Aggravated Punishment on the Homicide of Lineal Ascendants in the Korean Penal Code: Maintain Filial Piety by Criminal Law?

Abstract

Article 250(2) of the Korean Penal Code prescribes the crime of homicide of "lineal ascendants" in addition to the crime of the "ordinary homicide" in Article 250(1). Not considering the motives and the

backgrounds of the homicide of lineal ascendants such as family violence, Article 250(2) unjustly prescribes aggravated punishment on the crime in the name of enhancing filial piety by legal authority,

and bothers the judiciary from mitigating the penalty for those who murdered their seriously abusive parents. Article 250(2) is a feudal-patriarchal legislation that is not enlightened on the idea of modern family. It is neither desirable nor effective to affect and to maintain social morals by the criminal law in a modern democratic society, and accordingly it should be abolished. Although tradition and culture definitely constitute the basis of criminal law, it is the criminal law that modifies and adjusts them,

according to the constitutional principles and distinguishes its role for social control from morals.

Without Article 250(2), the lives of lineal ascendants are completely protected by Article 250(1).