Child Organizations Demand Holt Children's Welfare Association to Apologize for '16-Month-Old Infant Abuse Death Incident'

Civil society organizations held a press conference on the 23rd in front of Holt Children's Welfare Association in Seoul, urging an apology for the death of a 16-month-old adopted child due to abuse. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] Child organizations have demanded that Holt Children's Services officially apologize regarding the case of the abuse-related death of 16-month-old infant A.

Ten child organizations, including the Korea Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse, held a press conference in front of Holt Children's Services in Mapo-gu, Seoul, stating, "Holt Children's Services, which handled the adoption process, must take responsibility for the abuse and death of the child and issue an official apology," and pointed out, "This incident could have been prevented if the crucial screening of adoptive parents and post-adoption management had been properly conducted during the adoption process."

They also criticized that "the adoption procedure for A and the process of verifying the prospective parents were conducted hastily."

A, who was adopted earlier this year, died on October 13 after suffering abuse from the adoptive parents. The organizations emphasized that "Holt Children's Services neither informed the biological mother when signs of abuse were discovered nor after A's death due to abuse," urging them to notify the biological mother of the death and apologize.

They further urged, "The government should not leave the adoption process solely to private organizations but strengthen public intervention to establish a child protection system that directly supervises adoption child protection, adoption matching, and post-adoption management to prevent such unfortunate incidents from recurring."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.