In defense of adoption

Choi Suk-choon (Steve Morrison)

The author is the president of the Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea (MPAK).

May is Family Month, and May 11 is Adoption Day. It makes me think about the importance of family. I am 67 years old this year, and I was adopted by an American family at age 14 in 1970 from an orphanage in Korea. However, new reports on adoption by some Korean media often weigh heavily on me and make me uncomfortable as an adoptee.

Above all, the reports that a considerable number of Korean adoptees — in both domestic and international adoption — have been abused by their adoptive parents and that most of the overseas adoption documents have been fabricated are a faulty generalization of only a small fraction. This shocking distortion hurts the hearts of many adoptive parents and adoptees. In fact, child abuse and death rates are much higher in biological families. Nevertheless, the abuse cases occurring in very few adoptive families are covered in the media with special attention and sensationalism.

Abuses and sexual assaults against the very few overseas adoptees are undeniable facts and are very heartbreaking tragedies. As these cases are also easily found in biological families, social reflection and preventative measures are needed. But the argument that the entirety of adoption should be stopped because of these cases does not make sense. It’s just like insisting that all births should be prevented to eliminate domestic violence.

At one time, Korea did not have an institutional mechanism to protect children who lost their parents. Orphanages named children and designated their birth date in order to create an identity. Once a child was transferred to an adoption agency, the agency had to use the information it received from the orphanage. I was found on the street at age five and was sent to an orphanage at age six. I lived there for eight years until I was adopted to the United States. My birthdate was given by the orphanage facility. I don’t think my identity was fabricated but it was inevitable.

Thanks to the documents made by the facility, I was able to be adopted by an American family. After that, I could overcome my dark past and start my own happy family. I went to middle and high school, went to college and majored in aerospace engineering, and worked for an aerospace-related company for 42 years until I retired in 2021. From 1995, I worked on promoting adoption in the U.S., and in 1999, I founded the Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea (MPAK). With my own experience of finding new opportunities and blessings through adoption, I am currently working to find new families for abandoned children.

A small number of overseas adoptees who hold a negative view of adoption cannot represent all 170,000 overseas adoptees. Most adoptees are getting new opportunities at life through adoption. When I meet adoptees, they say they came to have loving parents and family through adoption and live a new life. They are given higher education opportunities that were not possible in Korea.

Most overseas adoptees are grateful to the adoption agencies and the Korean government for finding new families. They feel that their adoption was a blessing and privilege, and are sincerely grateful to their adoptive parents.

Everything in life has light and darkness. Looking back, the history of adoption was no exception. Like some media reports, the history of overseas adoption does not only have dark sides. There are far more adoptees who meet new parents through adoption, grow up happily, and live a life to benefit the rest of the world.

Of course, overseas adoption is not perfect. Still, it is undeniable that many overseas adoptees are getting opportunities they would never have had in back Korea. Adoption, domestic or overseas, creates new opportunities for a child. Just as ordinary children enjoy the opportunity to grow up and be loved by their parents, children in need of a family should be given the same opportunity to grow up as a human through adoption. I sincerely hope that this opportunity can be available to a number of children in Korea.

There is no future in a society where life is abandoned. Even now, children are abandoned every day in Korean society. It is a pity that infants are found in restrooms and trash bins even in the era of extremely low birthrates. Many children still live in facilities. It is the duty of Korean society to provide families for these children.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.