The Cruel Truth Behind "Ghost Babies" in South Korea Children | Situation | Babies
In South Korea, children who have hospital birth records but are not registered are called "ghost babies". The recent exposure of a series of biological parents suspected of infanticide and other cases related to "ghost babies" caused a strong shock in South Korea. The underlying reasons behind it are more worthy of deep thought and vigilance.
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According to Yonhap News Agency's report on the 25th, the National Investigation Headquarters of the South Korea National Police Agency released the latest investigation results of the national "ghost baby" case on the 24th. As of the 21st, 255 children who had not been registered for birth were found to be alive or dead.
Since the 18th, the South Korea government has conducted investigations on the whereabouts, life and death of 2123 children born between 2015 and 2022 but not registered for birth, and found that 249 children died of illness or crime, accounting for nearly 12%.
According to reports, among the dead children, the biological parents and other guardians of 9 have admitted to causing death by homicide or negligence; 26 are not involved in crimes because the children died while receiving treatment in the hospital; many of the others may have died. Of the 32 suspects, 11 were arrested.
The South Korea police are currently focusing on investigating the lives and deaths of 275 children. Among them, the Seoul Police Agency is responsible for the most cases, 155. With the results of the investigation, the death toll is expected to increase further.
It is reported that the South Korea government has limited the scope of the relevant investigation to after 2015 because the "temporary newborn number" system has only been fully popularized in South Korea since that year, and it is difficult to accurately count the newborn data before that. If the investigation is expanded to 2014, similar "ghost baby" cases may be more.
The so-called "temporary newborn number" is a 7-digit number given by South Korea medical institutions to vaccinate newborn babies before the birth declaration. The parents of the newborn first use the temporary newborn number to enter the comprehensive management system for vaccination, and then declare the birth and replace it with the ID number.
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On June 23, local time, a woman in her 30 s was arrested. She was accused of murdering two babies born in 2018 and 2019 and storing their bodies in a refrigerator in her apartment in Suwon, South Korea. Inside.
The suspect who killed her own child said she did so because of financial difficulties and because she had to take care of three other children, aged 12, 10 and 8.
It is reported that the reason why this appalling case was exposed was discovered by chance by the government during a random investigation of "ghost babies. What's more frightening is that as the investigation continues to deepen and expand, more and more incidents involving "ghost babies" are emerging......
In April 2019, in Daejeon, 139 kilometers south of Seoul, a mother neglected to take care of her child after giving birth and did not feed her child for three days, causing the child to starve to death;
On July 2, 2023, police in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, said they had issued arrest warrants for a man in his 20 s and a woman in her 30 s for strangling their children and dumping their bodies in a river near Juji in South Gyeongsang Province......
The Ministry of South Korea Health and Welfare recently revealed that the police are investigating 814 "ghost baby" cases. The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that it will amend relevant regulations to regularly check "ghost babies" to protect the safety and health of babies.
After similar cases were exposed one after another, the demand for severe punishment of crimes involving infants in South Korean society has become increasingly high. On the 18th, the South Korean National Assembly voted to pass an amendment to the Criminal Law, increasing the punishment for those who kill or abandon infants, with the maximum penalty being the death penalty. This is the first time in 70 years that South Korea has amended relevant laws, and the amendment will be officially implemented in 6 months.
In addition, the South Korea Congress passed a bill on June 30 requiring hospitals to inform the government of the birth of the baby in order to register the baby's household registration in time. The bill aims to put an end to the phenomenon of "ghost babies" caused by parents deliberately not registering.
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The South Korea Herald believes that the occurrence of these cases is not unrelated to the current South Korea system.
According to the current regulations of the South Korea, parents need to register the birth of their children within one month, but if the regulations are violated, the fine is only 50000 won, and the hospital is not obliged to report the birth to the government.
The South Korea Herald notes that for too long South Korea governments and political parties have failed to act successfully on protecting babies from abuse and abandonment. Over the past four years, as many as 15 amended bills relating to the protection of newborns have been introduced in the National Assembly, but no legislative progress has been made.
South Korea's ruling party, the National Forces Party, said the shocking cases were a "national disgrace". The opposition South Korea Democratic Party said it would "do its utmost to prevent this heinous crime from happening".
In addition, studies have shown that the two biggest reasons for South Korea mothers to abandon or kill babies are "fear that the facts of childbirth will be known by others" and "difficult to raise due to economic reasons".
While the "ghost baby" related cases have attracted great attention in the South Korea, the "May Population Trends" data released by the South Korea Statistics Department on the 26th showed that the South Korea had only 18988 newborns in May this year, a year-on-year decrease of 1069. The lowest record in the same month. This is also the South Korea 90 consecutive months of declining births since December 2015.
It was previously reported that in 2023, South Korea's fertility rate was only 0.78, a record low, meaning that each woman would have less than one child in her lifetime. Statistics from the South Korea Statistics Department not long ago also showed that the birth rate of newlyweds in South Korea hit a new low since statistics were available, and nearly 50% of newlyweds chose not to have children.
Some experts believe that the "ghost baby" related cases and the "unmarried infertility" of South Korea young people have common social roots in a sense. In order to fundamentally solve the fertility dilemma in South Korea society, the government should not only stay in the existing "cash incentive" stage, but also take comprehensive measures to solve the high housing prices, long working hours, cruel educational environment, serious gender discrimination, suffocating social competition and so on.
