DNA检测帮助他们在韩国寻找亲生父母

SEOUL, South Korea —Five yearsago, Sun Mi Stapel, a claims handler at a Dutch insurance company, begansearching for her South Korean birth family.

韩国首尔——五年前，在一家荷兰保险公司任核保员的善美·施塔珀尔(Sun Mi Stapel)开始寻找在韩国的亲生父母。

Stapel first turned to the Dutch adoptionagency that had placed her with her adoptive parents in Krommenie, theNetherlands, where she grew up.

施塔珀尔首先去找了一家荷兰领养中介公司，当初她就是通过这家公司被荷兰克罗默尼的养父母领养的，她在那里长大。

Then she tried Korea Social Service, whichhad handled the Korean side of her adoption.

然后她又找到了在领养中负责在韩事务的韩国社会服务公司(Korea Social Service)。

Last year, she finally obtained heradoption files, but they were missing vital information.

去年，她终于拿到了领养文件，但是其中丢失了一些关键信息。

She traveled to Seoul, appearing on amorning television show with her baby photos and asking viewers to call ahotline with any information.

她来到首尔，拿着自己幼时的照片出现在一个早间电视节目上，请求观众通过热线电话提供有关信息。

She registered for a national database formissing people.

她在一个国家失踪人口数据库做了登记。

She distributed fliers in the neighborhoodaround her orphanage in Incheon, where she was born, and visited nursing homesand community centers there in hopes of finding someone who knew her parents.

她到了仁川，在自己当初所在的孤儿院周遭散发传单，她就是在那里出生的，她还去了养老院和社区中心，以期找到认识她父母的人。

No one did.

没有人了解情况。

So on a recent Tuesday afternoon, Stapel,46, went to a guesthouse for adoptees in Seoul, where a volunteer rubbed theinside of her cheek with a cotton swab, dropped the swab in a tube and shippedit to a lab in Texas, where her DNA will be analyzed and uploaded to a websitethat scans submitted samples for genetic matches.

于是，在最近一个周二的下午，46岁的施塔珀尔来到首尔一家面向被领养人的招待所，一名志愿者用棉签在她口腔内侧刮了刮，把棉签扔进一根细长的保存瓶里，然后寄到德克萨斯的一座实验室，在那里，她的DNA经分析后被上传到一个网站，和已提交的基因进行比对。

The result could link her to her birthfamily and fill in some of the blanks of her personal history.

比对结果也许能帮她找到自己的亲生父母，填补她的个人历史中的某些空白。

I want to know the simple things, she said.

我想知道的东西很简单，她说。

When is my real date of birth? Who is myfather? Who is my mother? Do I have siblings? Do I look like somebody?

我的真实生日是几号？我父亲是谁？母亲是谁？我有兄弟姐妹吗？我长得像谁？

Many South Korean adoptees who have thesame questions are turning to DNA testing to circumvent what has long been atortuous and often fruitless process.

许多怀着同样问题的韩国被领养人选择了DNA测试，以绕过一个漫长曲折且往往徒劳无获的过程。

For years, South Korea was the world’s leadingbaby exporter.

韩国多年来一直是全球最大的婴儿出口国。

Since the 1950s, it has sent about 200,000children abroad for adoption, including about 150,000 to the United States.

自上世纪50年代起，该国共有约20万名儿童被外国领养，其中约有15万名前往美国。

Every year adoptees return, looking forinformation about their past.

每年都有被领养者返回韩国，寻找有关自己过往的信息。

But South Korean laws block them fromobtaining their full birth records without their birth parents’consent.

但因为韩国法律的限制，在没有获得亲生父母允许的情况下，他们无法获得自己完整的出生记录。

And government adoption files are oftenfalsified, incomplete or missing, making birth parents impossible to trackdown.

而政府的领养文件往往有虚假成分、不完整或是丢失了，这让他们很难找到亲生父母。

From 2012-15, fewer than 15 percent ofadoptees who asked to reunite with their birth parents were able to do so,according to Korean government figures.

韩国政府统计的数据显示，从2012年至2015年，要求与父母团聚的被领养者中只有不足15%的人做到了这一点。

For many, DNA testing offers a way aroundthe bureaucratic hurdles and flawed records.

对很多人来说，DNA检测提供了一种绕过官僚障碍和瑕疵文件的办法。

Stapel was one of a few dozen adoptees whotook free DNA tests made available in Seoul this month during the InternationalKorean Adoptee Associations Gathering, which meets every three years.

本月，三年一度的国际韩国被领养人协会大会(International Korean Adoptee Associations Gathering)举行期间，几十名被领养人接受了免费的DNA检测。施塔珀尔就是其中之一。

Monica Toudahl Knudsen, 33, who grew up inthe Jutland peninsula, in Denmark, also took the test.

33岁的莫妮卡·托达尔·克努森(MonicaToudahl Knudsen)也接受了这项检测。

She has been searching for her birth familysince 2012.

她在丹麦的日德兰半岛长大，自2012年开始就一直在寻找自己的生身父母。

According to her adoption file, her parentswere teenage sweethearts who could not afford to raise her.

领养文件显示，她的父母当时是一对十几岁的情侣，无力抚养她。

On a previous trip to Seoul, she hadvisited the site of the midwife clinic where she was born.

