Asia Sets Up First Grad School to Fight 'Culture of Death'

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, March 30, 2008

An institution set up to train students to fight abortion and low birth rates recently opened in South Korea, becoming the first bioethics graduate school in Asia.

Pro-life champion H.E. Nicholas Cardinal Cheong – whom the school is named after – said he hopes the school will train "students [who] will serve to overcome the culture of death and contribute to the proclamation of the good news of life in the light of the Catholic principle of respect for human life and dignity," according to AsiaNews.

Cheong, who is the archbishop of Seoul and chairperson of the Board of the Catholic Academy Education Foundation, emphasized that the school is urgently needed as South Korea has one of the highest abortion rates and lowest birth rates in the world.

South Korea had a birth rate of 10.8 per 1,000 people in 2005 – one of the world's lowest that year, according to the country's National Statistical Office. Moreover, the Catholic Church maintains that some 1.5 million babies are aborted each year since 1973 – a figure if added up would be greater than the whole population of South Korea.

The country also suffers from a high suicide rate – 24.2 per 100,000 people – the highest rate among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 30 members, according to its 2004 report.

"I hope this new school can help people respect human dignity, the only weapon against the culture of death," said Cheong during the school's inauguration ceremony on Mar. 12.

The archbishop added, "[I]t is urgently needed that the Church proclaims the good news of life and promotes respect for human life in the Korean society which has marked world record of abortion rate and the lowest birth rate in the world."

The Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Graduate School for Life, part of the Catholic University of Korea, offers a master program that includes specializing in bioethics and life culture as well as genetic research and birth rate support. It has master's courses in the department of bioethics and the department of life culture.

"I hope this Graduate School for Life contributes to formation of experts on bioethics armed with the Catholic spirit so that they can take the initiative to create the culture of life in our society," said the Rev. Remigio Lee Dong-ik, first dean of the Graduate School.