[Forgotten Children]⑧"No State Responsibility"... Unquestioned Illegal Overseas Adoptions

First Lawsuit Against the State Stalls Before the Supreme Court
Appeal Overturned, Withdrawal After Filing Supreme Court Petition
No Follow-Up Measures for Orphan Registries
No Post-Adoption Management System for Dissolutions or Other Cases

Editor's Note
The history of overseas adoption has continued for over 70 years and still has not ended. Overseas adoption, which began in the aftermath of the Korean War to reduce the number of orphans, has continued to this day under the perception that it both saves welfare budgets and earns foreign currency. However, the lives and rights of those adopted overseas have been neglected. Decades of records related to overseas adoption reveal the shameful reality of our society and show just how deeply rooted this structural indifference has been. Through the voices of around 200 overseas adoptees addressing the state, we face the problems and challenges of overseas adoption. The Asia Business Daily aims to provide an in-depth diagnosis of the realities of overseas adoption and explore possible solutions.

In South Korea, the state cannot currently be held legally responsible for past illegal overseas adoptions. In 2023, an overseas adoptee filed a lawsuit against the South Korean government and adoption agencies, raising issues with the country's adoption system, but ultimately lost the case. It was confirmed that the government was actively involved in the process of sending children overseas. Experts point out that holding the state accountable for any illegal acts in its involvement is the first step toward ending the practice of overseas adoption.

According to the legal community and other sources on April 2, Adam Crapser (Korean name: Shin Songhyuk), who was adopted to the United States in 1979, has withdrawn his Supreme Court appeal against Holt Children's Services (Holt) and the South Korean government. This case attracted attention as the first lawsuit filed by an overseas adoptee against the South Korean government and an adoption agency. However, after an initial ruling in favor of compensation and a second ruling that dismissed the plaintiff's claims, the case concluded.

Initial 100 Million Won Compensation Order Overturned on Appeal... Government and Adoption Agency Accountability Not Recognized

After being adopted to the United States 47 years ago and experiencing repeated adoptions and terminations, living under various names, Mr. Shin filed a damages lawsuit against Holt Children's Services in 2019. He claimed that Holt proceeded with the adoption despite knowing that his biological parents were alive, fabricating records to list him as an orphan.

According to Mr. Shin, Holt exploited a loophole by creating an orphan registration, which allowed the adoption to proceed without the 'biological parents' consent process.' The main issues in the lawsuit were whether there had been 'fabrication of orphan registration' and violations of the 'obligation of protection as a guardian and the duty to confirm acquisition of citizenship.' In 2023, the first trial ruled in Mr. Shin's favor. The court found that Holt had failed to fulfill its obligations as his guardian and to ensure that he acquired citizenship, judging this as an illegal act.

The verdict at the time stated, "As Mr. Shin's guardian during overseas adoption, Holt had a duty to protect Mr. Shin, who was in an incomplete legal status, until the adoption was finalized." The court continued, "If Holt had properly fulfilled its obligations and ensured that the adoptive parents completed the citizenship process in a timely manner, and had actively confirmed whether Mr. Shin acquired citizenship after the adoption was finalized, he would not have remained without citizenship until adulthood and faced forced deportation."

However, the court did not accept Mr. Shin's claim that Holt fabricated the orphan registration to proceed with the adoption. The court noted that the obligation for agencies to search for biological parents before registering a child as stateless was only explicitly stated from 2005. In addition, given the circumstances at the time, such as the records on the child’s card, the court concluded that Mr. Shin's parents likely intended to relinquish parental rights by placing him in an orphanage.

The court also rejected Mr. Shin's claim for damages against the state. While acknowledging that the state has a general obligation to promote children's rights and welfare, the court ruled that this could not serve as the basis for a claim that the state violated its duty of responsibility in the overseas adoption process, such as confirming citizenship acquisition.

However, in the second trial, the adoption agency was also absolved of liability. Two years later, the appellate court overturned the lower court's ruling that had ordered Holt to pay 100 million won in damages, and dismissed all claims against both the government and Holt. Thus, neither the government nor the adoption agency was found responsible.

