Friday, January 25, 2013

A Bill Named ‘Les Miserables Cosette Adoption Law’

Cosette is a little girl who is cared (adopted) by Jean Valjean in Victor Hugos novel ‘Les Miserable’, where the story has been told through many versions of movies, plays, and musicals over the years, most notably through the recently released musical movie.  This movie is also very popular in Korea as well.

Rep. Baik Jai Hyun, who sits on the Committee of Women and Families, has just recently filed a bill named ‘Les Miserables Cosette Adoption Law’ to save the lives of the babies born from the young teen mothers as many babies are abandoned in the streets and elsewhere. 

The purpose of this bill is to amend the current Special Adoption Law that makes it mandatory for birth mothers to register their babies, and also to amend the ‘reconsideration’ period for birthmothers where they must keep the baby for seven days (whether they want it or not) after the births before giving them up for adoption or into the care of institutions. 

This new amendment is the result of the sudden rise of the number of abandoned babies just after the passage of the Special Adoption Law in August 5, 2012.  With all the rhetoric offered by the anti-adoption coalition in Korea (KoRoot, TRACK, ASK, KUMSN, and Gong Gam Law Firm) that still refuse to deny the increase in the number of abandonment is the result of the new adoption law, this action is seen as an effort by the Korean Government that saving the innocent lives of children is their utmost interest.

It was obvious there was a sudden increase in the number of children abandoned just after the law passed in August 2012.  For example, 28 children were abandoned during the first seven months (Jan-Jul) of 2012, and 41 children were abandoned during the remaining months of the year.  Instead of the usual practice by the young mothers relinquishing their children through adoption agencies, they have instead turned to black market adoptions, or abandon them on the streets, trash bins, subways, restrooms, and other means, and in some cases killed or left to die.

This has also brought an unintended consequence that goes against the intended objective of the law, which was to provide more complete information on birthparents for adoptees.  Also, there are over a thousand children that were not birth registered before the new law, and this is especially true of many special needs children.  For these children the adoption process has become more complicated and drawn out, and most of these children will be placed into institutions. 

Yesterday I spoke with an orphanage director in Korea.  She stated that there has been a sharp increase in the number of children being admitted into her facility right after August 2012.  She was concerned that she and her staff in Korea is overburdened with the increased number of children in her facility with the limited number of staff to take care of them.  She also said that she has never seen that many children come into her care in such a short time in all her experience.   

Rep. Baik stated that “At the 18th Congressional Session the Special Adoption Law was passed with a good intention in mind, but this law has backfired with several unintended outcomes that are just not practical nor acceptable. No matter how promising the law is, if it does not address the current reality it must be amended to improve the situation.”

The amendment will remove the requirement that birthmothers must register their babies into their family registry, but leave the parental information with the adoption agencies where they will be kept closed from public.  The record will only be opened when both an adoptee and his/her birthparent agree, or under some special exceptions requiring medical related information. 

Also the amendment will revisit the requirement where the birthmothers are required to keep their babies at minimum seven days before deciding to keep the baby or not.  The amendment will allow a room for birthmothers to relinquish their babies immediately after the births if they wish to.  The amendment will also make it more favorable for special needs children to be adopted as they are more likely to be abandoned.

Rep. Baik also stated “This amendment’s ultimate objective is to protect the lives of innocent babies from being abandoned or killed.”

Despite this effort, the anti-adoption coalition held a press conference at the nation’s capital to protest the amendment bill ‘Les Miserables Cosette Adoption Law’ sponsored by the Rep. Baik Jae Hyuk.  They maintain that adoptees have the rights to their records to seek out their birthparents and reunification. 

This is where I differ from them.  What good is having a good record if in the process a child is abandoned or killed, or left to die?  Even if 100 or even 1000 adoptees benefit from their records but results in the loss of a life, it still is not worth it.

13 comments:

  1. Praying this amendment will pass.

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  2. Also praying this amendment will pass. Thank you for all you do.

