The Takeaways
- Widespread Abuses: The New York Times reports that a South Korean government agency found widespread abuses, including falsified documents presenting babies as orphans when their parents were known.
- Identity Replacement: Adopted babies who died before being sent overseas were replaced by other babies under the same names.
- High Adoption Rate: Americans have adopted more babies from South Korea than any other country.
The Details:
Americans have adopted more babies from South Korea than any other country.
On Thursday, a government commission in South Korea released a report acknowledging fraud in its adoption program.
The New York Times reports a government agency there found widespread abuses including falsified documents that presented babies as orphans when their parents were known.
Adopted babies who died before they could be sent to their parents overseas were replaced by babies under the same names.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the government agency known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for an official apology.
The report detailed how the identities of children were falsified, and that more than 140,000 children were adopted as a cost saving measure rather than strengthening its child welfare program.
“This is a shameful part of our history,” said the commission’s chairperson, Sun-young Park.
“People need to understand the magnitude of being robbed of your original identity,” said adoptee Boon Young Han to the Washington Post. “I was adopted to a good family, but that doesn’t really negate any of my rights to know where I came from, how my life began, what happened to me and what happened to my body for the first few months of my life.”
(The Takeaways in this article were produced using AI following a review by an AsAmNews editor)
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