Baby hatches raise controversy
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E-mail China Daily, March 27, 2014
Safeguarding babies
"The baby hatch guards an unwanted baby from harm and increases its chances of survival," said Zhang Min, head of the Tianjin Children's Welfare Institute.
![A father from a county in the northern hills of South China’s Guangdong province says goodbye to his baby outside the hatch in Guangzhou. [Photo by Mo Weinong/For China Daily]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20140327/7427ea210acc149dc4030e.jpg "A father from a county in the northern hills of South China’s Guangdong province says goodbye to his baby outside the hatch in Guangzhou. [Photo by Mo Weinong/For China Daily]") |
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A father from a county in the northern hills of South China’s Guangdong province says goodbye to his baby outside the hatch in Guangzhou. [Photo by Mo Weinong/For China Daily] |
Xu Shuming, who is in charge of the reception of unwanted children and their subsequent adoption at the institute, is also in favor of the project. "Before the baby hatch came into use, the babies we took in were usually brought by the police. They had been found at bus stations, public rest rooms, or parks; it could be anywhere. One baby we received last year was almost frozen to death," she said.
On the face of it, baby hatches can only be a good thing. Last year, an abandoned baby was found with ants crawling on her face in Henan province; in another case, a newborn child was trapped in a sewer pipe after his mother gave birth above a squat toilet in Zhejiang province.
Contrary to many preconceived ideas about the Chinese preference for male offspring, gender discrimination is not the sole reason babies are abandoned. According to Xu, all 35 babies left in the Tianjin hatch have severe disabilities and illnesses, such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and congenital heart disease.
"Not a single baby left at our hatch has been in a good condition. Some (of the illnesses) are fatal and emergent; some will have to be cured through years of treatment," said Xu.
Many welfare experts said families too poor to pay for expensive medical treatments believe that dropping a child off at the baby hatch may be the last gateway for survival.
"Some babies left in the hatch came with letters, cash, medical records or souvenirs such as a bracelet or an amulet tucked inside their clothing," said Xu.
The message may only be a few lines scribbled on a scrap torn from a cigarette pack, marking the date of birth, or it could be a letter that runs to thousand of words, depicting the family's desperate predicament.
"For our part, we hope parents will leave more information with their unwanted babies, such as medical records (usually handwritten to preserve anonymity) so that we can understand the real situation, avoid repeated medical checkups, and save time," Xu said.
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