Couple Abandoned 3-Day-Old Baby at Postpartum Care Center... Turns Out They Also Abandoned Their First Child

Abandonment of a Newborn.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] A couple in their 30s who abandoned their three-day-old newborn at a postpartum care center and fled have been arrested.

Jeju Police Agency announced on the 22nd that they have detained Mr. A, a man in his 30s, and Ms. B, a woman in her 30s, who are in a common-law relationship, on charges of violating the Child Welfare Act (child abandonment and neglect).

On March 6th, they left newborn C, whose birth had not been registered, at a postpartum care center in Jeju City, saying they would "go organize the house for a moment," and then disappeared.

Despite the postpartum care center's efforts to persuade them for over two months, Mr. A and Ms. B avoided their parental responsibilities and did not pay the facility fees. It was reported that the staff at the postpartum care center took care of C, who had not even been given a name, at their own expense for some time.

Eventually, the postpartum care center reported Mr. A and Ms. B to the police on April 26th, and they were apprehended on the 19th in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

During police investigation, Mr. A and Ms. B reportedly stated that "they were struggling financially and had circumstances that made it difficult to register the birth immediately," but it was revealed that they had previously abandoned their first child at a postpartum care center after birth in October 2019.

Last month, the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office indicted Mr. A and Ms. B for failing to register the birth of their first child and for not administering essential vaccinations within six months of birth.

It is reported that neither of the two children has been registered yet.

Meanwhile, regarding the first child born while Ms. B was still legally married to her ex-husband, under current civil law, the child must be registered as the ex-husband's. The civil law presumes that a child born within 300 days after the termination of a marriage was conceived during the marriage. Ms. B is known to have divorced her ex-husband last March.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.