- Headline: "Unwed Mothers and Childless Families"
- Source: Dong-A Ilbo
- Date of Publication: April 18, 1974
- Summary:
Every child needs parents. Children born into unavoidable circumstances without a normal family deserve a stable home environment. While over 5,000 children are adopted overseas annually, domestic adoption rates have declined in the past year or two, raising concerns about the support system for unwed mothers.
At the YWCA’s Tuesday lecture on the theme "Unwed Mothers and Childless Families," Hyunsook Shim, president of the Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPOK), examined the growing issue of unwed mothers and the unique challenges faced by children raised without parents. Shim emphasized the need for family and school-based sex education to prevent unwed pregnancies, while also advocating for support for unwed mothers and their children. For those unable to raise their own children, Shim argued, it is essential to find them new parents and help unwed mothers rebuild their lives.
Although an average of 20 children were adopted each month in previous years, only five found homes in March this year. CAPOK stressed that "every child deserves parents" and that "love nurtured through caregiving is more important than blood ties." Rational adoption practices, they argued, are key to reducing the social ills of infertility-related divorce and polygamy while mitigating the challenges faced by unwed mothers and their children. Women who gave birth outside of marriage or those unable to bear children within marriage became categorized as problematic as the so-called "normal family"—a married couple with children—was idealized as the epitome of happiness. This article demonstrates how adoption served to address the issues faced by these women while contributing to the making of a normative family in modern society.
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