By Bernard Rowan
The future of Korea rests with the future of her orphans. That's not a typical byline for a column or expert statement. However, I'd argue it's the truth. The greatness of a culture this century depends on the advancement of society's most vulnerable social groups. Orphans depend on others. Korea's orphans are people and have rights in need of greater care and support. So do their moms.
Many people adopt Korean babies throughout the world. I know adopted children of various ethnicities who've grown up and lead happy and productive lives. Koreans arguably must value more their needy children.
A law passed in 2011 sets priorities on placing Korean adoptees in foster homes above foreign adoptions. It forces adoptive parents obtain court approval first. It declassifies information on birth parents but does not allow sharing birth parent's names without their permission. It also sets up a seven-day waiting period for mothers wishing to put a child up for adoption.
Unfortunately, reports suggest the law has increased the number of abandoned children or orphans. The law targets improvements on important matters but doesn't reach the underlying causes of Korea's orphan problem: pregnant women in need of support and a culture of shame.
I rode on the subway in Chicago this week, and a sign I read said: "Unmarried mothers, you have choices and you are not alone. Call this number for support." Unfortunately in Korea, women with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy still find they've inadequate choices and feel much alone!
The same cultures that underpay and overburden working and professional women stigmatize women who must put their children into foster homes or orphanages. This devalues women. It sets their children up for second-class lives. No orphan is to blame.
When I was a schoolchild, I didn't want to read a schoolbook and told someone that I wasn't going to read it because it was about an adopted child. I confidently stated, "Adopted children are bad." How surprised and mind-blowing for me was the comment that came back from a dear person, "Did you know I was adopted?"
We shouldn't scapegoat orphans or their parents. We should realize that in life, all experience adoption or the refusal to adopt. While everyone will say the best place for a child is with his or her birth parents in a caring and healthy home environment, this often doesn't and can't occur. A good society values protecting and encouraging the lives of all children. Whether the society moves forward and progresses depends on it. South Korea has no excuse (among many countries) for the unacceptable numbers of innocent children and their parents whose lives reduce to misery because of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come opens his robe to show two children named Want and Ignorance. We are Scrooge.
The answer goes way beyond the often cited "baby box" of a widely known and celebrated Korean pastor. The unmet needs of Korea's orphans eventually increase the number of unemployed, undertrained, imprisoned, abused and abusing, and on and on. We can't expect most women and children to be heroes.
Some years ago, I regularly visited a Gwangjin-gu foster home to teach school-age foster girls English. I enjoyed it. I remember the happiness and seeming normalcy of the home. The children with smiling faces eager to talk and interact, the artwork we made, and the ajumma who took care of these children remain images in my mind.
But under this veil of romantic feeling, most of those girls likely turned out undereducated, with lower socioeconomic opportunities and results. Some may repeat the cycle.
Women and men in Korea need sex education and contraceptives. Every district, city, and town needs a more fully-developed family care system. Pregnant mothers, wed and unwed, and their partners want access to a 21st century system of support for deciding about unborn and infant children. Women have come a long way in Korea, but many Koreans still choose to see unplanned and unwanted pregnancies through the prism of maternal or female shame.
South Korea leads the world in some important technologies. It leads many economic and other indices. Around Korean orphans, there's more work to do.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.
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Many people adopt Korean babies throughout the world. I know adopted children of various ethnicities who've grown up and lead happy and productive lives. Koreans arguably must value more their needy children.
A law passed in 2011 sets priorities on placing Korean adoptees in foster homes above foreign adoptions. It forces adoptive parents obtain court approval first. It declassifies information on birth parents but does not allow sharing birth parent's names without their permission. It also sets up a seven-day waiting period for mothers wishing to put a child up for adoption.
Unfortunately, reports suggest the law has increased the number of abandoned children or orphans. The law targets improvements on important matters but doesn't reach the underlying causes of Korea's orphan problem: pregnant women in need of support and a culture of shame.
I rode on the subway in Chicago this week, and a sign I read said: "Unmarried mothers, you have choices and you are not alone. Call this number for support." Unfortunately in Korea, women with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy still find they've inadequate choices and feel much alone!
The same cultures that underpay and overburden working and professional women stigmatize women who must put their children into foster homes or orphanages. This devalues women. It sets their children up for second-class lives. No orphan is to blame.
When I was a schoolchild, I didn't want to read a schoolbook and told someone that I wasn't going to read it because it was about an adopted child. I confidently stated, "Adopted children are bad." How surprised and mind-blowing for me was the comment that came back from a dear person, "Did you know I was adopted?"
We shouldn't scapegoat orphans or their parents. We should realize that in life, all experience adoption or the refusal to adopt. While everyone will say the best place for a child is with his or her birth parents in a caring and healthy home environment, this often doesn't and can't occur. A good society values protecting and encouraging the lives of all children. Whether the society moves forward and progresses depends on it. South Korea has no excuse (among many countries) for the unacceptable numbers of innocent children and their parents whose lives reduce to misery because of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come opens his robe to show two children named Want and Ignorance. We are Scrooge.
The answer goes way beyond the often cited "baby box" of a widely known and celebrated Korean pastor. The unmet needs of Korea's orphans eventually increase the number of unemployed, undertrained, imprisoned, abused and abusing, and on and on. We can't expect most women and children to be heroes.
Some years ago, I regularly visited a Gwangjin-gu foster home to teach school-age foster girls English. I enjoyed it. I remember the happiness and seeming normalcy of the home. The children with smiling faces eager to talk and interact, the artwork we made, and the ajumma who took care of these children remain images in my mind.
But under this veil of romantic feeling, most of those girls likely turned out undereducated, with lower socioeconomic opportunities and results. Some may repeat the cycle.
Women and men in Korea need sex education and contraceptives. Every district, city, and town needs a more fully-developed family care system. Pregnant mothers, wed and unwed, and their partners want access to a 21st century system of support for deciding about unborn and infant children. Women have come a long way in Korea, but many Koreans still choose to see unplanned and unwanted pregnancies through the prism of maternal or female shame.
South Korea leads the world in some important technologies. It leads many economic and other indices. Around Korean orphans, there's more work to do.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.
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