Comparative analysis of international child adoption practices and policies in Korea and China

Intercountry adoption (ICA) is growing in controversy as it grows in popularity. While heart-warming stories of families with babies from abroad dominate the media coverage on this subject, this represents only a small segment of the entire situation. Using Korea and China as case examples, this thesis extensively reviews and analyzes policy and the cultural, social, economic and political layers of the ICA mechanism from a political-economy perspective and argues that children are treated as commodities in both supplying and receiving countries. ICA is used by governments to solve internal social problems while promoting international relations. The thesis concludes that only a small number of children and parents actually benefit from ICA and the majority of persons involved--unadopted children in both countries, birth parents and some adoptive applicants--do not gain from ICA and may actually experience suffering as a result of it.