Another Parent Kills Child... Why Is There No Harsher Punishment?

"Should Be Called 'Filicide' Not 'Suicide Pact'"
Aggravated Punishment Bill for Killing Relatives Pending in National Assembly

As incidents of filicide followed by extreme self-harm continue to occur, voices are calling for strict punishment of acts that force or kill young children into extreme choices. While parricide is subject to aggravated punishment, filicide is often punished the same as general murder or sometimes even with lighter sentences.

At around 4:46 a.m. on the 3rd, a husband and wife in their 30s and their 7-month-old child were found dead in an apartment in Nowon-gu, Seoul. According to the police, the deceased wife was found inside the home with stab wounds, and the husband and daughter were found near the apartment building entrance. It is presumed that the husband killed the wife, then took the daughter to the rooftop of the apartment and jumped.

Also, at 11:35 p.m. the previous night, a 30-year-old Chinese national woman, Ms. A, and her 7-year-old son were found stabbed to death in an apartment in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Ms. A’s husband returned home from work at a factory and discovered them dead, then reported it to the police. A suicide note presumed to have been written by Ms. A was found at the residence, stating, "I’m sorry, I’m taking my son with me first." The police suspect that Ms. A killed her son after her husband left for work and then took her own life.

The exact motives behind these two cases have not yet been revealed. However, such filicide often occurs when parents experiencing financial hardship decide that killing their children and themselves is the better option. In May last year, a family of three who disappeared from Wando Port, Jeollanam-do, and were found dead 28 days later, also had unclear motives for their extreme choice, but it was known that they had been suffering economic difficulties for a long time.

In the past, such family death incidents were called "joint suicide," but recently there have been many calls to distinguish them as "child murder" or "filicide" cases. Joint suicide involves each family member deciding to die together, while filicide involves parents killing their children first and then following with their own extreme choice. Especially, filicide is considered a crime that breaks the bonds of kinship, with a particularly heinous nature, as it deprives young children of the chance to live regardless of their will, and there is a consensus that it should be punished more severely than general murder.

However, under current law, crimes against descendants are treated the same as general crimes. This contrasts with crimes against parents, or parricide, which are subject to aggravated punishment under Article 250, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Act.

Legal circles analyze that the background for aggravated punishment only for parricide lies in the influence of Confucian culture that values filial piety. It is pointed out that the outdated law was created based on the perception that "children are the property of their parents." Recently, there have been calls to impose aggravated punishment on filicide as well, from the perspectives of kinship, the dignity of life, and fairness in punishment, as it is an unforgivable crime just like parricide.

Accordingly, a bill has been proposed in the National Assembly to impose aggravated punishment on filicide, similar to parricide. On July 20, Lee Tae-gyu, a member of the People Power Party, introduced a representative bill to amend part of the Criminal Act to establish the crime of killing a minor direct descendant and to impose aggravated punishment on it, the same as parricide, exceeding general murder penalties.

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