Children’s rights groups in South Korea have condemned comments by President Moon Jae-in suggesting that adoptive parents who do not get along with a child should be able to “change” it for another one.

Mr Moon was responding to a question at a press conference on Monday about the government’s efforts to prevent child abuse in light of the death late last year of a 16-month-old girl, allegedly at the hands of her adoptive parents.

The case has provoked outrage in South Korea, with the adopted mother of Jung-in charged with murder on January 13. The woman, identified only by her family name, Jang, was originally charged with fatal child abuse and neglect in December.

Commenting on the case, Mr Moon said, “Even after adoption, the adoptive parents need to check if the adoption is working out for them. So there should be measures allowing them to cancel the adoption or, if they still want to adopt a child, then they should be able to change the child."

The press conference, which was being broadcast live on national television, triggered an immediate response, with critics saying the president was suggesting that children were “goods” that could be returned for a refund.

Geographical distance does not dim the huge emotion contained in the pages of the Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, and the responses of survivors, residents, and their families.

Out of deeply held respect for survivors and their families, I wanted to hear these most powerful of voices before commenting.

The State holds much of the responsibility. There are actions of reparation which must be done and be rooted in the fundamental belief of the equal human rights of all people.

This must include an urgency around adoption legislation grounded in adopted people’s unequivocal human right to their identity.

The complex legal and political background on this issue is worth reflecting on as it could lead to informed decisions now.

Last week we were informed that one of the birth parents we tested had died. While most of the birth families we have met are between 30 and 60 years old, as time moves on the number of birth parents passing away will only increase. It is time that the adoption community collectively begins to take searching seriously, and take steps to maximize the efficiency of our collective efforts. Today, the searching has been by-and-large a collection of single efforts to locate specific birth families, with each adoptee and their family expending valuable time and efforts for their own search, with little attention being paid to the needs and success of the community as a whole. This must change. This essay is written with the desire to reframe the search efforts of everyone searching in China. The goal is for all of us to work so that the maximum number of birth families can be reunited with the largest number of adoptees, including our own.

The following essay was originally given in the 2015 Heritage Camp of adoptees and their parents in Colorado. It is hoped that the steps presented here will help any family in their search.

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The idea of searching for our child's birth family is fraught with all kinds of emotional and financial currents. What will happen if we are successful? How much will it cost? Should I conduct a search before my child expresses an interest in searching? While most of the answers will depend on variables unique to each situation, some basic foundational principles nevertheless apply to all searches. I have composed a list of ten commandments that everyone should consider before beginning a search. These commandments are largely chronological, in that the early commandments address concerns at the beginning of a search, and later commandments address issues that arise in a search itself. While targeting the adoptive parents as the primary audience, adoptees are also an important component and can easily place themselves into the intended readers.

Put Aside Your Own Fears

When I found out that I’m getting adopted to another family, I didn’t understand what they meant. Few days later Amma, who was the head of the hostel, said that my sisters and I were going to meet our new mom. I understood then that I was getting a family. I wasn’t excited to meet my new family, but I just pretended to be because I didn’t want them to think that I was not happy to see them.

One April afternoon, we left to meet our new mom. I was nervous. When we arrived, I saw a woman wearing a beautiful saree. She came towards us and I said, “Hi Ma’am.” She smiled. Then I said “Mom?” She said yes. She introduced herself, “Namaste, I am Rama, your new mom.” She sounded friendly. However, because she was wearing glasses and had short hair, I was afraid that she may be strict. She reminded me of a woman I knew who was very mean to everyone in the first hostel we stayed at.

When we went to a separate room to talk, our new mom asked, “What do you like to do?” I said, “I like to play with the kitchen set.” I used to love to pretend play. It was so much fun to cook, pretend to be a parent and send kids to school. Our new mom got a delicious biscuit which we all shared and talked about other things for a while. She asked us about the things we don’t like, and I replied, “I don’t like it when adults fight.” I don’t think any kid likes it when their parents fight. They get scared and sometimes, it becomes traumatic and haunts them for the rest of their lives.

Sometime later, she showed us her husband’s photo. We were shocked! My sisters and I had never ever seen a white man or woman in our lives and there he was in the picture!

