In a graveyard in Damascus, Maryland, there is one nameless tombstone. If you look closely, the tomb is not entirely without a name. Following the burial of Hyunsu, the mortician installed a small nameplate for identification that is now covered under grass. “Name: Madoc: Hyunsu O’Callaghan, From May 17, 2010 to February 14, 2014, 3 Years Old.”

Abiding by the decision of his adoptive parents who caused his death, Kim Hyunsu’s organs were donated and his lightweight body was left at this site. There was no funeral. Hyunsu had a disability and after birth was placed in the hands of Holt International Children’s Services and then raised by a foster mother. Hyunsu’s Korean foster mother shared that he couldn’t be adopted domestically because of his disability and even though she expressed her intention to adopt him Holt chose intercountry adoption.
Brian O’Callaghan, who had adopted Hyunsu in October 2013, had worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) as chief of its Korea section. Hyunsu grew attached to his adoptive mother, Jennifer O’Callaghan, but his adoptive father did not grow an attachment to Hyunsu. They underwent a police investigation and testified that baby Hyunsu had slipped in a bathtub and hurt his head, but his autopsy confirmed that he had been beaten to death and his adoptive father was charged with first-degree murder and child abuse. As a result of plea-bargaining over a trial process that had stretched for more than two years, he plead guilty to first-degree child abuse in exchange for having his first-degree murder dismissed. First-degree child abuse can lead to up to 40 years in prison. Mr. O’Callaghan’s attorney had asked for a reduced sentence last November noting that he suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) resulting from his military service.
From 1997 to 2004, before working at the NSA, O’Callaghan served in the Marine Corps and fought in Iraq for nine months. He was among the 500 thousand of the total 2.5 million military members in Iraq and Afghanistan who were diagnosed with PTSD. Taking into account mitigating factors is likely normal. After the attorney requested to postpone the sentence pledging to submit supporting evidence related to his mental health issues, the sentence originally scheduled for April this year was put off to the 19th of this month.
For Annalei Amoros (Korean name: Yi Nan-hee), who was adopted as a child and was raised in the U.S., the news of Hyunsu‘s death struck as something deeply personal. The same was true even for those who had grown up with good adoptive parents. They are currently coordinating efforts to build at least a small tombstone for Hyunsu. The adoptee community has raised approximately 1,400 dollars. However, this effort to improve the gravesite is not possible without the adoptive parents approval. Since January, Annalei has been attempting to contact the O’Callaghan family. Even the Korean Embassy has attempted but the adoptive parents have still not uttered a response.
Hyunsu was adopted by a parent who happened to have an emotional scar from Iraq War. The U.S. prosecutors did not even consider the appropriateness of the adoption process as a subject of criminal investigation. Other than releasing a statement of condolences two weeks after Hyunsu passed away, Holt’s Korean branch refused to answer any questions. They are of the position that they had already paid their dues while undergoing the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s special inspection for the incident.
From 2009 to 2011, the United States has been home to 37,633 Korean adoptees, the world’s third largest population. International adoption in the U.S. began when Harry Holt adopted eight Korean War orphans in 1955. Up until now, 120,000 of the 170,000 international adoptees were sent to the United States. Sixty years have passed and despite the dissipating cause behind children being orphaned during times of war the massive flow of international adoption continues. The biggest reason for this was that the stakeholders who had already created this system did not want to decrease the number of international adoptions. Kathryn Joyce showed how the international adoption “industry” continued to have the mission of wrapping up the adoption from in the good-will of evangelical Christianity.”
This is the story of one government official in charge of child welfare services. “Korea should have already declared an end to international adoption. The common claim that adoption of children with disabilities cannot be handled domestically is also just another excuse. Because our child protection system is too lax, these children are pushed out of the country and sent abroad. As these children are pushed out, we miss out on the opportunity to improve our child protection system.”

(Translated by Emily Kessel)