South Korea woman acquitted of murdering newborn after hospital delivery

The case shocked South Korea in 2024, when the woman posted a YouTube video about terminating her pregnancy at 36 weeks (file image)

A South Korean court has acquitted a woman previously convicted of murdering a baby she delivered in hospital - the latest twist in a case that has gripped the country and fuelled debate about its murky abortion laws.

The woman had wanted to terminate her pregnancy at 36 weeks, but prosecutors said the baby was born alive and later killed.

The woman, identified only by her surname Kwon, was convicted of murder alongside two doctors in March. She was given a three-year suspended jail sentence.

While the doctors' murder convictions were upheld, the appeals court reduced their jail sentences.

The surgeon who operated on Kwon had his sentence reduced from four years to two-and-a-half years. The hospital's director, initially sentenced to six years in prison, had his jail term reduced to four.

During the trial, both doctors admitted to killing the baby.

Warning: This story contains details some readers will find distressing

This case came to light in 2024 after Kwon, who was in her 20s, posted a YouTube video about terminating her pregnancy at 36 weeks - just over eight months.

The video triggered public uproar and a criminal complaint from the health ministry. Police then launched an investigation into her and her doctors.

The trial against Kwon and her doctors marked the first time that murder charges had been pressed against a woman seeking late-stage termination of their pregnancy, as well as the doctors involved in the procedure.

While abortions were decriminalised in South Korea 2019, there is no clear regulation on how far into pregnancy it can be carried out.

Prosecutors in Kwon's case said the baby was born alive through a Caesarean section and placed in a freezer until it died. The hospital staff then falsified Kwon's medical records to make it look like she had a stillbirth, prosecutors said.

Kwon's lawyer argued that she did not know the baby would be killed after being removed from her womb. This was also the argument that her appeal hinged on.

The judge who gave the initial verdict in March ruled that Kwon had known the baby would be born alive through Caesarean section.

But on Thursday, the appeals court ruled that this might not have been the case, as a broker had told Kwon the baby would be stillborn.

Heekyoung Cho, Amnesty International Korea's executive director, said in a statement that the group welcomed the court's decision to acquit Kwon, but added that the void in South Korea's abortion la