Thirty seven-year-old "A" asked for a natural childbirth at "Seo's" maternity clinic in April 2001 during her fifth month of pregnancy.

The following June Seo was told that A should be hospitalized for symptoms of glycosuria but Seo didn't follow those instructions. She instead told A to continue waiting until her due date had passed.

During that time, the fetus had grown very large in the womb but the clinic wasn't aware of it. In her 42nd week of pregnancy, A was told that the fetus had died of cerebral hemorrhage and received a cesarean section at a hospital.

Prosecutors indicted Seo for injury to the mother, and a charge of accidental homicide of the fetus was added in an appeals trial where it was argued that the fetus was a person at the time of death.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a fetus cannot be regarded a person and it's not right to consider the fetus' death an injury to the mother. The top court upheld the original verdict and found Seo not guilty.

The accidental homicide charge was dismissed because the court said the fetus can't be regarded a person since it died before the mother started having labor pains. Previous Supreme Court cases and general academic opinion hold that a fetus is considered a person from the start of regular labor pains.

(englishnews@chosun.com )