낙태에 관한 유럽인권재판소의 입장- 대한민국에서의 논의에의 시사점 -

It has been long to be discoursed whether punish abortion as a crime or not, whether prohibit it with exceptions or not and to what extent? Nevertheless, abortion issue has been being a fierce topic in society whenever a relevant incident comes into the spotlight. And there are various approaches on the abortion issue including religious, legal, social, scientific, ethical and philosophical. Because this abortion issue is closely relevant with the potential questions: “when fetus becomes a person?”, “whether fetus or embryo may be protected under right to life?” and etc. Therefore, there have been diverse and many publications and researches on this issue. Nevertheless, almost of all researches have been done in Korea have been focused on criminal law, constitutional law and comparative law perspectives. So, this article paid more attention on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on abortion matters. Analyzing landmark case laws on abortion at the European Court of Human Rights, this article tried to show thought-provoking issues to the future discourses on amending the relevant Korean law and regulation on abortion.