(presentation in Korean translated by Professor Edward Chang University of California, Riverside)
I am glad to be here today my name is Ho Sup Gil, Director of Child Health and Welfare Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. I am glad to present an overview of Korean adoption policy. I am thankful to Christy Winston for organizing this conference, to KAAN, and to all the adoptees, their families and Audiences who are here today
I will present the main points in current Korean adoption law and eligibility requirements for the adoptees and other matters and if you have any questions, I will entertain those as well. Modern Korean adoption began as early as the beginning of ancient human civilization and society. As you may know modern Korean adoption began after the Korean War. It actually began in 1954 in order to take care of the orphans as casualties of the Korean War. At that time the Korean Government enacted several special laws designed to encourage overseas adoption for orphans and mixed blood children. In fact in 1961 the Korean government established a special orphan adoption law.
Korean adoption policy has undergone many changes during the seventies, eighties and nineties. On January 21, 1999, the most recent special law on adoption, promotion and procedure was passed by the Korean Government. I will briefly deliver the main points of the current adoption law. One important basic principle of the adoption law is to provide permanent homes for children who need social protection. In other words, this law and policy will be child-centered. Another basic principle of Korean adoption law today is to encourage domestic adoption. In order to facilitate that process, the Korean government has relaxed many requirements and will provide other necessary assistance to those Koreans in Korea who are willing and able to adopt children. Therefore it is the intent of the Korean Government to reduce gradually the numbers of overseas Korean adoptions, but it is flexible in terms of implementation now.
Now I will talk about the eligibility requirements for adoption. The adoptee must be under 18 years old. Children who have been lost or abandoned by their parents or whose parents cannot care for the children, then children can be qualified for adoption. Birth parents then must agree to their children's adoption, but if they are not available and there is no next of kin, then a legal guardian can sign an agreement for their adoption. For those who are 15 years and older, the adoptee must agree to the adoption for himself or herself. If the Minister of Health and Welfare gives his permission, then the about restrictions may be overridden. The majority of adoptions will be for those children under the age of 2.
Adoptive parents must have no psychological, physical, social or economic disabilities and the Korean Government must verify this. For domestic adoption in Korea, you must have less than 5 children must be 25 years of age or older, married and no more than 50 years of age difference between parents and the adoptee. For domestic adoption there are still a lot of requirements, but actually they have been relaxed. For overseas the same but adoption parents must be between 25 and 45 years of age.
Over it's entire history, a total of 197,000 children have been adopted both domestically and overseas. Of that number 92,355 have been adopted by the families of the United States. As I indicated earlier the policy of the Korean government is to reduce overseas adoption and to increase domestic adoption. In Korea, Koreans are still very uneasy about adopting children. In order to facilitate the domestic adoption process we intend to increase advertising campaigns and other publicity to encourage domestic adoption. The institutionalization of the domestic adoption process is one of the main goals of the Korean government. To implement this goal the Korean government has increased the amount of subsidy to Korean adoptive families in Korea. They will also actively promote foster care for young children to supplement and encourage the adoption process.
As I indicated earlier, the Korean government does want to reduce the numbers of Overseas adoption, but they will be very flexible in doing this. Due to the time limit I will end my remarks and thank you so much!
Because I did say that I would answer questions. I would like to take one or two urgent questions if there are any.
Question: Would the Korean government consider relaxing the restriction for Korean American families who want to adopt Korean children or Korean adoptees who want to adopt Korean children? For example raising the age restriction from 45 to 50 for these individuals.
Although the law is very restrictive as to the age limit, we will consider individual by individual case sometimes that permission will be granted and sometimes not.
Question: What plans, if any, does the Korean government have to encourage either domestic or oveseas the adoption of children currently in orphanage, that is, children who are no longer infants or are over toddler age?
It is the basic principle to encourage infants to be adopted by the families in overseas and we are trying to explore the ways to develop the programs for better life of the older children in many ways.
We are sorry that Mr. Gil's time is up, but there should be other opportunities to talk with Mr. Gil throughout the conference. Thank you