By Kim Se-jeong
Korea is a tough place for single mothers, so many, afraid of being social outcasts and subject to discrimination, abandon their babies.
They have previously chosen district offices, police stations, motel rooms or train stations to leave their babies to be found.
Jusarang Church in Gwanak, Seoul, has helped change that trend by operating a “baby box” where single mothers can place newborn babies they cannot look after. Opened in December 2009, the “baby box” has risen as a reliable and preferred spot for leaving such infants.
“In letters, mothers often write that adoption is no longer a viable option for them because of a new law requiring them to identify themselves. But they still want their babies to find a good home through us,” an official from the church told Yonhap.
All the babies are sent to orphanages, not to families,
Last weekend, the church announced that 184 babies had been left at the box over four years. The figure this year alone was 64.
Officials from the facility said the increase is primarily attributed to a revision to the Adoption Law that requires consent from the biological mother for any adoption, an unwelcome clause for mothers who wish to remain unidentified. The revised law went into effect in August last year.
Kim Do-hyun, director of House of Korean Root, who was involved in drafting the revised bill, rejected that claim.
“The increase in the number of abandoned babies has nothing to do with the law,” Kim said. “It’s premature to conclude that the revised law alone is pushing the number increase.”
The original Adoption Law, established in 1961, had no identification requirement for biological mothers, which enabled a large number of adoptions, especially by overseas couples.