Koreatimes: When adoptees from Korea give birth

Nice article. This could apply to any adoptee from anywhere. My DIL’s mother was adopted.

Because I’m a doctor, I end up talking to a lot of people about their adoptions. The conversation starts when asking about what runs in the family from a health perspective, and then sometimes the patient continues the conversation from there. How people feel varies so much! Some experience their adoption as a trauma; some don’t at all. Some are extremely driven to reunite with their birth families and want a relationship, others would like to meet their birth families but don’t want much of a relationship, others just wish they has some health info, a few have essentially no curiosity at all feeling that what happened before they can remember doesn’t matter to them. Some in transracial adoptions experienced a lot of difficulties; others didn’t. For some, giving birth to a genetically-related child is a revelation; others don’t see it that way. My only take home is that there are certain “themes” or “patterns” in how adoptees may feel, but that I can’t predict how any given adoptee will feel. ETA: I will say that more of the “not very curious” adoptees tend to be male.

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