JEONJU, South Korea — South Korean writer Eun Seo-ran was happily single, until a medical emergency made her want family around to help. But she took an unconventional route: legally adopting her best friend.
She wanted Lee to be allowed into the hospital as family, and in the worst-case scenario, to be able to organize her funeral without enduring lengthy administrative procedures. Same-sex and common-law marriages are not recognized in the socially conservative country, and the traditional family unit remains the norm.
"We need to solve the problem of increasingly isolated single-person households by expanding their options, not just 'being alone' or 'being married'". Eun says she was born into what South Korea recognizes as a "normal", nuclear family, but she was not happy as a child.