Successes and Issues of Truth and Reconciliation Efforts for Victims of Sterilization in Carceral Institutions for the Disabled in South Korea
HWANG Jisung [Research Fellow, Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University]
The Park Chung-hee (1963–1979) military dictatorship pushed forward the enactment of the Maternal and Child Health Act in its 1973 emergency State Council meeting. While abortion was prohibited under South Korean criminal law, the government had been promoting the family planning program as national policy since the 1960s under the pretext of modernization and economic growth. The Maternal and Child Health Act, which outlined exceptional circumstances for permitting abortion, explicitly embodied eugenic principles. The Maternal and Child Health Act listed the presence of “eugenic or genetic mental disabilities or physical diseases” in the individual or their spouse as the first reason for permitting artificial termination of pregnancy. Furthermore, the law included a provision allowing physicians to report individuals eligible for sterilization to the Minister of Health and Social Affairs “to prevent the inheritance or transmission of diseases.” The Minister was then authorized to order the individuals to undergo sterilization.
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Meanwhile, the male whistleblower who had escaped from a psychiatric sanatorium while in his 40s (now in his 70s), was working as a bus driver and living what was considered a normal life. But today there is now no way to contact him, and even his survival remains uncertain. I believe that tracking down and organizing individuals like this whistleblower—those who survived forced sterilization in institutions but later reintegrated into society—could serve as a crucial starting point for: 1) Reigniting public discourse on the forced sterilization of the dis/abled persons in South Korea. 2) Building a survivor-led movement to demand truth, justice, and accountability. 3) Pursuing state compensation lawsuits and legal action to hold the government accountable. 4) Promoting social change through solidarity with South Korea’s deinstitutionalization and disability justice movements.
Successes and Issues of Truth and Reconciliation Efforts for Victims of Sterilization in Carceral Institutions
for the Disabled in South Korea
HWANG Jisung [Research Fellow, Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University]
The Park Chung-hee (1963–1979) military dictatorship pushed forward the enactment of the Maternal and Child Health Act in its 1973 emergency State Council meeting. While abortion was prohibited under South Korean criminal law, the government had been promoting the family planning program as national policy since the 1960s under the pretext of modernization and economic growth. The Maternal and Child Health Act, which outlined exceptional circumstances for permitting abortion, explicitly embodied eugenic principles. The Maternal and Child Health Act listed the presence of “eugenic or genetic mental disabilities or physical diseases” in the individual or their spouse as the first reason for permitting artificial termination of pregnancy. Furthermore, the law included a provision allowing physicians to report individuals eligible for sterilization to the Minister of Health and Social Affairs “to prevent the inheritance or transmission of diseases.” The Minister was then authorized to order the individuals to undergo sterilization.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, the male whistleblower who had escaped from a psychiatric sanatorium while in his 40s (now in his 70s), was working as a bus driver and living what was considered a normal life. But today there is now no way to contact him, and even his survival remains uncertain. I believe that tracking down and organizing individuals like this whistleblower—those who survived forced sterilization in institutions but later reintegrated into society—could serve as a crucial starting point for: 1) Reigniting public discourse on the forced sterilization of the dis/abled persons in South Korea. 2) Building a survivor-led movement to demand truth, justice, and accountability. 3) Pursuing state compensation lawsuits and legal action to hold the government accountable. 4) Promoting social change through solidarity with South Korea’s deinstitutionalization and disability justice movements.