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KMID : 1234820070080020205
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Korean Society of Law and Medicine
2007 Volume.8 No. 2 p.205 ~ p.290
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The Study on Legal Analysis of the Abortion Regulations and National Survey
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Lee In-Young
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Abstract
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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. There are grounds on which abortion may be carried out - though the grounds are very limited and related such as emergency situation of woman’s physical health, rape, incest and genetic diseases. The Criminal Law regulates the mother’s act of abortion and the doctor’s surgical performance of abortion. The Mother and the Child Health Law prescribes the medical, ethical, and genetic grounds for the legal permission of abortion. 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 about the legal analysis of the Abortion Regulations to reform the existing regulations and increase the effectiveness of the regulations. A national survey was carried out using telephone interview with Korean citizens from August 1th to August 31th in 2005. A total of 1,025 citizens (male: female = 49.2%:50.8%) were randomly sampled in proportion to the number of population of 17 regions. The major findings of this survey were as follows. First, 91.4% of the respondents approved of abortion based on the medical grounds. Second 83.3% of the respondents perceived that abortion may be carried out based on ethical grounds for example rape. Third, 74.3% were agreed to abortion based on genetic diseases. Forth, 64.7% were approved the abortion that unmarried woman may be carried out. In contrast 45.0% were approved the abortion that girls may be carried out, whereas 46.4% were perceived that the abortion may not be permitted. Fifth, 58.3% were disagreed the permission of abortion based on social and economic grounds. According to the survey Korean citizens seem to have positive perception on the abortion that may be carried out based on medical, ethical and genetic grounds. Whereas they worried about the abortion based on social and economic grounds. Now the Mother and the Child Health Law prescribes the medical, ethical, and genetic grounds for the legal permission of abortion. But this law does not include social and economic grounds. In cases of when the mother has a impossibility to breed her child because of her social situations and financial conditions, we should accepted the legal acceptance of abortion due to social and economic grounds.
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KEYWORD
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abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, the Mother and the Child Health Law
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