The Seoul Family Court Ruled in Favor of a Korean Adoptee in a Case That Might Set a Precedent for Thousands of Adoptees Worldwide
The hopes of many Korean adoptees searching for their own biological parents went up after the positive verdict of Kara Bos’ case.
Kara Bos, 38, is a Korean-born adoptee who has spent many years searching for her biological mother. After facing hurdle after hurdle, Bos, in a first-of-its-kind paternity suit, finally experienced a major victory on Friday, when a Korean court ruled in her favor.
In this paternity suit, the Seoul Family court ruled to officially recognize Bos as the daughter of her biological father, 85 years old. This ruling sheds light on the legality of acknowledging many adoptees’ rights to their roots. It sets a precedent for an entire generation of adoptees from Korea, many of which have endlessly — some fruitlessly — labored in the search for their biological parents.
Tamara Strickley is a Korean adoptee based in the US who considers herself one of the first wave of transnational Korean adoptions that occurred in the 1960s. Despite the obstacles, she admits that there will always be the desire to find one’s roots.
According to Strickley, despite being adopted into good families and being presented with great opportunities that would not be available to them otherwise, most adoptees still have a deep desire to know where they came from and who are their ancestors. They want to know their mother and father, whether they have brothers and sisters, and why they were given up. Strickley adds that these are great missing pieces in their lives and asserts that adoptees should not have to go through a lot of trouble to find answers to these questions.
Bos’ story is not unique. She is only one of the estimated 200,000 Korean children adopted overseas at the beginning of transnational adoptions, which happened as an aftermath of the Korean War. In 1983, 2-year old Kara, then named Kang Mee Sook, was found abandoned in a market parking lot in Goesan. In 1984, 10 months after she was found, she flew to the United States to join her new family.
Bos became an American citizen following her adoption in Michigan, and she now lives in Amsterdam with her family. While raising her own daughter, Bos came to realize and consider how much pain her own mother must have felt when he abandoned her as a baby. This only strengthened Bos’ resolve to find her roots.
With a renewed sense of motivation, Bos started visiting South Korea. There, she looked through archives and even distributed leaflets in the neighborhood where she was abandoned as a child. She also underwent a DNA test, which matched her with remaining family members. Out of this test, one man was ultimately determined to be her biological father.
Claiming that she was not family, three women, believed to be Bos’ half-sisters, prevented her from meeting her father. According to Bos, she was literally on her knees at the door, begging to see and speak to her father, but her desperation was in vain. 36 years after she was abandoned, Bos filed a paternity suit on November 18 last year as a last attempt to meet her father.
By ruling in favor of Bos and officially recognizing her as the daughter of her biological father, the Seoul Family Court prohibits the half-sisters from barring her future visits. In addition, this ruling could even entitle Bos to an inheritance.
Bos asserts that she has always intended to search for her mother, and her father is the only point of connection she has established. Even though her father is not obligated to meet her, Bos claims that the lawsuit was worth it. Aside from winning the lawsuit, it also highlighted the pain and desperation many Korean adoptees feel in searching for their roots.
David Smolin is a Samford University law professor and director of the Center for Children, Law and Ethics. According to Smolin, this ruling is a significant breakthrough that could potentially set a precedent in upholding adoptees’ rights to know their origins.
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