Remove the blind spots of ‘ghost children’ now

Bodies of two infants were discovered from a freezer at an apartment in Suwon, Gyeonggi. Their 30-something-year-old mother is suspected of being liable for their deaths. She gave birth to them in 2018 and 2019 and kept the bodies at home in the freezer after killing them. The mother admitted to having committed the crime due to economic hardship as she already had three children.

Last year in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, a baby boy died 76 days after birth due to malnutrition. He did not receive any medical care or welfare benefits. In Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, a 20-something-year-old woman confessed to the police that she had turned over her baby through the internet as she could not raise the child after giving birth in 2021. All the births of these babies had not been registered.

The Board of Audit and Inspection found that 2,236 babies and infants had not been registered after birth from 2015 to 2022. Upon tracking 23 of them, it learned three had died already. The survival of the rest 2,200 or more are unknown. They likely have been exposed to abuse or other violence.

The government must take responsibility if it neglects anonymous births or children living as ghosts in a country with the world’s lowest birthrate. Medical institutions are not liable to report births to the government. If they do not report the births of their child to the authority, they are simply fined 50,000 won ($38), not to mention any criminal punishment.

Ghost children are not just denied of primary health and education benefits, but are exposed to negligence or abuse. The three-month baby who died from neglect of basic care by the mother in March also had not been registered. The 8-year-old girl who was killed by her mother in 2021 also was unregistered.

The law should be amended to make hospitals report births at their facilities to the state-run National Insurance Review & Assessment Service. The government’s plan to adopt the requirement has been stalled due to opposition by the medical community. A survey by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission showed 87.4 percent of the population support the mandate.

The Family Relation Registration Act that mandates that only the biological mother can report the birth out of wedlock should be revised, too. In March, the Constitutional Court found a problem with the provision and demanded an amendment by 2025. But there is no need to wait that long. The revision could take place immediately if the National Assembly passes it. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that a child should be registered immediately after birth. The government and legislature must take action now.