In the past ten years, South Korea has significantly restricted the adoption of South Korean children by foreigners, says the article. Such that the number of children adopted to other countries is one tenth what it was ten years ago. Though these restrictions were enacted with good intentions, says author Stephen Evans, the unforeseen result has been the dramatic increase in the number of children in South Korean orphanages due to the lingering cultural taboos surrounding adoption in South Korea. This article explores those taboos and the attempts currently underway to ease the stigma associated with adoption so that more South Korean families will begin to adopt children, thus placing more children into family settings rather than institutions.
