The Special Adoption Law was enacted on August 5, 2012. As soon as the law was enacted, there was a sharp jump in the abandonment through the Baby Box. Before the law, the average number of children being abandoned through the Baby Box was four. Right after the law, the average jumped four times to 16 per month. In that year, there were 79 children abandoned, of which only eight were special needs. More and more healthy babies were being abandoned. 43% of the birthmothers left memos describing how they could not raise them as the law made it difficult for them to relinquish their babies at the adoption agencies without first registering their babies under mothers' names.
As for this year, as of October 15, 2013, there have been 202 babies abandoned, of which 18 of them were special needs. There are people who continue to deny the relationship between the Special Adoption Law and the number of children being abandoned. But it is clear, as the birthmothers have testified and blamed the law for making it difficult for them to relinquish them legally.
Graphic Source: Yonhap News, 10/29/13http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/medialabs/special/babybox/intro.html?fb_action_ids=712597548767936&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%22712597548767936%22%3A374292532700690%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22712597548767936%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
Is there any hope that the law will change so that these babies can be adopted sooner? So sad as it is that they are abandoned, and then for them to have to wait to be 3 years old to be adopted seems terrible.
ReplyDeleteI will be traveling to Korea in a few days. I will be meeting with some politicians, and specifically take the matters related to the abandoned babies, why they have to wait three long years even to be considered for adoption. I will see if there can be some exceptions can be made for these children, as that they have clearly been abandoned by their birthmothers, and most likely they are not coming back.
DeleteJust curious, is the domestic adoption process faster than it is for those of us adopting internationally? I sure hope so for these kids. If they have to wait that long to even be eligible to be adopted and then another 1-2 years for the process, that's awful!
DeleteThis makes me very very very angry! We were hoping to adopt several times from S/Korea when we began the adoption process (wanting our children to share the same culture), but due to all the changes, after our 1st, we have had to stop and explore alternative scenarios. I would be thrilled, overjoyed, if the blockage/stoppage in Korean adoptions was due to babies not being relinquished in the first place because more birth-mothers received support to parent... not some politically motivated bureaucracy... not when there are so many of us willing, waiting, longing to adopt.
ReplyDeleteBirthmothers have given up their rights when they abandon their babies. They were not coerced nor threatened. It was their choices to abandon. I looked at so many letters where they have expressed the law has made it difficulut for them to relinquish them at the agencies, thus choosing to abandon in places like the Baby Box. Unfortunately the politically motivated bureaucracy always has been, is now, and will always get in the way of providing what's right for the children. So we continue to fight on.
Deletethanks Steve for fighting for these babies. what i don't understand is that why the policy makers in korea don't recognize this fact? is there any movement in korea to pressure them to revise the law?
DeleteYes. There is an organized movement, led by MPAK to revise the law in Korea to take away the birth family registeration requirement. This is one thing that's making so many birthmothers to abandon their children, and at the same time not allow those children to be adopted for a while. There is a protest at the National Assembly Building by the members of MPAK families, where every single day there is one-person picketing at the building. I plan to join this when I go to Korea.
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