Hospital director, surgeon attend hearing on arrest warrants over abortion of 36-week fetus

The hospital director, third from left, and the operating surgeon, second from right, behind a 36-week abortion case leave the court after attending an arrest warrant hearing in Seocho District, Seoul, Oct. 23. Yonhap A Seoul court held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether to issue arrest warrants for the head of an obstetrics and gynecology hospital and an operating surgeon for performing an abortion on a 36-week fetus.

The hospital director in his 70s, identified only by his surname Yoon, and the surgeon in his 60s, surnamed Shim, appeared at the Seoul Central District Court for the hearing on murder charges. As they later left the court following the hearing, both remained tight-lipped in response to reporters' questions about whether they had pleaded guilty to their charges. The two are accused of murder for performing an abortion on a woman in the 36th week of pregnancy.



Police launched an investigation into the case in June after the woman in her 20s uploaded a controversial YouTube video discussing her experience of getting an abortion at such a late stage of pregnancy. The police also raised a murder charge against the woman while pressing charges of abetting murder against four other medical staff members. Police suspect the fetus died after being removed from the woman's body.

The court is expected to decide whether to grant the arrest warrants for the two doctors as early as Wednesday. In 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled the criminal code banning abortion unconstitutional, leaving no binding law on abortion until the National Assembly enacts a legal revision. However, in this case, the police suspect the fetus, which was deemed mature enough to survive on its own outside the womb, was alive at the time of the surgery and thereby constituting murder.

(Yonhap).