Discussion on Legal Revisions by Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Justice, etc. for Medical Staff Reporting
Calls for Improvements Due to Difficulties in Home Birth Registration and Unmarried Fathers
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Discussions on the introduction of a birth notification system are gaining momentum. The proposal is to establish a procedure where medical institutions, rather than parents, report the birth immediately to the relevant authorities. The debate was ignited by recent incidents in Incheon and Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, where children without official records died consecutively.
According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 27th, consultations are underway with the Ministry of Justice, the competent authority, to amend the Family Relations Registration Act, which currently designates parents as the obligated parties for birth registration. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has also specified the introduction of the birth notification system in the ‘4th Basic Plan for Healthy Families’ to be established in March.
A ministry official explained, "The implementation schedule will be detailed in the execution plan, but there is consensus on the introduction itself, and the Ministry of Justice has completed related research."
The birth notification system refers to a system where medical personnel responsible for delivery notify public institutions of the birth. Under current law, the obligated party for birth registration is specified as ‘father or mother’ for births within marriage and ‘mother’ for births outside marriage. If parents deliberately fail to register the birth, the child becomes a ‘ghost person.’ The 8-year-old girl killed by her biological mother in Incheon and the 2-month-old infant hidden in a refrigerator in Yeosu, both were children who did not exist on official documents. The National Human Rights Commission recently issued a statement saying, "The introduction of the birth notification system is urgently needed to prevent the recurrence of tragic child abuse cases."
Even if the birth notification system is introduced, voices are calling for improvements to address home births, births during separation, and complicated birth registration procedures for unmarried fathers. This is because economically disadvantaged families who give birth at home must register the birth through the court after undergoing DNA testing. Unmarried fathers must also provide reasons for difficulty in confirming the mother’s identity and submit proof of biological relationship such as DNA test results to the family court. According to the 2019 birth statistics released by Statistics Korea, children born outside marriage accounted for 7,000 out of 302,500 births, or 2.3%.
Oh Youngna, head of the Unmarried Mothers Support Network, said, "DNA testing alone costs at least 600,000 won, and in cases of home birth, the situation is so urgent that it is difficult to take care of oneself, making it very hard to register the birth through court procedures. Therefore, revision of the registration process is necessary." She added, "There also needs to be measures for people who hesitate to register births in cases of de facto marriages because they do not want a birth record to remain."
Jo Kyung-ae, head of Legal Aid Division 1 at the Korea Family Law Counseling Center, said, "When an unmarried father tries to register a birth but loses contact with the child’s biological mother, it takes a lot of time and steps for the unmarried father to register the birth alone, creating gaps in child protection. If the father is actually raising the child, the law should be amended to allow him to register. Quick action is needed to prevent omissions due to adults’ neglect."
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