SOUTH KOREA: Supreme Court: until labour the foetus is not a human being
by Joseph Yun Li-sun
07/12/2007

Seoul (AsiaNews) – Korea’s highest court ruled yesterday that an unborn child cannot be considered human until the moment the mother goes into labour, thus clearing a midwife of negligent homicide charges. The verdict has provoked bitter debate in the country while the catholic community speaks of “the shocking and deplorable verdict”.

According to Fr. Lee Dong-ik, professor of medicine at the Catholic University of Korea and a member of the Bioethics Committee at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, “Every country has slightly different legal grounds on when to consider an unborn a human being, but no country has such a definitive ruling that an unborn baby is not a human being”. the rest