아동학대에 대한 유교철학의 일고찰- 학대당하는 자녀도 부모에게 효도해야 하는가? -

Abstract

This study begins with a question of “Should abused children should be filial to their parents?” This article presents the position of Confucian philosophy on child abuse by using filial duty. In our society, child abuse is very serious. The number of suspected child abuse cases increased every year from 2,606 in 2001, surpassing 10,000 in 2013 and 30 million in 2017, with 33,532 reported in 2018. Of the 33,523 suspected cases reported in 2018, 73.4% of cases were judged to be cases of child abuse. In extreme cases, child abuse has serious consequences that lead to the death of a child. In most of the cases, children develop negative emotions such as frustration, dejection, depression and fear. If these negative emotions are not properly resolved, anti-social behaviours such as drug abuse and violence can occur. From the perspective of Confucian thought, which uses filial duty as the most basic virtue, no one can avoid the problem of filial duty, nor can an exception be abused children. However forcing filial duty on children who have suffered severe mental and physical abuses does not seem to be ostensibly appropriate. Thus, this study defines that the most important meaning of filial piety is in ‘appreciation of one’s own existence’ and suggested that filial duty is possible in two respects. Firstly, as presented in 『the Analects』・『the Classic of filial duty』, filial duty does not mean unconditional obedience to parents. In particular, if parents make wrong decisions and do wrong things, it is their child’s duty to correct them and make them take the right path. As a result, there is a reason why the common practice of filial duty to parents is not mandatory for abused child. Secondly, the filial duty spoken in Confucianism does not necessarily confine itself to a blood relative parents, but includes filial duty to Mother Nature, the source of existence. Thus, even if direct appreciation of one’s own parents is impossible, the abused child can realize the filial duty in itself. Through a series of healing processes, one can fulfill one’s own life and have an appreciation for one’s own existence, that would fulfill the filial duty. In short, an abused child is not free from the universal virtues of filial duty, but attaining filial duty in different ways.