After the appellate ruling, Mr. Shin filed an appeal with the Supreme Court but withdrew it through his attorney about two weeks later. Certificates confirming the conclusion of the case were then delivered to both Holt and the government, bringing the lawsuit to an end. A person involved in the legal proceedings commented, "Various factors, such as the difficulties of a long and complex lawsuit and the psychological burden of suing the country of one's birth, seem to have played a role."

Experts emphasize the urgent need for the government to acknowledge its responsibility and to establish a post-adoption support system for adoptees. They argue that creating a system to protect the remaining lives of overseas adoptees is the starting point for ending the practice. Kwon Heejeong, director of the Single Mothers Archiving and Advocacy Research Institute, said, "In establishing the facts about harms caused by overseas adoption, we must move away from an excessively evidence-centered approach," adding, "This is not a matter of individual, private harm to be proven by the person, but a historical and collective event that occurred due to the state's inadequate oversight and policy failures, and it should be approached from this broader perspective."

Children Lost to Records... No System for Orphan Registration or Adoption Dissolution Management

There have been numerous calls for a comprehensive review of the 'orphan registration' system, under which the government arbitrarily assigned family registries to children whose biological parents could not be identified, for use in institutional care or adoption.

According to the Supreme Court and the office of Lee Sujin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, the Supreme Court issued 38,361 orphan registrations over the 18 years from 1991 to 2007. Orphan registration was implemented from the enactment of the Family Register Act in 1948 until it was abolished in 2008 with the introduction of the Act on Registration, Etc. of Family Relationships. In 1999 alone, 4,025 such registrations were issued, with 27,456 out of 17 cities and provinces being used in Seoul.

The issue is that in many cases, the information entered during the orphan registration process was arbitrarily created. Sometimes, courts or adoption agencies would be listed as the place of family origin or address. Today, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Center for the Rights of the Child guide adoptees on how to request access to information in order to find their families, but for those who grew up with orphan registrations that were incorrectly or arbitrarily created, there is no way to find their families as adults.

Even if proper records exist, it is still difficult to verify the biological parents' information. The number of information disclosure requests by domestic and overseas adoptees has increased every year, totaling 9,461 cases: 1,327 in 2021, 2,043 in 2022, 2,717 in 2023, and 3,374 in 2024. However, the number of cases where consent for the disclosure of biological parent information was given stands at only 1,460, resulting in a consent rate of just 15.4%.

In 2024, for example, just 460 out of 3,347 requests resulted in confirmation of information such as biological parents' identities through their consent. On the other hand, there were 848 cases where, even though biological parents existed, they either did not respond to or refused requests to disclose adoption information, nearly double the number of cases where consent was given.

In other countries, adoptees' right to know their origins is protected. In the United Kingdom, Australia, and some U.S. states, adult adoptees can access their birth records without the consent of their biological parents. This reflects a growing recognition that, when the rights of adults and children come into conflict, priority should be given to children's rights. The United Kingdom recognized adult adoptees' right to access birth information through the Children Act of 1975.

The lack of systems to manage adoption dissolutions, as in Mr. Shin’s case, is also an issue. Following overseas adoption, dissolution results in the legal parent-child relationship being severed in the receiving country, which can lead to serious human rights problems such as failure to obtain citizenship or forced deportation. According to the Global Overseas Adoptees' Link, at one point, the dissolution rate for Korean adoptees in the United States, the country with the largest number of such adoptions, reached 15%. In fact, Mr. Shin became an undocumented immigrant after being expelled from his home when his adoptive parents were arrested on child abuse charges and failing to apply for U.S. citizenship. He did not apply for permanent residency until he was 36, and was ultimately deported to Korea in 2016.

However, neither the government nor adoption agencies currently manage cases of adoption dissolution. This is because the requirements and procedures for dissolution are determined according to the laws of the adoptive parents' home country at the time of adoption. A representative of the National Center for the Rights of the Child, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "There is no system whereby dissolution in the receiving country is reported to the home country, and there are no official statistics or public records." The representative added, "In reality, it is also difficult to fact-check cases of dissolution."

An adopted son arriving in the United States, descending from a chartered plane. National Archives

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