{"id":181,"date":"2010-06-23T12:32:37","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T10:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marusca.ro\/blog\/?p=181"},"modified":"2010-06-23T12:32:37","modified_gmt":"2010-06-23T10:32:37","slug":"adoption-heartache-for-hundreds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/adoption-heartache-for-hundreds\/","title":{"rendered":"Adoption heartache for hundreds"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published on 17.09.2006, in The Sidney Morning Herald.<\/a><\/p>\n

SOUTH Korea has suspended all new overseas adoptions, plunging hundreds of Australian families into uncertainty.Adoption agencies in Korea have suspended inter-country adoption because of falling birth rates and new welfare policies that promote local adoption and provide better support for single mothers.<\/p>\n

The NSW Department of Community Services confirmed the suspension yesterday, but a spokeswoman said it was temporary and all applications already received by Korean authorities would be processed.<\/p>\n

Australian Society for Intercountry Aid for Children vice-president Linda Robertson said the suspension had come as a shock to many families.<\/p>\n

„The Korean program has been a very smooth process but the birth rate has been down and they’ve been placing babies locally,“ she said.<\/p>\n

„At this stage it hasn’t been closed and we see ups and downs in other countries all the time. But Korea has never hidden the fact that they planned to become a country that has no inter-country [adoptions] because they are aiming to provide for their own people.“<\/p>\n

Kellyville couple Leanne and Ray Lehrer adopted 18-month-old Soo Jin from South Korea when he was four months old. Their application for a second child has now been placed in doubt.<\/p>\n

Mrs Lehrer said she had hoped to adopt a second child from Korea for cultural continuity reasons. Each week the family attends a Korean playgroup – learning language, traditional cooking and culture. Soo Jin had a traditional first birthday party, and the family hope he will one day meet his birth mother.<\/p>\n

„We’re doing what we can as he grows because we’d like him to know a lot about his home culture,“ Mrs Lehrer said.<\/p>\n

„It’s a positive thing that they are wanting to promote domestic adoption . . . but it’s not easy embracing another culture and we want to do it well. That’s one of the reasons we are not overly keen to consider another culture.“<\/p>\n

For now, the family will wait and see.<\/p>\n

„Your guess is as good as mine,“ Mrs Lehrer said. „At least we’ve been blessed with one.“<\/p>\n

The suspension will hit hard internationally, too. Most affected will be couples in the United States, where almost 20,000 Korean babies were adopted between 1995 and 2004.<\/p>\n

In Australia, the suspension will affect couples who have one Korean-born child and wish to adopt a second from the same culture.<\/p>\n

And age restrictions, which require applicants to be younger than 44, mean that some couples will have to consider adopting from other countries.<\/p>\n

„What I’m telling families is if they have age on their side and they are prepared to wait, then wait six months and reassess,“ Mrs Robertson said.<\/p>\n

„The ultimate aim is to provide a home for children who otherwise wouldn’t have one in their own country so if these children can be locally adopted then we’re all for it.<\/p>\n

„But if they can’t place them locally then we hope they will place them with families here.“<\/p>\n

The news came two days after the Federal Government announced it would take on primary responsibility for inter-country adoptions, a role now played by state agencies.
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This article was published on 17.09.2006, in The Sidney Morning Herald. SOUTH Korea has suspended all new overseas adoptions, plunging hundreds of Australian families into uncertainty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}