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Baby Exporting Nation: The Two Faces of Inter-Country Adoption

Mon, 2008-06-09 01:02 - Niels

This is the first critical documentary to come out of Korea about inter-country adoption. Aired May 2005 in Korea.

English subtitles

KBS synopsis: A 20-year-old unwed mother asked the In-Depth 60 minutes team to help her find her baby. According to her, the baby was taken by an adoption agency without her consent, as soon as she gave birth at an Ob&Gyn Clinic.

The transaction of money in the background was traced between the clinic and the adoption agency related to this.

Why is money involved to secure babies for adoption?

2300 children are adopted abroad among a total of 3800 adoptions annually. Human rights organizations criticize the government's encouragement of exporting babies.

Especially, overseas adoptions have a lot of problems due to the lack of a proper system to provide post adoption services. This is a shameful portrait of Korea, the world's 10th biggest economy and a member of OECD.

In-depth 60 Minutes is investigating the truth of rumours regarding overseas adoption through shocking stories of unwed mothers who were robbed of their name of "mother" and through the voices of adoptees who are returning to Korea

Comments

Mon, 2008-06-09 15:39 — Niels

Some things I don't understand

This is a really excellent documentary, which pays attention to many of the facets of international adoption. Though it focuses entirely on Korea, much of what is revealed applies to many other countries too.

What really struck me after having seen the pain of surrendering mothers, the pain of adoptees, was to hear the Korean Minister of Health and Welfare, say this:

Inter-country adoption is not the best choice or the second best choice but a kind of emergency exit. We know the problem is serious, but we have no plans to stop it.

Why is a country that is about as rich as the Southern European countries so adamant to continue a practice they themselves see as an emergency exit?

Near the end of the documentary the following explanation is given by the producer of the documentary

Yes, this document is a recommendation that the National Human Rights Commission submitted to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It recommended the government to join the Hague treaty. However it contains a sentence that reveals the Korean government's standpoint. The reason for not joining the treaty is that joining the treaty may cause a misunderstanding that the Korean government promotes inter-country adoption.

So in order to not be viewed as promoting international adoption, the Korean government lets a bad practice just continue. That doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone explain this to me.

Mon, 2008-06-09 20:42 — almost_human

Birth mothers

This classy, beautiful little video shows birthmothers in Korea trying to stop international adoptions by increasing social services to mothers.

Dandelion Birthparents Group