Woman and two doctors charged with murdering 36-week baby left in freezer to die

A South Korean court has charged a young woman and two doctors with murder for the infanticide of a newborn baby delivered around 36 weeks under the guise of an abortion.

Key Takeaways:

• A mother and two doctors have been sentenced to years in prison for the murder of a baby in the ninth month of pregnancy.

• The doctors delivered the baby at approximately 36 weeks by c-section and placed the infant in a freezer to die. They also falsified medical records to make it look like a stillbirth.

• The mother received three years in prison (suspended for five years) and community service hours; the obstetrician received six years in prison with a large fine, and the operating surgeon received four years in prison.

The Details:

Last week, the Korea Herald reported that the baby's mother, along with an obstetrician and an operating surgeon, have been charged and sentenced in the murder of the baby. The 81-year-old obstetrician (identified only by the surname Yoon) received six years in prison "for killing the baby after conducting a caesarean section." According to CTV News, as the "head of the hospital where the surgery took place," he was also "ordered to pay 1.15 billion won ($780,000) in restitution."

The surgeon, "Shim, 62, was sentenced to four years in prison," noted the Korea Herald, and the baby's 26-year-old mother, identified by the surname Kwon, "received a three-year prison sentence suspended for five years, along with 200 hours of community service."

According to The Korea Times, the Seoul Central District Court "noted that the outcome might have been different if the state had made greater efforts to improve the economic and social conditions that hinder pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing."

"According to the prosecutor, the operating surgeon performed a cesarean section to deliver the newborn and placed the offspring in a freezer," the Jurist reported. "The court also found that the hospital director had falsified the medical records to indicate a stillbirth."

CTV detailed:

“The victim died in a cold storage room without ever seeing the light of day or taking a single breath outside,” the court said in its verdict, according to Yonhap [news agency].

The Korea Times also pointed out the lucrative nature of the abortion industry, noting that Investigators discovered that the hospital director had performed 527 abortions between August 2022 and July 2024, receiving about 1.46 billion won as payment.

The central question in Kwon’s trial was whether she had intentionally tried to terminate her unborn baby’s life. In their final arguments, Kwon’s defense team claimed that she acted based on information from an acquaintance who told her the baby would be stillborn.

The Korea Times reported:

The key issue in the trial was whether Kwon had intended to kill the fetus. Kwon’s lawyers argued in closing statements that she had only been told by an acquaintance that the baby would be stillborn.

But the court found that intent existed, noting that she had confirmed the fetus had a normal heartbeat before the procedure and had signed documents consenting to the handling of the remains. Judges also said she had searched for hospitals and costs related to the procedure but found no evidence she had explored childbirth support services or adoption options.

The court also rejected the defense’s argument that Kwon believed abortion was not a crime, concluding that the fetus had been delivered at a stage when it was capable of surviving outside the womb.

Kwon’s case marks the first time a woman seeking an abortion in South Korea has faced murder charges in such circumstances.

The Backstory:

Kwon stirred outrage in 2024 after uploading a YouTube video in which she claimed to have undergone an abortion at 36 weeks. Although the video was quickly removed, screenshots continued to spread online, leading authorities to conduct a probe into Kwon and the medical staff complicit in the procedure, CTV News reported. 

South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down the country’s abortion laws in 2019, effectively decriminalizing the procedure. Up until 2019, the country was among the few developed countries that largely forbade abortion, allowing it only in instances of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life was at risk.

The same Constitutional Court advised permitting abortions up to 22 weeks of gestation and instructed lawmakers to amend the law by the end of 2020. Nonetheless, owing to a political deadlock in parliament, the revisions were never implemented, giving rise to a persistent legal void.

Reality Check:

Normalizing abortion in South Korea can lead to viable, fully formed babies being regarded as disposable, particularly when pregnancy is framed as a burden.

The grisly facts of this case — an almost full-term baby delivered alive and then placed in a freezer to die — showcase the deleterious consequences of regarding late-term abortion as a private solution to economic and personal challenges.

Real support for vulnerable women must be multi-faceted, including practical pathways to parenting or ethical adoption. Without such support structures, vulnerable women can be pushed toward abortion procedures and into the hands of abortion profiteers who practice their trade at the expense of mothers and their children.