Unintended consequences of Korea's new adoption rules

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Here's a recent article highlighting the concerns of some about the unintended consequences of Korea's new adoption rules. Korea's adoption rules changed in August with the intent of protecting the rights of children.

The new law makes it mandatory that birth parents must register children they are placing for adoption, making the adoption process more transparent and encouraging more domestic placements. However, the concern by pastor Lee Jong-rak is that this registration (and required waiting period before relinquishment) will cause a surge of abandoning babies without any documentation at all.

Jong-rak operates a "baby box" from his church, where babies can be placed safely instead of being abandoned on the streets. In the past 2 months since the law took place, the numbers of children left in the box have more than doubled.

A really interesting story, but so sad to see the unintended consequences of the law and how desperate these birth mothers are.