TV celeb stirs debate over single women's right to IVF
A Japanese TV personality living in Korea recently became a single mother by choice through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in her country of origin. In an interview with the state-run broadcaster KBS, Monday, Sayuri Fujita said she gave birth to a healthy baby Nov. 4 via the use of a sperm donor. The screenshot image of Fujita's smiling face holding her baby went viral on the internet the same day. It also threw a question at Korean society of whether unmarried women should be denied the right to bear a child of their own free will.
In the interview, Fujita said she had to go back to Japan because she could not conceive a baby legally through donor insemination in Korea. The TV celebrity, 41, said she wanted to have a baby but did not want marry a man she did not love just for that purpose. As she said, there are no legal ways here to become a “voluntary unmarried mother.” Women who seek any form of artificial insemination here must have the approval of their legal spouse.
The voluntary unmarried mother's issue is also linked to the permission of conditional abortion granted by the Constitutional Court about a month ago in that both are related to a woman's right to self-determination. It is also in this context that Korean society should consider breaking the stereotype that babies should be born only to married couples. In enlightened countries, families composed of single mothers and children are not uncommon. The non-marital birthrate in OECD member nations stands at over 40 percent on average.
In this era of diversifying family types, this society needs to answer Fujita's question of why unmarried women do not have the right to bear a child. If redefining the traditional idea of family is immediately difficult, the nation should at least provide a forum for debating the issue. The fact that many Korean internet users sent congratulatory messages and support to the Japanese celebrity would seem to indicate this society has become mature enough to discuss this issue publicly.