Statement of Consent to Overseas Adoption
From what I can tell, the Statement of Consent was not a document issued or approved by a government authority. It was something akin to a Statutory Declaration or an Affidavit - a statement declaring that the contents written therein are true, with a signature of the one making the statement and a witness.
The Statement of Consent was made when I was 10 weeks old.
In the Statement of Consent, then president of Eastern Social Welfare Society, Kim Deuk Hwang gives a very comprehensive and uncharacteristically grammatical account of the consents that he was transferring to the relevant adoption authority in NSW and the rights over me, as my guardian, he was waiving.
What strikes me every time I read this statement is its language. Other more lengthy descriptions given in translation from Eastern are awkwardly rendered in English and appear vague without care for details or correctness of language. This document however is precise and expressed in perfect, nuanced English. It reads like a contract for sale - thorough and airtight, speaking of a commodity to be moved across seas for exportation. The terms of the transfer of goods meticulously elucidated to leave no room for revocation or error. By the stroke of a pen and the ink of a stamp, Kim Deuk Hwang was granted guardianship over me. Then, 8 weeks later, after receiving payment for a newborn baby, he handed me over and along with me, any responsibility or ostensible shred of concern for my welfare.
Informed consent, we must remember is and was a fundamental element that makes a child adoptable in the Australian system. An adoption without the consent of the birth parents is not a legal one. So, I suspect this statement was provided for the benefit of the adoption authorities. On its face it appears as a legitimate conferral of consent from my legal guardian to the Australian adoption authority for me to be adopted in an Australian court.
And Kim Deuk Hwang did have the legal authority to give that consent. A man unqualified in social work or any field related to child welfare and without any personal vested interest in my welfare was granted guardianship and complete authority to exchange me for payment by the national laws of the Republic of Korea.
But still absent from any of my paperwork is evidence of any informed consent from my birth parents. How can anyone know (myself included) whether this is what my birth mother wanted and willingly gave her consent to?