In light of the Frontline (PBS) documentary, South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning, and The Associated Press articles about Korean adoption and China’s decision to end its intercountry adoption program—countries which represent two of the largest numbers of intercountry adoptees in the United States—IAMAdoptee convened a group of thought leaders to discuss these major developments.

Resources

General

• “Out of the Fog and Into Consciousness: A Model of Adoptee Awareness” (International Body Psychotherapy Journal, 2023)

• “The trauma and healing of consciousness” (Child Abuse & Neglect, 2022)

China

• “China’s halt of foreign adoptions leaves questions about pending cases” (The Associated Press, 2024)

• Outsourced Children: Orphanage Care and Adoption in Globalizing China, Leslie K. Wang (Stanford University Press, 2016)

• “End of an Era: China’s International Adoption Program” (The Nanchang Project Blog, 2024)

South Korea

• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, Deann Borshay Liem (2010)

• To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption, Arissa H. Oh (Stanford University Press, 2015)

• “Widespread adoption fraud separated generations of Korean children from their families, AP finds” (The Associated Press, 2024)

• “Western nations were desperate for Korean babies. Now many adoptees believe they were stolen” (The Associated Press, 2024)

• “South Korea adoptees endure emotional, sometimes devastating searches for their birth families” (The Associated Press, 2024)

• “Did this happen to me also? Korean adoptees question their past and ask how to find their families” (The Associated Press, 2024)

• South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning, Frontline (PBS) & The Associated Press (2024)