Another baby for sale case sparks concern

(123rf)

Prosecutors have arrested and indicted a woman on charges of selling a newborn baby, officials said Tuesday, sparking concerns over continued reports of child trafficking cases.

A woman in her 20s made a profit by selling the newborn baby of an unmarried woman for 3 million won ($2,239) after buying the baby for 980,000 won in 2019.

The suspect read an online post by an expecting mother who was asking for advice on what to do with her unborn child, saying she got pregnant with her boyfriend with whom she was not married. She added that she didn't think she could raise the baby due to financial difficulties.

The suspect contacted the pregnant woman and lied, saying that she was unable to have a child because her husband was infertile and that she wanted to raise the baby, according to officials.

The suspect visited a hospital in Incheon on Aug. 24, 2019, when the pregnant woman gave birth, paid the medical bill of 980,000 won, and took the newborn infant. The suspect then sold the newborn to another woman in her 50s at a cafe for 3 million won on the same day at around 11:30 a.m.

The woman in her 50s attempted to register the newborn as her child, but eventually left the child in a baby box when the situation became complicated. The newborn was adopted by another parent, according to the prosecution.

The Incheon District Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday that it has charged the suspect for illegally trading children, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail. The prosecution also handed the unmarried woman -- the birth mother of the newborn -- and the woman in her 50s to trial on the same charge.

The Incheon case was the latest in child-selling cases reported in Korea.

On Aug. 10, the Daegu District Court held the first trial of a woman in her 30s accused of illegally trading children. Since September 2020, the woman has been accused of buying four children, selling them to a friend, and registering a child as her own in the state system.

She contacted many expecting mothers who wanted to sell their children due to financial difficulties, and wrote online posts soliciting such individuals, according to the prosecution.

In July, the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency said it was investigating a Pyeongtaek woman in her 30s on charges of illegally trading children. The woman read an online post finding for a surrogate mother, gave birth to a baby in 2016 and allegedly sold her baby for money.

In November 2020, a Jeju Island woman in her 20s who sold her newborn baby for 200,000 won in a mobile secondhand marketplace was booked by the island's Seogwipo Police Station on charges of illegally trading children.

Under the current Child Welfare Act, anybody who sells a child is punished by imprisonment of up to 10 years. Even if a child is not actually traded, the perpetrator is subject to punishment. Some netizens claim that heavier penalties are necessary to reduce those crimes.

"The punishment for trafficking children is too light. I can't believe that a baby is selling for only 200,000 won in Korea," a netizen wrote in an online community.

However, experts warn that heavier penalties are not a solution.

“Crime deterrence is not achieved simply by strengthening punishments or imposing a heavy penalty,” said Lee In-young, a law professor at Hongik University in a 2016 study that found ramping up punishments for crimes may serve to quell public anxiety, but was not correlated with lower crime rates.

Yoo Mi-sook, the Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network’s external relations director, said that rather than just penalizing those who do not wish to have children, there needs to be better assistance available for those who have an unwanted pregnancy.

“The most fundamental problem is the growing number of people who disregard human life. These crimes will be significantly reduced if those with unwanted pregnancies are guaranteed the right to abort safely,” Yoo said.

Abortion is no longer a crime in Korea, following a 2019 ruling by the Constitutional Court decriminalizing abortion. However, doctors can still be penalized or criminally charged for murder by conducting certain surgical abortions because there is no specific law stating that abortion is legal yet.

By Lee Jaeeun(jenn@heraldcorp.com)