The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) reported last June that some 2,000 babies born between 2015 and 2015 in South Korea had not been registered by their parents despite having birth records. Over 2,000 infants were “missing.” In the one percent sample investigation, an unregistered baby was found dead inside a refrigerator while another was abandoned in the wilderness. Few had starved to death from malnutrition. The tragedy of unregistered babies placed in a blind spot without access to health, childcare, and education benefits, let alone survival, has only recently come to light.
The deaths of 249 babies without a record of registration were confirmed when the local governments and the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the results of its probe into the status of 2,123 babies. The mortality rate was 11.7%, 50 times higher than the 2021 infant mortality rate (0.24%). The blame for such catastrophe lies with poor national systems and indifferent hospitals; the government and healthcare facilities were not responsible for checking the birth registration of a child, and the existing system imposed a mere fine of 50,000 won on the parents for failing to register the child upon birth. A bill obligating medical institutions to notify authorities within days of a child’s birth is conducted in countries like the U.S., U.K., and Germany, considering infants not registered at birth face a high risk of neglect and abuse. Meanwhile, the only obligation of medical centers in South Korea was informing the parents to “register the birth within one month as written in the constitution.” If the parent fails to register the child, there is no obligation or way for the government to check. In that regard, the responsibility to protect an infant was neglected. A child was treated as a mere “object” during a period of vulnerability until its existence was registered. Parents sold them, abandoned them, and even took their lives. Despite allocating over 40 trillion won ($44 billion) annually for low birth rates, newborn babies were placed in the blind spot.
The movie “Broker” released in 2022 follows two brokers who sell newborn babies discarded in a baby box. However, the reality is harsher than the fiction. At least the baby in the box can be rescued and have a life. Infants secretly given birth by single mothers—some from a group of teenage runaways such as “Runaway Fam”—are sold to third parties in the black market. Some lives are at stake. At the time of the movie’s opening, dozens of posts related to “baby trafficking” were findable at KakaoTalk’s open chattings and Telegram.
In March 2022, the government submitted a bill to the National Assembly to amend the Act on the Registration of Family Relations, introducing the “hospital-based birth notification system.” The system requires medical institutions to notify the birth records of newborns to local governments. The bill, however, did not pass the National Assembly due to opposition from doctors. Obstetrician and gynecologist groups argued that “the government is shifting the cost and manpower burden of birth registration onto medical institutions.” Yet, hospitals are already reporting all records of the mandatory tuberculosis vaccine, administered to newborns, to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), incentivized by subsidies for these submissions. The government had access to all necessary records, including vaccination data with temporary ID numbers for newborns, as well as their health details submitted by hospitals for billing purposes, but it failed to take action.
Following the tragedy of “missing babies,” the government and the National Assembly expedited the passage of the birth notification system in a plenary session. In October last year, they also passed the protective or anonymous birth system, allowing pregnant women in crisis, who are unable to raise children, to give birth anonymously. Accelerating the processing of the bills could have prevented many infant deaths.
After discovering 2,123 missing babies born between 2015 and 2022, the government investigated babies born between 2010 and 2014, finding 9,603 unregistered. The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Feb. 20 reported that 469 of the 9,603 babies were confirmed deceased. Between 2010 and 2022, a total of 718 babies died, including 249 from 2015 to 2022 and 469 from 2010 to 2014. The tragedy could deepen with an additional investigation into approximately 2,500 babies whose whereabouts remain unknown. A senior government official said, “Implementing the birth notification system and the anonymous birth system has come at a great cost,” and expressed hope that “the tragedy of the missing babies will now come to an end.”
