Promoting adoptions

Time to scrap overseas quota system

The government’s policy of encouraging adoptions among domestic families has made little progress due mainly to prejudice and discrimination against adoption. This means that the nation cannot address the problem without taking bolder measures to improve public awareness about adoption.

According to a survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 32.1 percent of respondents said they do not want to adopt children because it is difficult to raise them as if they were their birth children. And 29.5 percent cited the family system with strong blood ties, followed by financial burden (11.9 percent) and prejudice against adoption (11.4 percent).

People’s attitude toward adoption has changed to a certain degree amid rapid socioeconomic changes arising from industrialization and urbanization. However, Koreans still have deeply-rooted Confucian values that emphasize blood ties. Therefore, they are still reluctant to adopt children.

A rigid policy of bringing overseas adoption of Korean children in check has been also blamed for a decline in the total number of orphans finding new homes. The nation introduced a yearly quota for international adoptions in 2007 to shake off its image as a “baby exporter.”

The quota system had an effect of cutting the number of children adopted by foreign families to 1,300 in 2008 from 2,200 in 2004. The number fell further to 1,000 last year and is expected to drop further to 900 this year. However, this policy has failed to encourage local families to offset the decrease in the international adoptions. That’s why the quota was responsible for leaving more orphans without finding their foster families.

In 2000, 44.5 percent of children waiting for adoption find their new family at home and abroad. But the percentage dived to 27.5 percent in 2008. The government seemed to have achieved its goal of improving its tainted image by curtailing overseas adoptions. But the inconvenient truth is that the policy has dealt a setback to the overall adoption promotions.

Against this backdrop, voices are growing for the scrapping of the overseas adoption quota. Policymakers should not turn a deaf ear to the calls as more and more orphans are held hostage by the quota system.

It goes without saying that the best policy option is to prevent children being abandoned by their own parents. More than 90 percent of babies born to unwed single mothers continue to be sent to adoption agencies due to a lack of means for childcare.

Now, it’s time for the government to overhaul its adoption policies. First, it should stage a national campaign to help the people have better awareness about adoption. Second, it must increase state support for families with adoptees. Third, it has to extend more assistance to young unwed moms so that they can raise their children on their own.