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When Jeon Sung-shin, 45, was looking to expand her family without going through childbirth again, she met her then 50-day-old daughter at an orphan care center 11 years ago. Jeon fell in love with her at first sight and knew adoption would be a beautiful way to build her family. Growing up with the family, Jeon's youngest daughter is now in the sixth grade and is a promising tennis player.

But Jeon said rearing her hadn't always been easy, mainly because adoption still carries so much stigma, especially in a country where the “primacy of blood” had been of paramount importance under the Confucian ideology. Jeon pointed out that the importance placed on genetic identity makes people close their minds to adoption. “Unlike Western countries, Koreans often tend to refer to somebody's birth mother when talking about who is really their family.



But the biological parent has no custody over the child because all the rights are transferred to the adoptive parent,” Jeon underscored. While adoption remains an unpopular avenue for parenting, Jeon described it as “another way of giving birth to a child.” “It’s shallow to think that physically delivering a child through natural birth or C-section is the only way to add to a family.

Even without those two methods, a parent and a child can bond through adoption,” Jeon said. “In fact, a parent’s love is different from any other kind -- even if they didn’t physically give birth to them. After giving (my daughter) immen.

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