This study is focused on the formation process of Korean adoption policy in the light of socio-economical and political views to find a right solution promoting domestic adoption. Since a modern adoption policy of Korea is founded in 1950s, this study starts analyzing the changes of the adoption policy from that time, and those changes are analyzed from socio-economical and political views. The purpose of this study is getting the right direction and solutions of Korean adoption policy, and those would be provided from the outcomes of this analysis.
To get a more effective analysis of the formation process of Korean adoption policy, the formation process is divided into four periods distinguished by the major changes of the adoption policy.
The introduction of the modern adoption policy is the major change in the first period which is in 1950s. During Korean War, war orphans and mix-blood children born between U.S. soldiers and Korean women are a major social problem in Korea, and they become the main target of adoption. In 1950s, Korea is totally destroyed due to the war, so Korean government cannot afford to support the orphans and the mix-blood children. That is why overseas adoption is promoted in 1950s, and it gets more popular because of Korean's pure blood preference.
The major change in the second period is that overseas adoption is promoted by the policy of Korean government. In 1960s, Korea is not recovered from the experience of Korean War, so Korean government cannot provide any institutions to the orphans. Although there are several tries to promote domestic adoption, those tries fail due to a lack of preparation and Korean's pure blood preference.
In 1980s, Korean adoption policy changes dynamically, and it becomes a major tendency of the third period. Under the military regime, policies reducing the population and a political situation related to the Cold War have a great influence on Korean adoption policy, and become one of the major driving forces changing the policy. Although, criticism about overseas adoption stimulates the policy stopping the overseas adoption, it does not promote domestic adoption. Furthermore, an increase of unmarried mothers due to changes of traditional values is another major factor influencing on the adoption policy.
In 4th period, the movement of international community to protect the rights of the child affects Korean adoption policy. Since 1990s, the adoption policy has been experienced a big transition from the government centered view to child centered view. This change mainly results from the effectuation of agreement protecting the rights of the child. In addition, political pressures of adoptive parents associations such as MPAK also have a major effect on the view change.
From the changes of Korean adoption policy, it is not difficult to notice that our adoption policy is fully driven by the government and adoptive parents. In the light of the fact that adoption policy has the largest influence on adopted children, Korean adoption policy should be founded on the child centered view. Furthermore, the process of adoption also should be considered from the child centered view. Adopted children must have the right to express their opinions and those opinions should be respected. Adoptive organizations also have to let adopted children know what kind of rights they have and help them to make a right decision. However, it does not mean this rule should be applied uniformly to all adopted children. Every process of adoption should be considered in the best interest of the child, and it should be the basic rule for the adoption process.