by Lisa Wool-rim Sjöblom, adopted from South Korea to Sweden, artist and author
Lisa was born in Busan, South Korea, and adopted to Sweden at age two. She is a comic book artist and illustrator and has published two graphic novels: Palimpsest (2016), an autobiographical account of the search for her Korean family, and The Excavated Earth (2022), which follows Chilean adoptees who were stolen and sold for adoption to Sweden. She is a vocal adoptee rights activist and a Swedish Korean Adoptees’ Network member, fighting for truth and justice for adoptees and first parents. Follow her on Instagram at @chung.woolrim
Ever since the Swedish Adoption Commission was launched, I hoped that, finally, the truth would come out. That the Commission would find proof of everything we activists have been talking about for years: proof of the trafficking of children, the kidnappings, the thefts, the lies told to our mothers, the fraudulent documentation, the paper orphans, the switched identities. Proof that children were turned into commodities in a system built for profit.
I thought that when the findings were presented, I would feel a sense of relief. That maybe, just maybe, I could get some rest. That people would understand that all this time, we were right.
But instead, the opposite seems to be happening. The debate has turned toxic. Adoptees, as always, are being pitted against each other. Those of us who speak out against injustice are being told we are the problem. That we should be grateful for our lives in Sweden. We are told that our pain, our truth, is hurting adoptees who had good experiences. As if our human rights should be put aside to preserve someone else’s comfort.
I’ve been sent messages urging me to take my own life. And an adoptive mother wrote to ask me to publicly declare that I don’t hate adoptive parents (something I’ve never said, what I have indeed said is that people think I hate adoptive parents when I say I’m critical of adoption). And through it all, the report sits there, 1600 pages long, documenting the Swedish state’s role in illegal adoptions, its knowledge, its silence, its inaction. So before you send me another hateful message … PLEASE READ THE REPORT. And understand that the purpose of the report was never to review the quality of adoptive families. It’s about crimes. About human rights violations. About families destroyed so that others could be built. Show some compassion for the victims, it’s not that hard. And remember that too many of us are already dead.
Resources
Swedish Adoption Report (2025)
Unofficial ICAV English summary based on the Powerpoint presentation at the official Press Conference
Sweden urged to ban international adoption after damning inquiry findings
Sweden faces calls to halt international adoptions after inquiry finds abuses and fraud
Governments finally recognising illicit and illegal adoption practices