(BBC) – A South Korean court has convicted a woman and her two doctors of murder for killing the baby she had delivered.
The woman wanted to terminate the pregnancy at 36 weeks – but prosecutors said the baby was born alive and later killed.
The surgeon who operated on her and the director of the hospital were sentenced to four and six years in prison respectively, while the woman received a three-year suspended jail sentence.
The case has gripped South Korea, where abortions are not regulated properly. The procedure was decriminalised in 2019, there is no clear regulation on how far into pregnancy it can be carried out.
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The trial against the woman, in her 20s and identified by her surname Kwon, and her doctors marks the first time that murder charges have been pressed against women seeking a late-stage termination of their pregnancy, and the doctors involved in the procedure.
Prosecutors in Kwon’s case said the baby was born alive through a Caesarean section and placed in a freezer until it died.
