The mother of a four-year-old who was kidnapped in 1976 is suing her government, an adoption agency, and an orphanage. Laurie Bender was wrongly adopted in the USA after being kidnapped from her native South Korea. Her mother, Han Tae-soon, reunited with her decades later, thanks to DNA testing.

Han filed a lawsuit on Monday (October 7). This was the first known case of a Korean birth parent suing for damages against the South Korean government and an adoption agency over the wrongful adoption of their child, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

Han reportedly searched for Bender for more than 40 years before they reunited through DNA testing in 2019. 

Speaking to reporters in front of the Seoul Central District Court, Han argued that the South Korean government was responsible for failing to prevent the adoption of Bender, the LA Times reported.

The mother of a four-year-old who was kidnapped in 1976 is suing her government, an adoption agency, and an orphanage

Image credits: 325Kamra – Reuniting families through DNA

Back in the late 1970s, Bender, who was born Shin Gyeong-ha, was approached by “a strange woman” while playing in the front yard in South Korea.

Bender told the Associated Press (AP) in September 2014 that she remembered the woman saying that her family didn’t want her anymore because her mother had another baby. 

As a result, Bender was tricked into leaving with the mysterious woman. However, Han didn’t want to abandon Bender and spent a significant amount of time in police stations, government offices, and adoption agencies looking for her missing daughter.

Image credits: DANISH KOREAN RIGHTS GROUP

Meanwhile, Bender was sent by Seoul-based Holt Children’s Services to an American family who believed she was an orphan.

Bender reportedly took a DNA test because her own daughter was curious about their heritage. In 2019, she got a call: “Your mother has been looking for you.”

She told the AP: “It’s like a hole in your heart has been healed, you finally feel like a complete person. It’s like you’ve been living a fake life and everything you know is not true.”

Han Tae-soon filed a lawsuit on Monday (October 7)

Image credits: DANISH KOREAN RIGHTS GROUP

Han now accuses Holt, which is South Korea’s biggest adoption agency, of facilitating her daughter’s adoption without checking her background. 

Han’s lawyers reportedly said the agency made no effort to find the parents after the child was placed at the facility by police in May 1975, a day after Bender was reported to be missing.

In her adoption papers, Bender was described as an abandoned orphan with no known parents and was identified under a new Korean name made by the orphanage, Baik Kyong Hwa, the LA Times reported.

Bender was subsequently sent to the US in February 1976. Han recalled: “For 44 years, I wandered and searched for my child, but the joy of meeting her was only momentary and now I am in so much pain because we can’t communicate in the same language.”

The heartbroken mom continued: “It turns out they didn’t make an effort to find her clearly existing parents and instead disguised her as an orphan for adoption abroad. 

This is the first known case between a Korean birth parent, the government, and an adoption agency over wrongful adoption

Image credits: 달리 [SBS DALI]

Image credits: 달리 [SBS DALI]

“I want the government and Holt to explain to us how this happened.”

Kim Soo-jung, Han’s lawyer, reportedly said the government is at fault for the botched child search that led to Bender’s wrongful adoption.

Kim explained: “While the state bears the large responsibility for not fulfilling its duty to help find missing children and reunite them with their families, we also believe that the [orphanage] and adoption agency cannot be spared from responsibility as well.

Laurie Bender was wrongly adopted in the USA after being kidnapped from her native South Korea

Image credits: 달리 [SBS DALI]

Image credits: 달리 [SBS DALI]

“We suspect that these child protection institutions failed to carry out their ethical obligation to help find the child’s parents, even when the child was saying [she] had a family and had parents.”

Jeon Min Kyeong, another lawyer representing Han, said she is seeking about 600 million won ($445,000) in damages, the LA Times reported.

South Korea’s government, Western countries, and adoption agencies have worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, a recent investigation led by the AP found. 

Han reunited with Bender decades later, thanks to DNA testing

Image credits: 325Kamra – Reuniting families through DNA

According to the AP, adoptions from South Korea peaked in the 1980s, fueled by the government.

The adoption industry had grown out of the wreckage of the Korean War in the 1950s when Americans took in the unwanted biracial children born of Korean women and Western soldiers. 

As it clawed its way out of post-war poverty, South Korea continued to rely on private adoption agencies as its social safety net, bringing millions of dollars into the economy and saving even more by avoiding building its own child welfare program, as per the AP.

“I’m so happy they’ve found each other,” a reader commented

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