Prospective Parents Outraged After Official Refers to Adoption Cases as "Volume"

[Anchor]

We recently reported that the adoption process has been experiencing delays since the government took over the management of child adoptions from the private sector. A meeting was held between government officials and prospective parents to discuss countermeasures, but the session has sparked controversy due to inappropriate remarks made by an official.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong has the exclusive report.

[Reporter]

On July 16, a meeting was held at the National Assembly between prospective parents and officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency, who are in charge of adoption affairs.

The meeting was organized to find solutions after concerns were raised that adoptions have not been taking place since the state took over management from private agencies in July of last year.

[Prospective Parent (June 25, SBS 8 News): Going through this sluggish process makes me want to give up, thinking, 'Why am I putting myself through this?']

During the meeting, prospective parents requested an increase in the frequency of adoption review committee meetings, which are currently held once a month. In response, they heard the following from an official at the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency.

[Prospective Parent: I heard that you would be holding them twice a month starting in April.]

[Official A from the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency: To add to that, I think I need to talk about the volume.]

[Prospective Parent: Volume? What do you mean by volume?]

When the prospective parents questioned the term, the official apologized.

[Prospective Parent: Are you referring to the number of parents and children as volume?]

[Official A from the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency: I apologize. Yes. I was referring to the number of cases of prospective adoptive parents whose home studies have been completed and submitted...]

[Prospective Parent (Attendee at the time): If they can say things like that without a second thought, how must they be referring to us in the office?]

A short while later, the official used the term "exhausted" while explaining the process of children finding new homes.

[Official A from the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency: Right now, there is not a large pool of parents who have completed home studies. Once 100 (children) are exhausted, there will be many more waiting parents.]

[Prospective Parent (Attendee at the time): Following the word 'volume,' it really feels like they think of children and parents like cargo.]

The official explained to our reporters that they do not think of parents and children as objects, and that they only used the word "volume" to refer to the statistical number of cases where home studies had been completed prior to adoption.

Prospective parents, arguing that such remarks demonstrate an anti-human rights perspective from those in charge of adoption, have filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea against the head of the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency.

(Video by Park Na-young, Graphics by Kang Yun-jeong)

[Notice] Regarding reports such as "Prospective Parents Outraged After Official Refers to Adoption Cases as 'Volume'"

In our reports on March 27 and March 28 regarding delays in the adoption process, this broadcaster reported on the use of the terms "volume" and "exhausted" by an official at the Korea Child Rights Promotion Agency.

The official mentioned in the report stated that they still regret making inappropriate remarks regardless of the circumstances and that they apologized immediately after the remarks at the scene. The official conveyed that "the expression 'volume' was intended to refer to statistical figures such as the number of completed home study cases, and immediately after the remark, I corrected the expression by saying 'I should talk about the (statistical) numbers,' and apologized multiple times thereafter."

Furthermore, the official stated that "the expression 'exhausted' was also an administrative and statistical term used in the process of explaining the number of cases where children who had been matched for adoption were removed from the waiting list."

This report is in accordance with the mediation of the Press Arbitration Commission.

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