I imagined his whole family looking white, it was like he had put so much powder on his face; that’s what some people do in India. I asked our new mom, “When are we going with you?” I wanted to make sure how much time I had with my friends in the hostel. She answered, “As soon as the paperwork is done.” We had a good time talking and sharing things about our lives. I felt happy because she wanted to know about my life, my likes, and dislikes.

It is one of the comparatively unknown chapters of the National Socialist dictatorship: in several European countries the SS had children stolen in order to have them "Germanized" in the care of the so-called Lebensborn Association. Thousands of families were affected by this brutal policy of "Germanization", many of the children still do not know their true origins.

DISPLAY

Those affected who are still alive are not officially recognized as victims of Nazi tyranny in Germany . But that should finally change - if it is up to the will of children who were abducted: The association »Robbery Children - Forgotten Children« from Freiburg is now calling in a letter to members of the Bundestag that »Lebensborn« children are legally victims of National Socialism to acknowledge.

According to the letter that is available to SPIEGEL, this should go hand in hand with a claim for compensation for those who were once abducted. Anyone who is officially a victim of the first German dictatorship in Germany can receive benefits according to the so-called guidelines on hardship payments to victims of National Socialist injustice.

ANZEIGE

MUMBAI: The city crime branch busted a baby-selling racket with the arrest of eight people, including a pathology lab technician.

Accordingly to the police, the accused would approach new mothers from economically weaker sections and offer to facilitate the ‘adoption’ of their babies for a price—Rs 60,000 for a newborn girl, and Rs 1.5 lakh for a boy. Preliminary investigations indicate that the gang sold four babies in the last six months, but the police suspect the number could be much higher.

Among those arrested on Saturday were Arti Singh, Rupali Verma, Rukshar Shaikh, Nisha Ahire, Heena Khan, Geetanjali Gaikwad, Shahjahan Jogilkar, and Sanjay Padam. Singh, a lab technician, and Verma were ‘agents’, while Khan and Ahire were ‘sub-agents’ in the baby-selling racket.

The police seized eight mobile phones from the accused. They hope to trace the babies sold to families in Mumbai and Pune from the photographs and WhatsApp chats retrieved from the phones.

The police have also sought the call detail records of the arrested accused, who have been booked under the Indian Penal Code sections of human trafficking and the Juvenile Justice Act.

Dar es Salaam. Fifteen people were yesterday charged with recruiting and transporting disabled people from several parts of the country and subjecting them to involuntary street begging for personal gain.

At the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court, the accused were also charged with money laundering, failure to pay tax and causing a Sh31 million loss to the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

Those arrested include 71-year-old Dar es Salaam businessman Sadikiely Meta who is also alleged to be the owner of the guest house that was used to harbour the disabled people, most of them children.

The arraignment of the accused came two weeks after the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for the disabled Ummy Nderiananga made an impromptu visit at various part of Dar es Salaam where she found disabled people being kept in guest houses by people allegedly using them for own gain.

Dar es Salaam and other major cities in the country have witnessed an extraordinary increase of people taking around disabled people on wheelchairs, particularly children with autism, for begging purposes.

Mumbai: Crime branch on Saturday claimed to have busted a baby-selling racket in Mumbai with the arrest of eight people, including 6 women, who were allegedly involved in selling infants under the garb of adoption. Accordingly to the a report by The Times of India, the accused would approach new mothers from economically weaker sections and offer to facilitate the ‘adoption’ of their babies. Also Read - Petrol Prices Touch Record High in Delhi & Mumbai | Check Prices Here

While baby girls were sold for Rs 60,000, boys were sold for Rs 1.50 lakh. So far, the gang has sold four babies in the last six months, however, the police fear that the number could be a lot more. Also Read - Brain Dead UP Woman Gives New Lease of Life to 5 People by Donating Her Organs

The racket came to light after police sub-inspector Yogesh Chavana and Manisha Pawar got a tip-off about a woman who was selling babies. Acting on the tip-off, the police launched an investigation and identified a woman named Rukhsar Shaikh who had sold a baby girl through Rupali Verma. Further probe revealed that another woman Shahjahan Jogilkar had also sold her baby through Verma. Also Read - Thanks to Karnataka Police, Woman Reunited With Her 9-Month-Old Son After He Was Left Abandoned

All the three women were interrogated at the police station, during which Shaikh revelaed that in 2019, Verma had helped sell her baby girl for Rs 60,000 and recently her newborn boy for Rs 1.5 lakh. Jogilkar said she too had sold her newborn son for Rs 60,000 to a family in Dharavi.

