DNA檢測幫助他們在韓國尋找親生父母
SEOUL, South Korea —Five yearsago, Sun Mi Stapel, a claims handler at a Dutch insurance company, begansearching for her South Korean birth family.
韓國首爾——五年前，在一家荷蘭保險公司任覈保員的善美·施塔珀爾(Sun Mi Stapel)開始尋找在韓國的親生父母。
Stapel first turned to the Dutch adoptionagency that had placed her with her adoptive parents in Krommenie, theNetherlands, where she grew up.
施塔珀爾首先去找了一家荷蘭領養中介公司，當初她就是通過這家公司被荷蘭克羅默尼的養父母領養的，她在那裏長大。
Then she tried Korea Social Service, whichhad handled the Korean side of her adoption.
然後她又找到了在領養中負責在韓事務的韓國社會服務公司(Korea Social Service)。
Last year, she finally obtained heradoption files, but they were missing vital information.
去年，她終於拿到了領養文件，但是其中丟失了一些關鍵信息。
She traveled to Seoul, appearing on amorning television show with her baby photos and asking viewers to call ahotline with any information.
她來到首爾，拿着自己幼時的照片出現在一個早間電視節目上，請求觀衆通過熱線電話提供有關信息。
She registered for a national database formissing people.
她在一個國家失蹤人口數據庫做了登記。
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，在自己當初所在的孤兒院周遭散發傳單，她就是在那裏出生的，她還去了養老院和社區中心，以期找到認識她父母的人。
No one did.
沒有人瞭解情況。
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.
於是，在最近一個週二的下午，46歲的施塔珀爾來到首爾一家面向被領養人的招待所，一名志願者用棉籤在她口腔內側颳了刮，把棉籤扔進一根細長的保存瓶裏，然後寄到德克薩斯的一座實驗室，在那裏，她的DNA經分析後被上傳到一個網站，和已提交的基因進行比對。
The result could link her to her birthfamily and fill in some of the blanks of her personal history.
比對結果也許能幫她找到自己的親生父母，填補她的個人歷史中的某些空白。
I want to know the simple things, she said.
我想知道的東西很簡單，她說。
When is my real date of birth? Who is myfather? Who is my mother? Do I have siblings? Do I look like somebody?
我的真實生日是幾號？我父親是誰？母親是誰？我有兄弟姐妹嗎？我長得像誰？
Many South Korean adoptees who have thesame questions are turning to DNA testing to circumvent what has long been atortuous and often fruitless process.
許多懷着同樣問題的韓國被領養人選擇了DNA測試，以繞過一個漫長曲折且往往徒勞無獲的過程。
For years, South Korea was the world’s leadingbaby exporter.
韓國多年來一直是全球最大的嬰兒出口國。
Since the 1950s, it has sent about 200,000children abroad for adoption, including about 150,000 to the United States.
自上世紀50年代起，該國共有約20萬名兒童被外國領養，其中約有15萬名前往美國。
Every year adoptees return, looking forinformation about their past.
每年都有被領養者返回韓國，尋找有關自己過往的信息。
But South Korean laws block them fromobtaining their full birth records without their birth parents’consent.
但因爲韓國法律的限制，在沒有獲得親生父母允許的情況下，他們無法獲得自己完整的出生記錄。
And government adoption files are oftenfalsified, incomplete or missing, making birth parents impossible to trackdown.
而政府的領養文件往往有虛假成分、不完整或是丟失了，這讓他們很難找到親生父母。
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.
韓國政府統計的數據顯示，從2012年至2015年，要求與父母團聚的被領養者中只有不足15%的人做到了這一點。
For many, DNA testing offers a way aroundthe bureaucratic hurdles and flawed records.
對很多人來說，DNA檢測提供了一種繞過官僚障礙和瑕疵文件的辦法。
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，三年一度的國際韓國被領養人協會大會(International Korean Adoptee Associations Gathering)舉行期間，幾十名被領養人接受了免費的DNA檢測。施塔珀爾就是其中之一。
Monica Toudahl Knudsen, 33, who grew up inthe Jutland peninsula, in Denmark, also took the test.
33歲的莫妮卡·託達爾·克努森(MonicaToudahl Knudsen)也接受了這項檢測。
She has been searching for her birth familysince 2012.
她在丹麥的日德蘭半島長大，自2012年開始就一直在尋找自己的生身父母。
According to her adoption file, her parentswere teenage sweethearts who could not afford to raise her.
領養文件顯示，她的父母當時是一對十幾歲的情侶，無力撫養她。
On a previous trip to Seoul, she hadvisited the site of the midwife clinic where she was born.
