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Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
A baby abandoned in a "baby box" at Joosarang church waits for a medical examination at a children's hospital in Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 19. Pastor Lee Jong-rak of the church, who runs a "baby box" where mothers can leave unwanted infants, has seen a sharp increase in the number of newborns being left there because, the pastor says, of a new law aimed protecting the rights of children. South Korea is trying to shed a reputation of being a source of babies for adoption by people abroad. It is encouraging domestic adoption and tightening up the process of a child's transfer from birth mother to adoptive parents.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
A policeman talks on a phone as preacher Jeong Young-ran looks on after a mother abandoned her baby at a "baby box" at Joosarang church in Seoul on Sept. 18.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
A police officer collects DNA samples from two abandoned babies after the babies were left at a "baby box" at Joosarang church in Seoul on Sept 20.
Reuters -- South Korean pastor who runs a "baby box" where mothers can leave unwanted infants has seen a sharp increase in the number of newborns being left there because, the pastor says, of a new law aimed at protecting the rights of children.
South Korea is trying to shed a reputation of being a source of babies for adoption by people abroad. It is encouraging domestic adoption and tightening up the process of a child's transfer from birth mother to adoptive parents.
The law that took effect in August is aimed at ensuring adoption is more transparent and makes it mandatory for parents to register newborns if they want to give them up.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak adjusts the blanket around an abandoned two-week-old baby boy in a "baby box" at Joosarang church in Seoul on Sept. 18.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
Ward officials, who did not want to be identified, hold abandoned babies as they head to a child advocacy center after the babies had undergone checkups at a children's hospital in Seoul on Sept. 19.
But the regulation aimed at seeing more thorough records are kept, though well intentioned, has sparked a surge of undocumented babies being abandoned, said Pastor Lee Jong-rak.
"If you look at the letters that mothers leave with their babies, they say they have nowhere to go, and it's because of the new law," Lee told Reuters.
Lee, who opened his "baby box" for unwanted infants three years ago, said he had seen the number being left there shoot up from an average of five a month to 10 in August and 14 in September.
Despite the new law, Lee said he never forced mothers to provide information about the babies they leave in the box, built into the wall of his church in Nangok, a tough working-class neighborhood in the capital, Seoul.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
Pastor Lee Jong-rak plays with Lee On-u, 6, a disabled child who was abandoned, at the Joosarang church in Seoul on Sept. 20.
Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak carries a baby, abandoned a day earlier at a "baby box" at his Joosarang church, to hand it over to ward officials as portraits of other abandoned children raised and adopted by him are seen on a wall of the church in Seoul on Sept. 20.
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Welcome to America 2016 after a second term with Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since your comment provided no facts/issues upon which to base your opinion, let me suggest that the GOP's determination to eliminate women's access to birth control might be a more realistic cause.
LOL
Since your comment is not supported by any facts/issues, let me offer that the GOP's big idea of eliminating access to birth control might be a more realistic cause.
This is better than abortion. These children get to live and be loved and wanted by someone in this world.
people...can we not just read an article and say it's a wonderful thing that someone is doing instead of talking about politics????
Does anyone know where to send donations to this church, to help with these babies?
Sanchezwiggy, you are a kind soul...
Amen...it takes a village to raise a child.
It is better for them to be adopted domestically, not adopted out overseas. Most countries are closing down their international adoption programs because of problems with child trafficking.
Yes and no. Yes there exists terrible instances of international child trafficking, but doing away with international adoption is particularly difficult in East Asia... adoption is somewhat taboo in these countries as great importance is put on one's individual ancestry. Take Japan, for example. Domestic adoption is incredibly rare, and of all the years I've lived here I've never once heard of a single instance of international adoption. A lot of people attribute this to the higher standard of living in Japan when compared to Korea and China, and of course I'm not overlooking that fact. But it is almost an every day occurence that we read in newspapers of mothers and fathers killing their children as they were unwanted or a burden (usually for selfish reasons by a parent or parents who simply couldn't emotional handle having a child, as opposed to in Korea where it is usually societal pressures or financial ones that cause infanticide or abandonment) and the 'baby boxes' here have been used frequently by parents who wish to take the children back after repeated drop offs. The vast majority of children who are adopted from Korea to outside countries grow up in perfectly fine households with loving parents. While I commend this pastor for the extraordinary love and selflessness he is showing, he is undoubtedly in a small minority of people in his country who would be willing to do the same thing due to East Asian societal pressures that see it as taboo to do so. If you do away with international adoptions, an increase in infanticide and child abandonment is what will follow. There must be a balance between the two.
I love the picture of the pastor playing with the little girl....there is a whole lotta love there.