Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Poor babies/lucky babies

City councils in Germany are urging women to dump their unwanted newborns in Baby-Klappe, (Baby-hatches) due to a recent upsurge in infanticide. Parents can anonymously 'deposit' their babies in special chutes in hospitals, and retrieve them up to 3 months later should they desire. Otherwise, the orphans are put up for adoption.

Wikipedia says, the historic precedents were the 'Foundling wheels,' prevalent in Italy from the Middle Ages until the late 19th Century. Today, such baby-hatches are common in Europe, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil, Philippines and the USA.

This is extremely bittersweet. On the one hand, it's frightening, almost unthinkable (imo) that people can (and do) kill their infants; one despairs at our barbarity. On the other, such baby-hatches are evidence of a civilized society. Poor babies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If I had the dough, I'd put them up myself, after all I've got eight of my own.