Transparent Adoption Vital for Improving Adoption Culture
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Stephen C. Morrison, founder of Mission to Promote Adoption (MPAK) in Korea, said promoting transparent adoption is vital toward improving domestic adoption culture in South Korea.
``Korean adoption culture cannot improve as long as you keep secrecy. Adopting a child in secrecy means that you are ashamed of, embarrassed about and afraid of the consequences. As long as people have that kind of mentality, adoption culture cannot develop in a positive way,’’ Morrison said.
``Adoption is nothing that we should be ashamed of. People should know that babies are born of wombs, but also they are born of hearts. Through adoption, they are born of hearts. Adoption is a beautiful thing, it’s a blessing,’’ he said.
The 51-year-old Morrison, whose Korean name is Choi Seok-chun, is an adoptee. Born in South Korea, at 14 he was adopted by an American. Today, he is the father of 10-year-old daughter whom he adopted in South Korea.
Morrison is receiving an award by the Ministry of Health and Welfare Friday on the occasion of the Adoption Day, for his contribution to promoting domestic adoption in the nation, since founding MPAK in 1999. He is also a senior project engineer working on the GPS 3 satellite program at the Aerospace Corp. in the United States.
``I am extremely honored. I do not think I deserve such honor. I will take it as an additional challenge for me to work harder to promote domestic adoption culture in Korea. I humbly accept the challenge,’’ he said. ``We will do our best to promote domestic adoption in Korea so that adopting a child is no more a social stigma, so that more children can find their home.’’
He said merely eight years ago, nearly all domestic adoption in Korea was done in secrecy. The percentage has fallen to 75 percent, a significant marginal decrease.
Morrison says that the number of domestic adoption cases has decreased during the past three years because birth rates are lower and young couples tend to have fewer children.
``Currently, most Korean parents want to have fewer babies as possible, as they are busy working or keeping with their social status. How can you expect such couples to adopt a child when they do not want to have their own child?’’ he said.
Morrison says although he promotes domestic adoption, he realizes the importance of overseas adoption.
``The utmost important thing is that children should find their own family which can take care of them. As long as there are children who do not get adopted here, overseas adoption cannot but continue. However, Korea cannot forever rely on foreign countries regarding adoption. Korea needs to take care of its own children,’’ he said.