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| Police search for the body of an infant, Tuesday, who was allegedly murdered by his mother five days after birth and buried next to a stream in Geoje City, South Gyeongsang Province, based on the mother's confession during police questioning. Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
Out of 209 reported cases of "ghost babies," 193 are now under investigation, police said, Tuesday, raising concerns that there could be more cases of undocumented newborns caused due to a loophole in the country's childbirth management system.
The term "ghost baby" refers to an infant who has a birth record but remains officially unregistered.
Police confirmed the whereabouts of 20 unregistered newborns and are continuing to investigate the remaining 177. Twelve of the newborns, including two who were found to have been murdered by their mother and stored in a refrigerator in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province last month, were all confirmed dead.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency is now investigating four of the twelve. Five were confirmed to have died in hospital, while the mother of the two victims of the Suwon murder case was sent to the prosecution, Friday.
The mother in the Suwon murder case has been charged with strangling her two babies to death ― one in November 2018 and the other in November 2019 ― just one day after they were born at their respective hospitals. During police questioning, she confessed to killing her children citing poverty as the cause as she was already raising three other children at the time.
Her husband told police he believed her when she told him she had had an abortion.
Meanwhile, another unregistered baby was found dead, secretly buried in the southern coastal city of Busan, Tuesday, the latest in a string of undocumented "ghost baby" abuse cases.
According to Busan Metropolitan Police, the baby's mother said, during police questioning, that the baby was born in February 2015 but died, and she had abandoned the body on a hill near her home in Busan. It was unclear why the newborn died and when.
Last month, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) discovered 2,236 out of some 2.6 million babies born between 2015 and 2022 here were unregistered. It remains yet unknown whether they are alive or dead.
In response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is conducting a total inspection in cooperation with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and local governments to figure out their whereabouts.
Last month's Suwon murder case revealed loopholes in the country's newborn management system, which relies solely on parents to register a child's birth.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency also announced, Tuesday, that 38 ghost baby cases are under investigation in Seoul alone.
The health ministry has been pushing for a new system, which will obligate medical institutions to notify local governments of a child's birth. But the attempt has faced opposition from the medical community citing increased administrative paperwork and concerns that pregnant women could give birth at unregistered medical facilities.
A revision bill on the Family Relation Registration Act, aimed at introducing the new system, is currently pending at the National Assembly.
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