▲ Asan Police Station in South Chungcheong Province
Regarding the fetus found at a wastewater treatment facility in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, police expect that even if the mother is identified, criminal punishment will likely be difficult.
According to the Asan Police Station, at around 11:30 p.m. on September 28, the naked body of a baby boy, measuring 20 cm in height and weighing 110 grams, was found in the sump of a wastewater treatment facility in Tangjeong-myeon, Asan.
It was confirmed that the degree of decomposition was not severe and the umbilical cord was still attached.
Based on the size of the body, police estimate the fetus was around 16 weeks of gestational age.
Wastewater from nearby businesses, worker dormitories, and surrounding villages and commercial districts flows together into the sump. Because security personnel are stationed on-site and outside access is restricted, police are leaning toward the possibility that the body flowed down through the drainage pipes.
Given the lack of significant damage to the body, police are also cautiously considering the possibility of a natural miscarriage.
Because it is a fetus, there are no applicable criminal charges even if the mother is identified.
Under criminal law, a fetus is not regarded as a human being, making it impossible to apply clauses related to infant abandonment or infanticide.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that a human being is recognized from the point when delivery begins, namely when labor pains start.
The crime of self-abortion, which used to punish pregnant women for terminating their own pregnancies, has also lost legal effect since 2021.
The Constitutional Court issued a non-conformity decision in April 2019 regarding the laws penalizing self-abortion and abortion by doctors, instructing the legislature to revise the laws by the end of 2020. However, as the National Assembly failed to introduce alternative legislation, the provisions lost their legal effect as of January 1, 2021.
Some raise the possibility that the mother may have terminated the pregnancy using medication.
Gestational week 16 is a period when taking medication can result in the expulsion of a fetus with distinct bodily features.
An obstetrics and gynecology specialist shared a related article on social media, writing that there is a possibility someone took abortion pills, gave birth to the baby, and threw it into the toilet.
Even in this case, the pregnant woman who took the termination medication is not subject to punishment.
The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act also targets those who sell or import pharmaceuticals, and does not include regulations to punish individuals who simply took them.
Mifepristone, a representative abortion medication, is currently used in 101 countries worldwide, and 87 percent of member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development permit its use.
In South Korea, a pharmaceutical company applied for approval of a medication with the same ingredients in 2021, but voluntarily withdrew the application the following year.
As legal channels are blocked domestically, women wanting to terminate pregnancies are known to secretly bring in medications through overseas direct purchases.
Following the government's announcement of plans to introduce Mifepristone, President Lee Jae-myung also recently ordered a review of measures to permit it.
Police have requested an autopsy and DNA analysis of the fetal body to determine the exact circumstances of death and identify the mother.
A police official stated that they can only make a judgment after objective facts such as the autopsy and DNA analysis results come out, adding that nothing can be concluded at this stage.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.