Mom's murder of 2 newborns reignites debate over anonymous childbirth

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Various values clash including rights to life, rights to know about roots

By Jun Ji-hye

The recent arrest of a mother accused of killing her two newborns and keeping their bodies in a freezer at home is reigniting a years-long debate over the need to enact a law allowing women to give birth anonymously in cases of unwanted pregnancy.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Sunday, several related bills are currently pending at the National Assembly, including one submitted in December 2020 by Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the ruling People Power Party. Kim's bill is aimed at allowing pregnant women facing economic or social hardship to give birth without exposing their personal information and to hand their babies over to a local government.

Supporters say such a law would prevent women who have unwanted pregnancies from abandoning or even killing their babies, while objectors claim the law would take away children's right to be protected and to know their roots.

On Friday, the Suwon District Court issued a warrant to formally arrest the woman in her 30s, charged with strangling her two infants to death in 2018 and 2019, respectively, just one day after they were born. The suspect cited her poor financial condition as she was already raising three children, according to police.

The two deceased infant bodies remained hidden for years in a freezer at the woman's home and were discovered during the audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection that investigated babies whose births had not been registered despite records of delivery from hospitals.

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As the audit led to the confirmation that 2,236 out of some 2.6 million babies who were born from 2015 until last year were left without any record of registration, the government has faced growing calls to draw up proper measures to prevent newborns from being left unregistered.

In response, the government said it will push promptly for the anonymous childbirth system as well as a system obligating medical institutions to notify local governments of childbirths, as the current system that relies only on the parents to register childbirths has been called into question following the discovery of the deceased babies.

According to the welfare ministry, the anonymous childbirth system could serve as a complement to a system obligating medical institutions to report childbirths, as the medical community ― which opposed this ― raised concerns that the system could force some pregnant women to give birth at unregistered medical facilities.

The medical institutions' childbirth notification, in general, has not invited many opposing opinions apart from concerns from the medical community, but there have been many arguments for and against the anonymous childbirth system.

Those who support anonymous childbirth say the government should help women who have unwanted pregnancies to give birth in a safe environment.

They say if these women decide to give birth outside hospitals, it could pose a serious risk to the lives of the women and their babies, and could also lead to child abandonment or even infanticide.

“The anonymous childbirth system is necessary in case of unwanted pregnancy and for those who are unable to raise children,” said Park Myung-sook, a child welfare professor at Sangji University. “Because of the absence of this system, baby boxes have been operated by private institutions under vague legal boundaries.”

Baby boxes allow parents to abandon their unwanted babies anonymously and safely so that others can care for them. Korea's first baby box began operating at Jusarang Community Church in December 2009, and one more baby box has been in operation since 2014 in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province.

On the other hand, Kim Min-jeong, who heads the Korean Unwed Mothers Families Association (KUMFA), put more emphasis on children's rights, saying that children who are born under an anonymous childbirth system will be unable to find information on their birth mothers in the future.

“The government should focus more on supporting unmarried mothers rather than helping them give up their children,” she said.