미혼모의 양육권 보장을 위한 논의-입양문제를 중심으로-

Abstract

The adoption policy is a significant aspect of child protection. About 3,700 children in a year are looked after through adoption, almost of whom are children of unmarried mothers. Adoption may mean severance of parent-child relations by blood and creation of new parent-child relations. When a child of an unmarried mother is adopted, the blood parent-child relation severs on an earlier stage with no report of the child's birth. It is usual that a new parent-child relation by adoption is created when the adopted child is reported to be a blood child of a legally married parents. As far a birth of a child from an unmarried mother has been recognized as the child's state needing outside protection rather than as severance of blood parent-child relations. That's because a focus was made on the aspect that a mother who is not legally married 'gave birth' to a child. Adoption must be a significant child welfare policy that should be argued from a viewpoint of child protection. Adoption is initiated when a child falls on a state seeking for outside protection. Argument of adoption without any devices to secure an unmarried mother's rights to parental authority and to bringing up children is meant to be made from a premise of severance of a child from his/her unmarried mother. Accordingly, this study examined any obstacles in laws and institutions obstructing an unmarried mother's direct child bringing up. by considering the adoption system in relation with family norms on the basis of the current Family Law. This paper also tried to seek for policy directions of improvement to secure an unmarried mother's rights to parental authority and to bringing up children while analyzing impacts the amended Family Law would make on securing such rights, and implications to be issued in the future.