26-05-2025
'I don't blame my birth parents': Korean American adoptee looks for biological parents
Man adopted by Indiana couple in 1970s searches for those who gave birth to him in Korea
A 57-year-old South Korean-born man adopted to US parents as a child is looking for his biological parents, expressing his wishes to meet them for better understanding of himself and where he came from.
"I don't blame my birth parents at all. I understand that every situation has its own context, so I have no bitterness or anger towards them," Philip Mansiel Pellouchoud, Korean name Park Won-il, said in the letter he sent to the state-run National Center for the Rights of the Child. "I'm old enough, wise enough now and have lived enough life to understand that circumstances. I would like to reunite with my birth parents to deepen my understanding of myself and my origins."
Thought to be born at some time before Feb. 10, 1968 -- the date written on his earliest -known photo, Pellouchoud was admitted to the Center for Lost Children in Seoul on Oct. 26, 1970, before moving around baby homes and eventually being brought to the Seoul branch of Holt Children's Services on Dec. 28 of the same year.
He was eventually adopted by a couple in Indiana on June 24, 1971, the US, and grew up with many siblings. He has been living in San Diego, California with a family of his own, two children with his Chinese wife, and what he said was a relatively successful and stable career.
Pellouchoud said he had grown interested in his heritage and adoption around 1998, embarking on his own journey to find his roots. Engaging with the adoptee community, he, with the help of Global Overseas Adoptees' Link, an adoptee-founded nonprofit and NGO in Korea, sought to find his birth parents in 2003.
Although his initial search was unsuccessful, he said he is continuing in his quest to find his biological parents.
