The crimes of infanticide and infant abandonment, which have been criticized for disregarding the right to life of infants, will be abolished.
According to political and legal circles on the 18th, the National Assembly will vote on a partial amendment to the Criminal Act, which includes deleting the provisions on infanticide and infant abandonment, at the plenary session held that afternoon. Since the amendment passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee without opposition from either party the day before, its passage in the plenary session is considered certain.
The crimes of infanticide and infant abandonment are provisions in the Criminal Act that punish more leniently than general murder or abandonment when a parent kills or abandons an infant due to certain motives such as childbirth from extramarital relations or sexual assault, which are shameful to disclose to others (concealment of disgrace), or situations where raising the child is difficult. These provisions will disappear 70 years after the Criminal Act was enacted in 1953.
A woman in her 20s who killed her baby born four years ago and abandoned the body by a stream in the Daejeon area was transferred to the prosecution in custody on the morning of the 7th and is leaving the detention center of the Suwon Southern Police Station in Gyeonggi.
The amendment is a committee alternative that merges and reviews two bills submitted by Gyoengtae Jo of the People Power Party and Hyeryun Baek of the Democratic Party of Korea, respectively.
Infanticide is established when a direct ascendant kills an infant during or immediately after childbirth with the motive of concealing disgrace or anticipating an inability to raise the child, or with particularly extenuating motives, and the statutory penalty is "imprisonment for up to 10 years."
Compared to the statutory penalties for general murder, which are "death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for five years or more," and for parricide, which are "death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for seven years or more," this is significantly lighter. This leniency was given considering that the crime was committed in an abnormal mental state caused by the loss of mental balance due to childbirth.
Historically, it was regarded as a type of killing of a close relative under Roman law, and under medieval German law, it was sometimes punished more severely than general murder. Since the 18th century, influenced by natural law philosophy, most countries have established provisions for reduced punishment, but France and Germany abolished the crime of infanticide by amending their criminal laws in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Japan and the United States do not have separate provisions for infanticide.
The crime of infant abandonment, which is established when an infant is abandoned for the same motives, also has a statutory penalty ("imprisonment for up to 2 years or a fine of up to 3 million won") that is significantly lighter than general abandonment ("imprisonment for up to 3 years or a fine of up to 5 million won") or parricide abandonment ("imprisonment for up to 10 years or a fine of up to 15 million won").
The crimes of infanticide and infant abandonment were established at the time the Criminal Act was enacted based on the premise that women were socially vulnerable, to strengthen protection for mothers, but as awareness of the human rights of women and infants has greatly changed and times have changed, there have been criticisms that these laws no longer contribute to the original purpose of their enactment.
Recently, legislative momentum has accelerated following related crimes such as the "Suwon Refrigerator Infant Corpse Case." According to data disclosed by Hyeryun Baek, who received it from the National Police Agency in 2020, there were 110 cases of infanticide and 1,272 cases of infant abandonment over 10 years from 2010 to 2019.
The amendment states, "In the case of infanticide, punishing parricide severely while punishing infanticide lightly may violate the constitutional principle of equality and may be criticized for unjustly disregarding the right to life of infants. In the case of infant abandonment, considering that infant abandonment is a typical form of abandonment, it is difficult to find a reasonable reason to mitigate the punishment compared to general abandonment." It further states, "Therefore, by abolishing the crimes of infanticide and infant abandonment, we intend to strongly protect infants, who are socially vulnerable with no or very limited ability to resist, from crime."
If the amendment to the Criminal Act passes the National Assembly on this day, the amended provisions deleting the crimes of infanticide and infant abandonment will take effect six months after the date of promulgation.
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