上一次去首爾時，她曾經到訪自己出生的那個助產士診所所在地。
It now houses a cafe and fried chickenrestaurant.
如今那裏是一間咖啡館和一個炸雞店。
She feels grateful for her life in Denmark,where she is a chef.
她在丹麥做廚師，對自己現在的生活充滿感恩。
If she is ever able to meet her birthparents, she said, I just want to thank them for letting me go.
她說，如果能見到親生父母，我只想謝謝他們送走了我。
The DNA testing movement has been largelyfinanced by Thomas Park Clement, a Korean adoptee who now lives in Manhattanand in Bloomington, Indiana.
這項DNA檢測活動主要是由託瑪斯·帕克·克萊門特(Thomas Park Clement)資助。他也是一名韓國被領養人，如今在曼哈頓和印第安納州布魯明頓兩地生活。
A scientist who founded Mectra Labs, amedical manufacturing company, he has pledged to spend $1 million on DNA kitsto give away.
這名科學家是醫療設備製造公司梅茨特拉實驗室(Mectra Labs)的創立者。他承諾支付100萬美元購買成套DNA檢測服務，用於捐贈。
I have throughout the years experienced somany of my fellow Korean adoptees’frustrations with birth relative searches, he said in a recentinterview.
這些年來，我目睹那麼多同爲韓國被領養者的人在尋找親生父母方面遭遇挫折，他在最近接受採訪時說。
DNA is shortcutting the search process andbringing all parties in direct communication with each other.
DNA提供了一條捷徑，可以縮短尋找的過程，讓各方進行直接的交流。
He has donated 2,550 kits to Koreanadoptees and Korean War veterans in the United States.
他捐獻了2550套DNA檢測服務給韓國被領養人和美國的朝鮮戰爭退伍軍人。
Some of the veterans are the fathers of thefirst wave of South Korea’s international adoptees.
這些退伍軍人中，有一些是第一波被跨國領養的韓國人的生身父親。
He has also given 450 test kits to325Kamra, a volunteer organization started last year, to distribute in SouthKorea.
他還捐贈了450套檢測服務給去年成立的志願者組織325卡姆拉(325Kamra)，讓它針對韓國進行分配。
When testing works, it is remarkablyefficient.
DNA檢測起效的時候，效率是非常驚人的。
This month, 325Kamra announced its firstmatch between a Korean birth mother and an American adoptee.
本月，325卡姆拉宣佈了該機構配對成功的第一對——一名韓國生身母親和一位身在美國的被領養人。
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小時，生活在華盛頓州埃弗雷特的被領養人、33歲的京銀·戴維森(Kyung Eun Davidson)便和她的母親說上了話，這是30年來的頭一遭。
It’s been an amazing,crazy and wonderful experience, Davidson told The Korea Herald.
那是一種讓人驚奇、有些瘋狂同時也很棒的體驗，戴維森對《韓國先驅報》(The Korea Herald)講道。
Adoptees are not the only ones placingtheir hopes in DNA tests.
被領養者並不是唯一將希望寄託在DNA檢測上的人。
Last month, Song Chang-sook, 89, traveled200 miles from Pusan with his caregiver to take a DNA test in Seoul.
上個月，89歲的宋章肅(Song Chang-sook，音)與他的護理員跋涉200英里，從釜山來到首爾接受DNA檢測。
Having heard about the testing on a morningtelevision program, he was searching for the three sons he relinquished foradoption more than 40 years ago.
他在一檔早間電視節目中聽說了這個檢測項目，之前他一直在尋找自己在40多年前送養的三個兒子。
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.
在他的妻子於1970年死於傷寒時，他的岳母堅持認爲，三個孩子應該被送出去，而不是由一個單身父親撫養。
He gave up his three sons: Won Ho, born in1965; Won Young, born in 1967; and Won Hee, born in 1968.
他放棄了自己的三個兒子：生於1965年的元鎬（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.
五年後，他返回領養機構霍爾特國際(Holt International)，詢問他們的下落。
He inquired many more times after that.
此後，他又問過很多次。
At one point, someone told him that hissons were living together in France.
曾經有人告訴他，三個兒子一起生活在法國。
But Holt was prohibited from disclosingpersonal information about the three boys.
但霍爾特被禁止泄露三個男孩的個人信息。
The 2012 adoption law that gives adopteesthe right to petition for their birth records offers no such benefit to theparents.
2012年的領養法允許被領養者申請獲得自己的出生記錄，但沒有賦予送養的父母同樣的權利。
Song thinks about the last time he saw hischildren, on Nov. 3, 1971.
宋章肅時常想到自己最後一次見到孩子們的時候，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，他的大兒子元鎬曾因在車禍中肩部骨折而住了一個月的院。
