Consider anonymous births with protections

The number of babies and infants found dead after their births were not registered since 2015 has increased to 24. On Thursday, a woman in her 40s was arrested after it was discovered that she had buried her baby girl in her vegetable garden in Kimpo, Gyeonggi seven years ago. In Yongin, Gyeonggi, a biological father and his mother-in-law were arrested for having murdered his baby eight years ago.

The tragic deaths of 24 babies and infants were affirmed just 15 days after the government started tracking the whereabouts of 2,123 who were born at hospitals but not reported to local governments.

Arrests of parents who killed their babies have been reported by the media occasionally. But the latest findings dumbfound us. After the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of probing unregistered births of babies born between 2015 and 2022, a biological mother of two babies was arrested in Suwon after keeping them in the freezer at her apartment.

After the existence of “ghost babies” killed after their births even without being reported to the authorities was revealed, the National Assembly passed a revision to the Family Relations Registration Act so that babies born at hospitals can be protected by the government at minimum even if their births were not reported by their parents. But the problem is the possibility of some parents trying to avoid hospitals to hide the birth of their baby for personal reasons. That can lead to another tragedy.

Even before the revision, some parents killed their baby after giving birth outside hospitals. In July 2021, a biological mother of a baby was arrested after murdering her in a restroom in Anyang, Gyeonggi, and in January 2020, a similar case took place in Seoul. If the births of their unwanted babies from rape, for instance, should be reported to government authorities, more pregnant women could choose giving birth at places other than hospitals than before. Without hospital records, babies will most likely be exposed to more dangers than otherwise.

That spikes the demand for a system in which society protects babies if their parents give birth to them without disclosing their identities. But the debate on the system can hardly progress due to an apparent increase in adopted children and a difficulty in tracking their biological parents when they became grownups. The idea is not compatible with our current law, either. But we cannot let the sad babies die at early ages. The government can take a clue to addressing the problem from the “public baby box” in the U.S. The government, the legislature and social organizations must consider the adoption of the anonymous birth system under protection by society. We cannot let our ultra-low birthrate of 0.78 continue.