During interrogation, Verma named two other persons- Heena Khan and Nisha Ahire- who acted as sub-agents.

ARNHEM - The struggle when you hear that you have been adopted at the age of 15. The fear of telling your parents you like women. A fantastic relationship that has lasted for 36 years. Cycling 12,000 kilometers through Asia together. Arnhem Elly Petri (61) did not want her life story to be lost and wrote it down in 'Losse eindjes'

"Sit down, we have to tell you something." Just so, in that businesslike way, Elly Petri was told by her parents at 15 that she had been adopted. “And after that moment the subject was always taboo. We were never allowed to talk about it at home again. ''

Why did your parents choose that moment to tell it?

“They had to. My sister turned 21 and had to officially take the name Petri in court. That was arranged at the time. They then told both my sister and me that we had been adopted. Not from the same biological parents. ''

How did you deal with that?

Rose Roeterink (27) and her parents Chris Roeterink (72) and Mieke Nederlof (64)

Rose: 'I grew up in the Achterhoek, where mainly white people live. I now live in Utrecht. I have never discussed racism with my parents. For a long time I did not dare to talk about racism, also because it did not exist in the eyes of my parents and those around me. '

'We still live in Dinxperlo, in the Achterhoek', her father Chris says from their living room, sitting next to his wife on the sofa. 'When we started dating Mieke immediately about adoption. I didn't see any problems. Because her mother's first child had died during childbirth, she had inherited a difficult relationship with childbirth from home. Mieke: 'I have always supported the idea of ??a mixed family. We have four children, three of whom have been adopted. Rose is the youngest. ' Chris: 'After three children, we found our family complete. Until we got a message from the children's home in Haiti where we had adopted our other daughter. She turned out to have a biological sister, Rose. The question was whether we could also adopt her. We wanted that. ' Mieke: 'When Rose was 15 she had to tell a story about her mother in front of the class. She burst into tears, said she couldn't because she didn't know her real mother, in Haiti. I was upset about that. ' Rose:

Rose: 'When I was very young, I mainly saw that I had older parents than most children. I didn't necessarily see a color difference. Classmates sometimes asked how my parents were white and I black. I would explain that I was adopted, but that I just called them mom and dad. ' Chris: “That Rose could face racism didn't bother us. Rose: “Apparently it is. My birth name is Darkenlove. You thought people would react weird to that, so you called me Rose. ' Chris: 'For us it doesn't matter whether you are black or white. Racism does not exist for us. I do know that other people think racist. On holiday abroad you were sometimes stared at as if you were monkeys, but we didn't think that something like this happened in the Netherlands. ' Rose: 'That image prevailed too, that there was no racism in the Netherlands. I kept quiet about it for a long time because I thought it shouldn't be a problem. '

Rose: 'I've always felt good in our family, we talked about everything except racism. I had plenty of girlfriends in primary school, but I was also bullied and spat on. I got no answer from my teacher. My brother and sister went through similar things, but we didn't talk about it because we wanted to be as normal as possible. Mama loved alpine caps. I never wanted to wear it, then I would be called Zwarte Piet. ' Chris: 'We have never heard of it, the children have not discussed it with us.' Rose: 'I think it is the responsibility of parents to make something like this negotiable. Racism was not an existing problem for my parents, they did not have to deal with it themselves, so they did not see it. I am surprised to hear that they have not noticed much of this. As if they forgot a bit. Chris: When we hear this, the problem has been bigger than we realized. We didn't pay much attention to it. ' Mieke: 'I haven't noticed the bullying. The stories came later. I wonder if I've failed as a mother, if I've listened to Rose enough. ”