On July 24, a group of international adoptees held a “Funeral for Holt” International adoption agency outside Holt’s Eugene, OR, office.
According to KEZI.com News, the protestors sought to acknowledge what they called the “slow death” of international adoptions.
International adoptions to the United States have declined dramatically in recent years, from a high of nearly 23,000 in 2004 to about 1,200 in 2024. That decline is reflected in other so-called “receiving” countries as well, such as Western Europe and Canada.
Why stage a protest at Holt? Holt International adoption agency is largely known for starting international adoptions from South Korea in 1956, after the Korean War. Holt has placed some 40,000 children for adoption, making its reputation as the largest adoption agency in the world.
Recently, Holt and other adoption agencies have come under fire for those thousands of placements. The Associated Press did a series on Korean adoptions, alleging that “fraud – fake paperwork, stolen babies, switched identities – was pervasive throughout a program that sent 200,000 Korean babies for adoption to the West. The questionable or downright unethical practices were tacitly encouraged by Western countries who wanted to keep the flow of children coming.”
South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been investigating human rights abuses in intercountry adoption for several years, working with international Korean adoptees from Europe, the U.S., and Australia. According to NBC News, “South Korea’s truth commission says government is responsible for fraud and abuse in foreign adoptions.”
Further, the adult adoptees at the Holt protest called for the abolition of adoption, as well as increased transparency and accountability. In Europe especially, and increasingly in the U.S., Australia, and Canada, adult adoptees have been calling for an end to international adoptions. They cite the multi-billion adoption agency system as one that holds an inordinate and inappropriate amount of power, exploiting poor families, commodifying children, and erasing cultural, linguistic, and historic ties. Increasing numbers of adult adoptees cite fraud and corruption in their own adoptions, as well as trauma that is too often ignored or dismissed. Many advocates call for family preservation, as well as reparations, accurate family records, and substantial services to first families, who are often the most invisible and voiceless in the adoption process.
Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, and France are among the countries which have suspended or ended international adoptions, due to trafficking, corruption, and fraud. The adult adoptees in those countries have been speaking out for several years, and it may be that we will see more protests, like the one at Holt, here in the United States.
No one, and I’d include the most fervent adoption abolitionist, wants any child to suffer, to be abused, to be forgotten, to be unsafe, to be without medical care. The system of international adoption as we have known it in the past is coming to an end. There are many voices calling for many solutions and approaches. We’d do well to listen to the voices of adult adoptees and to their original families, if we are to create the much-needed, and inevitable, changes in the way we care for vulnerable children.