In our society, some women face conflicts during pregnancy and childbirth over whether to continue the pregnancy or whether to directly raise children after giving birth. This has a significant relationship with not registering the birth of an infant, infant abandonment, and infanticide. The birth notification system, which has been tried for a long time to be legislated, will be introduced in June 2023. It was introduced through an amendment to the Act on Registration of Family Relations. The act stipulates that birth notification must be made for all children born in hospitals, while the head of the competent municipality registers the birth of a child who has been notified of birth if there is no birth registration. Since the Family Relations Registration Act applies to Koreans, it does not apply to children of foreign nationality, including unregistered foreigners. To correspond to the contents of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes the right to birth registration as a universal human right, it is necessary to prepare a plan to enable birth registration for all children in the future. With the introduction of the birth notification system, the special provisions for crimes of infant abandonment and infanticide committed by lineal ascendants to avoid humiliation or for particularly extenuating reasons were deleted, thereby implementing the respect for life and protection of the right to life of infants in the criminal law.
However, on the other hand, there is concern that the birth notification system and strengthened punishment will put the lives and physical safety of pregnant women and infants in difficult situations at risk for women in crisis during pregnancy and childbirth. Therefore, there is a need to introduce a system that provides various information through counseling to pregnant women in crisis and provides support to those who want to give birth but are unable to raise their children in person. Accordingly, the Special Act on Anonymous Birth System. This law is understood to be modeled after the Confidential Birth Act of Germany. However, the purpose of the Special Protection Act on Childbirth is not to ensure anonymous childbirth for women with pregnancy conflicts and to guarantee the child's right to know, but rather to create conditions for the child's well-being and to live safely with their biological parents. A separate counseling system is established for protected childbirth counseling. The key content is different from the German legal system in that children born through protected birth can request to view the birth certificate without age restrictions, and information excluding personal information is disclosed even if the biological parents disagree. can be evaluated. Although this system for children who are born anonymously may have positive aspects from a child's welfare perspective, there are doubts as to whether women with pregnancy conflicts will choose this system over concerns that information related to them may be disclosed at any time. At a minimum, I believe that the law needs to be revised through future legislative evaluation in terms of the purpose of the law, the counseling system, and the harmony between the right to know the child's roots and the confidentiality and freedom of private life.