FORGED ADOPTIONS 6: Personal notes or memos that could serve as important clues to tracking down birth parents have often been withheld from adoptees under the current scheme
The oldest international adoptee to share their story with the Hankyoreh was Margaret Conlon, adopted in 1965, while the youngest was Mia Lee Sorensen, adopted in 1988. Regardless of the period in which they were adopted, the majority of adoptees are unable to trust the personal information and records about them held by adoption agencies, and they expressed frustration over the difficulty of even accessing this information.
The National Center for the Rights of the Child (formerly Korea Adoption Services) was established under the Ministry of Health and Welfare in line with an amendment to the Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption in 2012 for the purpose of post-adoption follow-up services. The transfer and release of information on adoptees became a hot topic at this time, but adoption agencies including the national center still only entered 51 basic items of factual information including the names and addresses of adoptees and their birth parents. Other information such as consultation records and personal notes or memos that could serve as important clues to tracking down birth parents were not released.
Adoption experts believe adoption agencies should apologize for the common practice of illegally forging documents in the past and release the original copies of all documents, including consultation records, with no filters.
“To adoptees, even a small note that pertains to their roots is very precious,” said Noh Hye-ryeon, a professor of social welfare at Soongsil University who formerly worked in the overseas division of Holt Children’s Services and an adoption agency in San Jose, California. “They even say the documents are imbued with the life of the mother who gave them up, and want a chance to personally hold them in their hands.”