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  3. Thank you so much for this post! Your site has been a must-read blog, and one of the few places to get information on this fluid situation. Please keep up the great work.

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  4. taken the time to truly listen to them or reflect on the experiences many in those groups have shared. Secondly, his last paragraph follows the same basic line of thinking that keeps records closed in the US, and I just cannot condone it. I
    do think the rise in abandonment is tragic. Perhaps social reforms aimed at support for single-mother families would be helpful, but I'm sure there are no easy answers. Forcing the adopted to bear the burden of the issue by living a life of secrecy, however, is too much to ask. I think it's wrong for a government to essentially legalize abandonment, which is the case if the mother is not required to be identified. It's definitely a sad situation....but I just don't think this is the answer.

    Michelle

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    1. My apologies -- my complete comment did not go through. It should read as follows:

      I disagree with the author on a few things. For one, the fact that he is broadly labeling reform groups as anti- adoption tells me he has not taken the time to truly listen to them or reflect on the experiences many in those groups have shared. Secondly, his last paragraph follows the same basic line of thinking that keeps records closed in the US, and I just cannot condone it. I
      do think the rise in abandonment is tragic. Perhaps social reforms aimed at support for single-mother families would be helpful, but I'm sure there are no easy answers. Forcing the adopted to bear the burden of the issue by living a life of secrecy, however, is too much to ask. I think it's wrong for a government to essentially legalize abandonment, which is the case if the mother is not required to be identified. It's definitely a sad situation....but I just don't think this is the answer.

      Michelle

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    2. Mothers who legally relinquish via adoption agencies DO provide their personal information, it's just that they - before the introduction of this law - were not required to register their illegitimate child on their family registry and risk being shunned by their family and having their future marred because they got pregnant and made the brave choice to carry the child to term rather than taking the far less risky route of having a secret abortion. I don't see the fathers facing any social stigma or being made to suffer, so this law is very unfair.

      If the result of forcing women to register their children is that more children are abandoned with very little or no information - and thereby are completely unable to ever even hope to find their birth parents or have important medical details - how is the law beneficial? How is the law beneficial if more women are now so afraid of being identified that they abandon their children in unsafe places posing a risk to their own health and that of the baby?

      It seems much better to have the information sealed and separate from the family register but available to adult adoptees in terms of whatever information the mother was happy to release beyond medical information. If the birth mother is contacted and does not wish to meet with the adoptee, that may be a sad thing to accept, but that wish should be respected. Many single women go on to get married and have a family and it may cause them great hardship to expose a prior pregnancy - not much of a reunion with your mother if you destroy her marriage and cause her to be estranged from her family is it :/

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    3. Thanks for the response. I wanted say the same thing. Adoptees still have chance to seek their birth information that will be kept by the agencies. It's just that they won't be available in public, and only if the birthmothers agree to it as they have the right to their privacy.

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  5. Thank you for being our conduit for information. I come to this site multiple times everyday.
    I apologize for asking so many questions:
    How long will it be before this bill will be discussed/voted?

    Will they continue the process of requiring the mothers to register until it is voted?

    Will this shorten the time required for a case to pass through family court?

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  6. Thank you Steve for keeping us updated. I know it is hard for adoptees to have little info on their birth parents, but most agencies do provide names and addresses. So I am blessed to have that info for my adopted children. I will pray that the government will make the amendments and only think about the best interest of the abandonned children.

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  7. Hi Steve,

    Thanks for this update on the law. Do you have any idea how long cases will be in court? I'm trying to adjust expectations accordingly. Thank you for all you do.

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    1. Sorry I don't have anymore news on this one yet. As soon as I find out I'll let the readers know.

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  8. Hi Steve, thank you for your blog post. You really have a good feel about child adoption case and I would certainly be checking back in the future for such a profitable article.

    Personal Injury Attorney Las Vegas

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  9. Steve,
    When is the Feb meeting scheduled to occur? Is the measure on the agenda.
    Chris Macri

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