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| Gettyimages |
By Lee Hae-rin
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) expressed regret at the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology's for refusal to revise its ethics guidelines limiting in vitro fertilization treatment for unmarried women, Friday.
The guidelines state that only married couples can receive in vitro fertilization treatment, restricting unmarried women from the procedure.
In May this year, the rights agency recommended that the group revise the guidelines and thereby accept the diversity of personal lives while assuring women's right to self-determination.
The recommendation was in response to a petition lodged by an unmarried woman who was denied in vitro fertilization treatment at a gynecological clinic. The hospital quoted the society's ethics guidelines as the reason for not offering the procedure to unmarried women, which the petitioner found discriminatory.
The petitioner filed a complaint with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the ministry's bioethics committee told her that it has no legally binding regulation banning unmarried women from undergoing in vitro fertilization. She made a second request to the hospital citing the ministry's argument but was rejected again.
The NHRCK's discrimination remedy committee decided on Sept. 13 that the doctors' group failed to understand the essence of the case, which relates to women's right to self-determination about pregnancy.
In response, however, the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology refused to follow the agency's recommendation and maintained its own ethics guidelines.
The group argued that childbirth by in vitro fertilization treatment is a "grave matter that needs to be discussed with respect to the protection of the rights of sperm donors and infants" and voiced the need for a social consensus and revision of relevant laws before amending the group's guidelines.
According to the group, countries that allow in vitro fertilization treatment for unmarried women tend to allow it for same-sex couples as well, and Korea still lacks a social consensus on the issue.
The NHRCK condemned the society's decision and said it is not the group's place to decide whether or not there is a social consensus on such issues.
Pregnancy and childbirth through in vitro fertilization for unmarried women became a social issue here after Sayuri Fujita, a Japanese TV celebrity residing in Seoul, returned to Japan so she could undergo the procedure. Her son was born there in November 2020.
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