|
KMID : 0986720040120020007
|
|
Korean Journal of Medicine and Law
2004 Volume.12 No. 2 p.7 ~ p.37
|
|
|
The Study on the Direction for Legal Reform of the Abortion Regulations in the Mother and the Child Health Law
|
|
Lee In-Young
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
Most countries have different ranges of the legal allowance for abortion due to their own culture, beliefs and social structure. In Korea, abortion in the Criminal Law is an illegal act in exception of limited cases stated in the Mother and the Child Health Law. The Criminal Law regulates the mother’s act of abortion and the doctor’s surgical performance of abortion. Abortion is defined as artificially removing the fetus from or killing it within the mother’s womb prior to the date of the delivery. the abortion regulations have a purpose of granting punishment for a crime occurred in the past and preventing for future crimes. But many people tend to abuse of abortion even though they are fully aware of its illegality. The law lead to be inconsistent with its enforcement. In this paper, I would like to suggest some proposals toward the legal reforms in the Criminal Law and the Mother and the Child Health Law in order to increase the effectiveness of the existing regulations. There are specified reasons of the exception cases for the illegal act of abortion in the Mother and the Child Health Law(the Article 14). The purpose of the Mother and the Child Health Law is the to protect the mothers life and health and to help their childbearing and breeding. It is hard to revise regulations in the Criminal Law as the need arises. Therefor, the exception provisions of the abortion should be included in the Mother and the Child Health Law. It has some specific procedures of the legal abortion act The Mother and the Child Health Law prescribes the medical, ethical, and genetic reasons for the legal permission of abortion. But this law does not include social and economic reasons. In cases of when the continuation of pregnancy is proved to be harmful for the mother and when the mother has a impossibility to breed her child because of her social situations and financial conditions. In order to consider the legal boundaries for the protection of women rights of choice, we should accepted the legal acceptance of abortion due to social and economic reasons. And I suggest that a counsel procedures should be provided to specify the acceptance of abortion. The counsel procedures lend woman assistance to make her autonomous decision. In this procedures she make a rational decision to have a continuation of pregnancy or to discontinue a pregnancy with the aid of doctor’s explanation and professional advice of the social worker.
|
|
|
KEYWORD
|
|
|
abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, the Mother and the Child Health Law, the pregnant mother
|
|
|
FullTexts / Linksout information
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listed journal information
|
|
|
|