Court rules against husband who filed for divorce over wife's refusal to donate part of liver
Published: 01 Dec. 2025, 10:29
![[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/01/2b288bd2-4592-4747-ba06-792cc388b65b.jpg)
[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]
A husband who filed for divorce after his wife refused to donate part of her liver to him lost the case, with the court ruling that organ donation is a matter of individual autonomy and cannot, by itself, justify the breakdown of a marriage.
According to a recent report aired on SBS’s “Morning Wide,” the case involved a couple whose marriage broke down over a liver transplant. The husband, diagnosed with a rare liver disease and given a year to live, requested a transplant from his wife, who was found to be a compatible donor.
The wife, however, refused, citing trypanophobia — an extreme fear of sharp objects. She told her husband she was unable to even look at needles, let alone undergo surgery involving scalpels.
Despite her refusal, the wife continued to care for her husband during his illness. But the husband dismissed her efforts as hypocritical and verbally berated her, saying there was no point in her caregiving. His family also joined in the criticism, accusing her of not helping her husband while he was dying.
Amid the conflict, a liver became available from a deceased donor, and the husband underwent a successful liver transplant. After recovering, he began to suspect that his wife’s phobia had been fabricated and eventually confronted her.
She admitted that she had lied, saying, “Yes, it wasn’t true. But what if something went wrong during the surgery? What would happen to our young daughters?”
The husband, unmoved by her explanation, asked, “Did it not matter to you whether I lived or died?” and filed for divorce.
The court, however, ruled that the wife’s refusal to donate part of her liver did not constitute grounds for divorce. “Organ donation is a matter of personal bodily autonomy,” the court stated, “and simply refusing to donate an organ cannot be considered a cause for the breakdown of a marriage.” The court also noted that, as a mother with young children, the wife had valid concerns about the risks to her own health.
Although the couple continued to clash after the initial ruling, they ultimately agreed to divorce. In the second trial, which focused on assigning responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage, the court sided with the wife.
The court determined that the root cause of the failed marriage was not the wife’s lie or her refusal to donate, but rather the husband's verbal abuse and coercion. “By pressuring his wife to undergo organ donation and condemning her for refusing, the husband severely undermined the trust between them,” the court said. “He bears full responsibility for the collapse of the marriage.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)