In an argument against eugenics, British philosopher and literary critic George Steiner once said that had Beethoven's parents known of his high risk for deafness (because of his father's syphilis), or had the parents of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec foreseen the hardships he would suffer because of his brittle bones, they would have aborted their fetuses and the world would have been denied one of its greatest composers or most gifted painters. This idea was eagerly seized upon by anti-abortion activists and an even appeared in an anti-abortion ad in the U.S.

On the other side of the argument, the book "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner presents information welcomed by pro-choice advocates. In 1966 Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu banned abortion, accusing people who did not have children of treason. The birth rate doubled within a year, but a significant number of those born after the ban performed poorly at school and at work and tended to drift into lives of crime. Meanwhile, crime rates in the U.S. dropped sharply in the 20 years following the legalization of abortion in 1973 with the landmark Roe v. Wade case. According to Levitt and Dubner, abortions prevented the births of unwanted babies who otherwise would likely have been raised in poverty and grown into criminals.

Until the 1960s some 50,000 abortions were performed every year in the U.S. The year after Roe v. Wade, the number surged to 750,000. It rose to 1.6 million in 1980, or about one abortion for every 2.25 live births, and remained at that level since. According to a 2005 study by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, an estimated 350,000 abortions are performed in Korea each year, not much less than the 450,000 infants born annually. The medical community believes that the real number of abortions is higher than the official estimate, with some even estimating it to be around 1.5 million per year.

The Korean government implemented aggressive measures to reduce childbirth during the period of rapid industrialization in the 1960s and 70s. Just until 10 years ago, state medical coverage was denied for families giving birth to a third child. Coupled with a widespread preference for male babies, the government and society turned a blind eye to abortions. Now that it has become imperative to raise the country's birth rate, a lot of attention is being paid to the practice. Some experts say that clamping down on abortions and boosting the number of births to 700,000 could solve the low birth rate problem.

Unlike in the U.S. and Europe where the issue is fiercely debated with serious effects on state policies, abortion has largely been kept out of the arena of public discussion in Korea. It was an uncomfortable fact that everybody was aware of. Recently the Presidential Council for Future and Vision hastily denied media reports that it would include a crackdown on abortions in a policy plan to be announced next week to deal with the low birth rate problem. Abortion is an extremely sensitive issue, which not only involves legal and ethical concerns but also requires considering public perceptions and social attitudes toward it. But we should no longer avoid discussing it openly.

By Chosun Ilbo columnist Oh Tae-jin