By Joe Soll (Gateway Press, Inc.) Some books are so good that you can even forgive your friend for “borrowing” your copy and never giving it back. Adoption Healing … a path to recovery by Joe Soll is one such book.
Culture & History
Structural Violence, Social Death, and International Adoption: Part 4 of 4
This broadcast (online in six parts) aired in Korea in 2009 and uncovered many irregularities in Korea’s adoption system. This mother relinquished her baby because the baby was born prematurely and she did not have the money to care for her. You can see in Part 4 how the mother is treated by the adoption [...]
Culture & History
Structural Violence, Social Death, and International Adoption: Part 3 of 4
Why International Adoption From Korea Doesn’t Make Sense (and Why Korea Does It Anyway) Let us ignore for a minute that no international convention states that poverty is in and of itself is a good reason to separate children from their parents, communities, or countries. Let us play along for a minute with the rather [...]
Culture & History
Structural Violence, Social Death, and International Adoption: Part 2 of 4
Korea has been known as the “Cadillac” of international adoption for its supposed ethics and legality. However, as adult adoptees search for their birthparents and are reunited, it becomes apparent that Korea’s system has been riddled with abuses. Watch a program from Korean national broadcaster KBS to see the story of one adoption in which a [...]
Current Events, Politics & Economy
Structural Violence, Social Death, and International Adoption: Part 1 of 4
Outside Eastern Social Welfare Society’s front door in Seoul: “Domestic Adoption Consultation. Unmarried Parent Consultation.” In 2008, 98% of the 336 babies sent overseas for adoption by Eastern were from unwed mothers, and 80% of those mothers were over the age of 20, according to government statistics. It sent 38% fewer children (208) for domestic [...]
Culture & History
Adoption Awareness Month: Thanksgiving and the Adoptee Pilgramage
By Guest Blogger Leanne Leith Today I’m a little homesick. I miss my kids, my one true family. We’re a little strange. I haven’t even spoken on the phone to them the whole time I’ve been here, but that’s not something that’s ever been necessary with us. We know we’re in each other’s thoughts. And [...]
Culture & History
TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION Some Visions I Have Seen…
What would a world look like in which women and communities are empowered to care for their newborns? Author activist and mixed-African American adoptee Shannon Gibney lays out her vision for such a world. Through her work Gibney has been building coalitions with the international adoptee movement. These coalitions offer spaces for adoptees to dialogue [...]
Current Events, Politics & Economy
EDITORIAL Trading in Babies
Writer, activist, and adoptee filmmaker So Yung Kim recommends reorganizing the transnational adoption industry in order to protect the rights of children. Domestic and international adoptees are already coming together to discuss options and partner on policy issues. Kim also proposes more coalition building between adoptee groups and other collectives fighting for the basic rights [...]
Current Events, Politics & Economy
Abuses in Adoptions from South Korea
This past May, South Korea — renowned within adoption circles for its transparent and above-board practices — was taken to task by the committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. The committee said there is “a possibility of abuse” in intercountry adoptions from South Korea. On Nov. 10, 2009, a [...]
Culture & History
EDITORIAL International Adoption and the Fight for Human Rights
Adult international adoptees have begun participating in a debate over whose best interests the practice actually serves, or should serve: the adopter or the adoptee? Hilbrand Westra, chairman of United Adoptees International, takes a critical look at the practice of international adoption and lays out how international law can help us fight child trafficking. Read [...]
Education & Family
What does “Gotcha” mean?
November is National Adoption Month. What would such a celebration of adoption, whether in the U.S. or another country, mean to my Korean birthmother? At the time my mother became a “birthmother,” I was six months old, and my sister was four years old. Because she passed away about nine years ago, I will take [...]
Creating Solutions
Nothing About Us Without Us
Do you believe that access to medical information is important for all people, including adoptees and the children of adoptees? Are you a Korean adoptee who believes that you should have a say in the laws that Korea makes about the lives of existing adoptees and future adoptees? Would you like fair laws to govern the birthfamily search process? Do believe that unwed Korean mothers should be educated and supported in keeping their own children? If you said “yes” to any of these questions, you may be interested in what is happening this fall in Seoul with the revisions of Korea’s adoption laws.
Culture & History
Daughter from Danang
Under the belief that her daughter’s life was in imminent danger, Mai Thi Kim sent seven year old Heidi to America along with over 2,000 other Amerasian children as part of what became known as Operation Babylift. Over twenty years later, PBS documentary Daughter from Danang follows their heartbreaking journey. Related Articles The Narrative of [...]
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