficult due to the EP quota, do you think the new law will help significant numbers of institutionalized children like my daughter's sister and your son find permanent homes? I am praying it has that affect. Is it possible? Thank you for any insights you can share. --Carrie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks to all for the kind comments. This new law should weed out any under-the-table type of adoption that result in so many disruptions. They can no longer adopt without proper adoption process involving the agencies or court. For those adoptions that went through the official process through the agencies, th disruption rate is much like in the US. There have been around 4000 - 5000 unofficial under-the-table type of adoptions with over 700 disruptions reported in a year. But for those that went through the proper process of adoption (around 1393 domestic adoptions in 2010), the disruption rate was only 5%. Even with this new law passed it will be a challenge to find families for older children. But the new law at least give a chance for an orphan to be adopted by a family rather than tie him down in an institution for 18 years of his life with no hope. More and more Koreans have started to adopt older children. At MPAK Korea we have many families that have adopted older children. But adopting older children comes with price - that is greater challenges in bonding and adjustment issues. But we shouldn't let this get in the way of providing the opportunity for older children in institutions to have homes of their own.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you, Steve, for making the distinction in adoption disruption statistics. I'm thrilled to hear that, done properly, the adoption disruption rate in Korea is roughly that of adoption in America. It is a very important distinction and encourages me about domestic adoption is headed in Korea! Carrie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Have you heard anything about EPs for 2012? My daughter was expecting to travel in Jan or Feb (she should be 1st on the list to submit) but their agency says it might be a long wait.

    ReplyDelete
  8. From the mother of a child who almost fell through this crack, I thank anyone who has worked to make this happen.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think its great.. just several questions. If EP situation doesn't change, I'm not sure how this will really help the children in orphanages. 1. Are they going to make special circumstance for children who are older and who have been in orphanages for a long time? 2. Are the hopes that domestically these children will be adopted vs. internationally? 3. Why isn't there more outcry within Korea of so many children in orphanages? Do people think orphanages are a good thing for a child?

    ReplyDelete
  10. This post is wonderful as it helps me to get the sort of information that i needed. I am thankful to get your post when was searching hcg drops

    ReplyDelete
  11. The EP won't change for sure. One can ask what good is this new law when the Korean Government instituted the quota system that limits intercountry adoption. But you have to look at it in the way that this new law will free an orphan from not being able to be adopted even if someone wanted. This law will at least open the door of opportunity if someone wants to adopt a child. They may be adopted abroad, or they may get adopted domestically, which is the most likely situation as of now.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In all countries and jurisdictions, there are many topics in the politics and evidence that can influence the decision of a government, private sector business or other group to adopt a specific health policy regarding the financing structure. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Access to health care varies across countries, groups and individuals, largely influenced by social and economic conditions as well as the health policies in place. Countries and jurisdictions have different policies and plans in relation to the personal and population-based health care goals within their societies. Thanks.
    Regards,
    www.ipc-athletics.org

    ReplyDelete