Is the Mother Guilty of Killing Her Daughter with Brain Damage She Cared for 38 Years?

Mother Caring for Daughter with Level 1 Brain Lesion Attempts Extreme Choice
Double Burden of Financial Hardship and Care Work...Need to Establish 24-Hour Support System

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] # 12 years. This is the recently requested sentence for Ms. A, a woman in her 60s who killed her severely disabled daughter whom she had cared for 38 years. The daughter, who had been disabled since birth, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer a few months before the incident.

Ms. A, who lived apart from her husband who worked in other regions to make a living and cared for her daughter alone, gave her daughter a large amount of sleeping pills on the afternoon of May 23 at an apartment in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. After the crime, she also took sleeping pills and attempted an extreme act, but was found by her son in his 30s who came home six hours later and survived. Standing in court, Ms. A wept, saying, "I should have gone with my daughter, but I survived alone. I am a bad mother."

# Ms. B, a woman in her 50s who killed her severely developmentally disabled daughter in her 20s and attempted an extreme act, was sentenced to six years in prison last October. After divorcing her husband, Ms. B cared for her daughter alone but was unable to engage in much economic activity due to late-stage thyroid cancer and mobility difficulties. Their entire income consisted of basic living subsidies and the daughter’s disability allowance.

# There are also parents who kill their children but do not stand trial. These are cases where the parent took an extreme act following the killing of their child. In May, in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Ms. C, a woman in her 40s, jumped from an apartment holding her 6-year-old son with developmental disabilities. Firefighters who responded to the security guard’s report transported the mother and son to a nearby hospital, but both died. Ms. C was reported to have suffered from severe depression.

Such tragedies in families with developmental disabilities are recurring. Looking at the cases, many suffer from the double burden of financial hardship and caregiving labor. According to a 2020 investigation by the National Human Rights Commission, among 1,174 parents with children with developmental disabilities, 241 (20.5%) reported that one parent quit their job to care for the child. According to the 2020 survey by the National Human Rights Commission targeting 1,174 parents with children with developmental disabilities, 241 respondents (20.5%) answered that one parent quit their job to care for the child.

Parents of people with developmental disabilities have demanded relief from caregiving burdens through the establishment of a 24-hour support system. In response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced last month the 'Strengthening Lifetime Care Measures for People with Developmental Disabilities,' planning to establish a '24-hour care support system' where people with the most severe disabilities can participate in customized activities during the day and live communally at night.

However, the National Parents’ Association of Persons with Disabilities pointed out that the support target is limited to people with the most severe developmental disabilities, not all people with developmental disabilities. According to the Disability Welfare Act, all people with developmental disabilities are considered severely disabled, but the definition of the most severe disability is ambiguous, which may cause confusion in the support system. They also argued that the announced plan is not specific, which could cause confusion in welfare service sites and lead users into greater confusion.

※ If you have difficult-to-talk-about concerns such as depression or know family or acquaintances experiencing such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling through suicide prevention hotlines 1577-0199, Hope Phone 129, Lifeline 1588-9191, Youth Phone 1388, and others.

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