- Headline: "Domestic Adoptions on the Rise: An Holt Children's Services Report"
- Source: Chosun Ilbo
- Date of Publication: February 6, 1976
- Summary:
With the increasing prevalence of unwed mothers seeking to relinquish parental rights, the number of children abandoned by their birth parents and placed in domestic adoptions is also on the rise. In response to concerns surrounding overseas adoptions, particularly after the 1974 suicide of a Korean adoptee in Geneva, Switzerland (Chosun Ilbo, December 29, 1974), adoption agencies have adjusted the ratio of domestic to international adoptions to 10:1. Adoption procedures remain strictly confidential, ensuring that children are raised in normal, loving homes. As a result, domestic adoptions are widely regarded as beneficial for both adoptive parents and children. Holt Children's Services continues to provide counseling for unwed mothers and adoption consultations at its office at 382-14, Hapjeong-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. In 1975, the Christian Adoption Program of Korea (CAPOK) merged with Holt Children's Services. Prior to this merger, CAPOK actively shaped the discourse on unwed motherhood by compiling statistical data from counseling sessions and asserting that unwed mothers were increasing in number, predominantly young, of low educational attainment, and sexually promiscuous. However, following its integration into Holt, CAPOK ceased to be a visible entity in the media. The same discourse on unwed motherhood was subsequently reproduced by Holt Children's Services and state-approved international adoption agencies such as the Korea Welfare Services, Korea Social Service, and Eastern Social Welfare Society. These institutions, drawing upon demographic data from their in-house counseling services, continued to construct and reinforce a stereotype of unwed mothers. This persistent discursive entrapment ensured that unwed mothers remained marginalized within dominant narratives, thereby continuously legitimizing the international adoption of their children as a necessary and morally justified intervention. Moreover, this article establishes a binary framework in which unwed mothers are depicted as abnormal, while adoptive families are framed as normal.
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