上一次去首尔时，她曾经到访自己出生的那个助产士诊所所在地。

It now houses a cafe and fried chickenrestaurant.

如今那里是一间咖啡馆和一个炸鸡店。

She feels grateful for her life in Denmark,where she is a chef.

她在丹麦做厨师，对自己现在的生活充满感恩。

If she is ever able to meet her birthparents, she said, I just want to thank them for letting me go.

她说，如果能见到亲生父母，我只想谢谢他们送走了我。

The DNA testing movement has been largelyfinanced by Thomas Park Clement, a Korean adoptee who now lives in Manhattanand in Bloomington, Indiana.

这项DNA检测活动主要是由托玛斯·帕克·克莱门特(Thomas Park Clement)资助。他也是一名韩国被领养人，如今在曼哈顿和印第安纳州布鲁明顿两地生活。

A scientist who founded Mectra Labs, amedical manufacturing company, he has pledged to spend $1 million on DNA kitsto give away.

这名科学家是医疗设备制造公司梅茨特拉实验室(Mectra Labs)的创立者。他承诺支付100万美元购买成套DNA检测服务，用于捐赠。

I have throughout the years experienced somany of my fellow Korean adoptees’frustrations with birth relative searches, he said in a recentinterview.

这些年来，我目睹那么多同为韩国被领养者的人在寻找亲生父母方面遭遇挫折，他在最近接受采访时说。

DNA is shortcutting the search process andbringing all parties in direct communication with each other.

DNA提供了一条捷径，可以缩短寻找的过程，让各方进行直接的交流。

He has donated 2,550 kits to Koreanadoptees and Korean War veterans in the United States.

他捐献了2550套DNA检测服务给韩国被领养人和美国的朝鲜战争退伍军人。

Some of the veterans are the fathers of thefirst wave of South Korea’s international adoptees.

这些退伍军人中，有一些是第一波被跨国领养的韩国人的生身父亲。

He has also given 450 test kits to325Kamra, a volunteer organization started last year, to distribute in SouthKorea.

他还捐赠了450套检测服务给去年成立的志愿者组织325卡姆拉(325Kamra)，让它针对韩国进行分配。

When testing works, it is remarkablyefficient.

DNA检测起效的时候，效率是非常惊人的。

This month, 325Kamra announced its firstmatch between a Korean birth mother and an American adoptee.

本月，325卡姆拉宣布了该机构配对成功的第一对——一名韩国生身母亲和一位身在美国的被领养人。

Within 48 hours, the adoptee, Kyung EunDavidson, 33, of Everett, Washington, was speaking to her mother for the firsttime in 30 years.

不到48小时，生活在华盛顿州埃弗雷特的被领养人、33岁的京银·戴维森(Kyung Eun Davidson)便和她的母亲说上了话，这是30年来的头一遭。

It’s been an amazing,crazy and wonderful experience, Davidson told The Korea Herald.

那是一种让人惊奇、有些疯狂同时也很棒的体验，戴维森对《韩国先驱报》(The Korea Herald)讲道。

Adoptees are not the only ones placingtheir hopes in DNA tests.

被领养者并不是唯一将希望寄托在DNA检测上的人。

Last month, Song Chang-sook, 89, traveled200 miles from Pusan with his caregiver to take a DNA test in Seoul.

上个月，89岁的宋章肃(Song Chang-sook，音)与他的护理员跋涉200英里，从釜山来到首尔接受DNA检测。

Having heard about the testing on a morningtelevision program, he was searching for the three sons he relinquished foradoption more than 40 years ago.

他在一档早间电视节目中听说了这个检测项目，之前他一直在寻找自己在40多年前送养的三个儿子。

When his wife died of typhoid fever in1970, his mother-in-law decided that the children should be given up foradoption rather than raised by a single father.

在他的妻子于1970年死于伤寒时，他的岳母坚持认为，三个孩子应该被送出去，而不是由一个单身父亲抚养。

He gave up his three sons: Won Ho, born in1965; Won Young, born in 1967; and Won Hee, born in 1968.

他放弃了自己的三个儿子：生于1965年的元镐（Won Ho，音）、1967年的元融（Won Young，音）和1968年的元熙（Won Hee，音）。

Five years later, he returned to theadoption agency, Holt International, asking for their whereabouts.

五年后，他返回领养机构霍尔特国际(Holt International)，询问他们的下落。

He inquired many more times after that.

此后，他又问过很多次。

At one point, someone told him that hissons were living together in France.

曾经有人告诉他，三个儿子一起生活在法国。

But Holt was prohibited from disclosingpersonal information about the three boys.

但霍尔特被禁止泄露三个男孩的个人信息。

The 2012 adoption law that gives adopteesthe right to petition for their birth records offers no such benefit to theparents.

2012年的领养法允许被领养者申请获得自己的出生记录，但没有赋予送养的父母同样的权利。

Song thinks about the last time he saw hischildren, on Nov. 3, 1971.

宋章肃时常想到自己最后一次见到孩子们的时候，那是1971年11月3日。

The year before, his oldest son, Won Ho,had been hospitalized for a month with a broken shoulder from a car accident.

之前的一年，他的大儿子元镐曾因在车祸中肩部骨折而住了一个月的院。