‘Broker’, A South Korean film dealing with crimes related to baby boxes, which was released in June, has enjoyed worldwide box-office success. With the success of the movie, a strong argument, both for and against the installation of baby boxes, was brought to the surface. A baby box is a place where parents who cannot raise a baby for unavoidable circumstances are able to leave their baby. It is a system operated by the private sector without governmental involvement. Currently, domestic baby boxes are operated at three locations: Jusarang Community Church in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, New Canaan Church in Gunpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, and Hongbeopsa, a temple located in Geumjeong dugu-dong, Busan. If a baby is left in a box, which are all equipped with a “life protection device” that controls the temperature and humidity inside the box, a bell automatically rings and the guardian of the baby box centers rescues the abandoned baby. After the rescue, a counselor conducts counseling by checking the personal information of the parent who left the baby behind for the minimum legal process. After the consultation, the baby is sent to a temporary shelter after confirmation of the district borough office and a health checkup. When this whole process is completed, babies are either sent to a foster home or placed in child care facilities to grow up in a sheltered environment. The baby box is considered to be advantageous since it can give children the right to life and they can be saved. Conversely, some argue that the baby box should be banned because it encourages abandonment of babies and does not provide an appropriate nurturing environment for them. Let’s take a look at the main arguments between those who approve and disapprove of the baby box system.
Baby boxes are a drop box that allows the parents who cannot raise the child to anonymously abandon their newborn to be put up for adoption. Every year, hundreds of children are abandoned by their biological parents through baby boxes. Since the operation of the baby box, problems such as a dead babies found near the baby boxes, a sharp increase in abandoned infants, and a drastic decline in formal adoption continues to heat up in the media. In this regard, the baby box that is easy to use and encourages abandonment of infants should be abolished.
To begin with, the baby boxes promote the abandonment of infants and toddlers. If parents are not able to raise their baby, sending the baby to a children’s facilities through legal process can be the most reasonable means. However, the baby box ignores fulfillment of the parents’ basic obligation to raise their baby and the very availability of the baby box induces parents’ abandonment of babies. Therefore, the simple introduction of the baby boxes creates an atmosphere of encouraging parents to forsake their babies who are likely to make a hasty and mistaken decision to do so. The anonymity of the baby box is also an issue. Soon-Hyung Lee, a professor of the department of Child Development & Family Studies, emphasized, “We should not encourage the behavior of abandoning children with anonymity guaranteed.” According to the baby box statistics of the Herald Economy, released in May, the number of infants in baby boxes is on the decline, but the number of counseling cases is showing a sharp upward trend: from 1,342 cases in 2017 to 2,571 cases in 2021. In an interview with a Korean financial paper Today in January, 2013, Pastor Lee Jong-rak of Jusarang Community Church said that 74.3% of parents who left their children in baby boxes were unmarried, and the majority were in their teens (12%) or their 20s (52%). Most of them are vulnerable, being mentally and economically desperate. When a birth is registered, a record of the birth of an illegitimate child is recorded in the parents’ Family Relations Certificate. Because of this, unmarried parents feel burdened with the birth records of their illegitimate baby, and inevitably take a step to the baby box. As such, the procedure for abandoning the baby box, set to allow parents to evade legal responsibility, should be removed because it reduces the parents' responsibility and encourages abandonment.
Moreover, the baby box comprises the human rights of the child to know their family. In 2013, the South Korean government announced that the retention of baby boxes aiding and abetting the violation of criminal law and the Children’s Welfare Law. Article 7 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the rights to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”, and Article 8 (1) stipulates that children have the rights to preserve his or her identity. However, according to Article 52 (3) of the Act On Registration of Family Relations, “The head of the relevant Si/Eup/Myeon shall, after establishing a new surname and place of family origin of the abandoned child […] determine the child’s name and place of registration and record them in the register.” In this regard, abandoned children have no reasonable way to obtain information about their birth, and this violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, as a country directly involved in the United Nations(UN) Convention, South Korea has an obligation to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Children(OHCHR) Act enacted by the UN. The UN also recommended the abolition of the baby box system. UN officials said that the baby box violates OHCHR ``Duty to respect [for] the child’s right to maintain personal relations with his or her parents' ' clause. Maria Herczog, a sociologist and member of the UN committee, stated in the Jewish World Review in 2012 that “these boxes violate children’s rights and also the rights of parents to get help from the state to raise their family” and urged the removal. In addition, the Committee on the Rights of the Child(CRC) has mentioned that the baby box is an outdated idea returning to the medieval ‘founding wheels’[1]. In this regard, baby boxes should be banned.
Furthermore, the baby box does not guarantee the right of children to grow up in a safe and nurturing family environment. In 2012, the Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption was enacted. Article 11(1) of this law stipulates that “If a person intends to adopt a child who falls under Article 9[2], he/she shall obtain permission therefrom from the family court by submitting the following documents” including the Birth certificate of the child to be adopted. Basically, babies abandoned in the baby box without birth registration are unable to even be adopted by foster parents and this violates the Child Welfare Act. According to Article 4(3) of the Child Welfare Act, “The state and local governments shall provide assistance for children so that they can grow up in homes where they were born and shall take measures for children to grow up in an environment similar to their homes […]” However, according to a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, from 2015 to February this year, among the 1,333 abandoned baby box children, only 143, or 10.7%, were adopted. Except for the 14.6% of children who were returned to their biological parents through counseling, the remaining 74.6%, a total of 995 children, were sent to orphanages. After the baby boxes were installed, the number of adopted children decreased significantly. Because those left in baby boxes do not have legal birth certificates, and therefore are unable to be adopted. According to Statistics Korea, the number of adoptions was 2,464 in 2011, decreased to 922 in 2013, and 681 in 2018. Therefore, the baby box that deprives abandoned babies of opportunities to grow at home should be abolished.
Baby boxes may deliver a false message to parents who are experiencing financial and psychological difficulties by promoting abandonment of their babies. Therefore, it cannot be a long-term solution that fixes the fundamental problems. In this regard, baby boxes that promote abandonment of infants, violate children’s rights and deprive them of opportunities to grow in a suitable environment, should be banned. Rather than retaining the baby boxes, a better solution would be improving support services to vulnerable parents and their children. Throughout suitable education and support, the government should encourage people to make responsible choices and form the right codification culture. In order to ensure that no children are abandoned through baby boxes and lose their opportunity to establish a solid foundation into the world by respecting the children’s right to live, the baby boxes should be banned.