Search for birth parents leads to adoption ruling

Video Credit: Reuters Studio
Published on June 12, 2020 - Duration: 01:22s

Search for birth parents leads to adoption ruling

Decades after she was sent for adoption in the United States, Kara Bos' quest to find her birth parents in South Korea moved a step closer on Friday (June 12) when a Seoul court ruled that a South Korean man was her biological father, a ruling that's the first of its kind in South Korea.

Edward Baran reports.


Search for birth parents leads to adoption ruling

In 1983, two-year-old Kara Bos was found abandoned in a market in Seoul.

Decades after she was first sent for adoption in the U.S., her quest to find her birth parents in South Korea moved a step closer on Friday (June 12).

A court ruled that a South Korean man was her biological father.

The ruling's the first of its kind in South Korea, which Amnesty International once called the "largest supplier of international adoptees".

It sets the stage for thousands of other adoptees like Bos to be officially registered as children of their birth parents.

She's tried many times in vain to contact her birth family.

"I even went to one of their houses and I begged, literally on my knees.

And they called the police on me.

And without the legal help, I would still be in the dark.

I would still have no options." While laws vary widely from country to country, many jurisdictions are providing more information to adopted children about their biological parents.

Advocates say South Korea's policies are still relatively restrictive.

Bos is one of more than 200,000 Korean children adopted overseas in the past 60 years.

After a court-ordered positive paternity test, the family has finally agreed she could meet her father as soon as next week.

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