[Editorial] ‘Ghost children’

Revision passed on birth notification rule; follow-up measures needed

The National Assembly finally passed the much-delayed bill that requires medical institutions to report new births to the government Friday. As with other hastily arranged legislation, South Korean lawmakers acted only after the nation witnessed shocking events that prompted public outcry.

This time, the trigger came from long-concealed crimes against unregistered babies, two of whom were found dead in a refrigerator -- a striking example of fatal loopholes in the nation’s baby registration system.

Under the revised Act on Registration of Family Relations, hospitals will be required to notify local administrations of the baby’s information through the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service within 14 days of the birth. The revision will take effect one year after promulgation.

The revision bill, however, should have been passed far earlier. Before the passage of the bill, there were three horrifying cases: a woman in her 30s admitted to killing two babies and keeping their bodies in a freezer in her apartment; another woman in her 20s handed over her newborn to a person she met online; and a baby was found dead due to malnutrition at just 76 days old.

Following the passage of the bill, two more cases were reported. On Sunday, a couple was arrested on suspicion of strangling their newborn baby -- five days after he was born -- and abandoning his body in a stream in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. In another case, a woman in her 20s was arrested Sunday on charges of letting her baby son starve to death.

More heartbreaking cases are expected to come to light in the coming months, as the first three reported cases were identified through a sample investigation by the Board of Audit and Inspection, which found a total of 2,236 babies born but unregistered between 2015 and 2022. The two more cases reported Sunday were part of the expanded investigation that aims to identify all babies who were found unregistered during the seven-year period.

According to police, local administrations have requested as many as 95 investigations related to “ghost children,” babies whose births were never registered with local authorities. Police investigations are underway to locate them. As foul play was already found in some of the cases, authorities must speed up these investigations.

The introduction of the mandatory birth notification system is a step forward in many respects, but experts warn that it is far from enough to address the problems related to unregistered and abandoned babies due to various personal and family matters.

First and foremost, some mothers reluctant to leave their medical records about their newborns may opt to give birth outside of hospitals altogether, putting babies at even more risk.

To remove blind spots in the new birth registration system, lawmakers are now discussing what is called a “protective birth policy,” which allows mothers to deliver babies while keeping their identities anonymous. The ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea are now wrangling over the policy’s potential positive and negative effects.

At the same time, the government and lawmakers should consider revising the outdated law over infanticide, which is punishable with a maximum sentence of just 10 years in jail. This is widely seen as too light a punishment compared with murder, which can result in a maximum sentence of life in prison.

There should be also a set of state support programs to handle the registration of babies from single mothers and migrant workers. Detailed preparations should be made before the nation formally implements the birth registration system a year from now.

In the long term, it is imperative for the government, lawmakers and local communities to recognize the importance of setting up a safe environment for childbirth and offering proper support programs -- a much-needed change for the nation which is struggling with a record low birthrate.

By Korea Herald(khnews@heraldcorp.com)