hankyoreh

By Kim Ji-hoon

Controversy is raging after it was revealed that an ultrasound imaging service posted ultrasound images of fetuses on the Internet without the parents’ permission.

The images, which can be used to determine a child’s sex and check for abnormalities, were found to have been posted on a web page where anyone with a membership could see them.

MediNBiz, which began ultrasound imaging of fetuses in 2003, is the top-ranked company in its industry, with partnerships with some 300 hospitals, or more than 70% of birthing hospitals nationwide. An examination of its SayBebe website (saybebe.com) by the Hankyoreh found that 2.82 million fetus ultrasound images for 400 thousand members were posted on the site as of Nov. 2, with the mother’s name, the birth date, and the hospital where the child was born. The images were available for viewing by anyone with a membership.

On the website, five to six detailed ultrasound images, including some that are three-dimensional, were posted for each mother, allowing viewers to not only hear the fetus’s heartbeat but also to see examinations of their bodies designed for doctors to check for abnormalities.

Mothers registered as members with site to view ultrasound images of their children and receive various services related to childbirth and child rearing. But the company has been making the images available on its site without obtaining the members’ consent.

An employee of the company said that new members were allowed to select whether their images would be made available as of October.

“But we have made it possible to change your image status to ‘private’ after registration, so there is no legal issue,” the employee added.

But most of the mothers registered were unaware even of the fact that their ultrasound images were available for viewing on the site because they had registered and used services through a computer program offered by the company.

A 29-year-old mother and member identified as Park said, “It makes me very upset to think that [the images] were out there for anyone to see and that someone with bad intentions could use them.”

“If I had know the information for my child was on display like that, I would not have used this company’s services,” she added.

Expecting mothers and medical specialists expressed concern about the possibility that ultrasound images could be abused if made available for viewing indiscriminately.

Baek Eun-jeong, director of the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (KAOG), said ultrasound images were “very sensitive medical information, since they show the sex of the fetus, the presence of abnormalities, and the condition of the mother.”

“They could be also be used for things like illegal sex determination,” Baek noted.

The company changed the status of its ultrasound images of fetuses to “private” on Nov. 3, the day after the Hankyoreh began investigating the story.

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