Image – Shutterstock: Aslysun
A South Korean court has convicted a woman and two doctors of murder after a baby delivered during a late-term abortion was killed shortly after birth, in a case that has sparked international controversy.
The woman, identified only by her surname Kwon, sought to terminate her pregnancy at around 36 weeks. According to prosecutors, the baby was delivered alive by Caesarean section and then placed in a freezer by hospital staff, where it died.
The surgeon who carried out the procedure was sentenced to four years in prison, while the hospital director received a six-year sentence. Kwon received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years, along with 200 hours of community service.
During the trial, both doctors admitted killing the baby and were taken into custody immediately after the verdict.
The case has drawn criticism from Amnesty International, which described abortion as “essential healthcare and a human right” and said the ruling demonstrated the “impossible position” faced by women and doctors because South Korea lacks a clear legal framework governing abortion.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director, said the case highlighted the failure of lawmakers to reform abortion laws following a 2019 Constitutional Court ruling that struck down the country’s previous ban.
However, critics say Amnesty’s response is difficult to reconcile with the facts of the case. The convictions were secured because the baby was born alive and then deliberately killed afterwards. Whatever one’s view on abortion, the law in most countries clearly distinguishes between abortion and the killing of a newborn child.
It seems that Amnesty International intends to suggest that killing a baby after birth should be treated as a matter of “healthcare”. If not, critics argue, condemning the prosecution in this case appears deeply misplaced.
The case also highlights the main issue raised in debates about late-term abortion: the reality that babies can survive abortion procedures.
In this instance, the child survived delivery before being deliberately killed. But the situation also illustrates the difficult ethical questions raised when abortions are attempted at very late stages of pregnancy, when the unborn child is beyond the age of viability.
Although abortion was decriminalised in South Korea in 2019, lawmakers have failed to introduce new legislation regulating the practice. As a result, the country currently lacks clear limits on how late abortions may take place.
The government now faces renewed pressure to clarify the law, after a case that has brought the moral and legal complexities of late-term abortion into sharp focus.
Speaking on the matter, SPUC CEO, John Deighan, said, “This is a harrowing story which I’m glad is getting mainstream coverage around the world, however it does show up a hypocritical side in the mainstream media. Why is the idea of a baby at such a late stage being born alive and slaughtered any different to the destruction of a child of the same gestational age before it leaves the birth canal? At SPUC we would say it is not. Human life is valuable from the moment of conception until natural death, and we hope that South Korea’s court will allow their laws to reflect that better.”
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