Kumamoto hospital plans hatch for parents to leave unwanted babies anonymously

My knee jerk reaction was "only in japan," but on second thoughts, when compared to the alternative of the coin locker, its rather progressive and it may even stem the decline in the birth rate. good job japan.

child abandonment is an international phenomenon. hell, its even in the bible. wasnt moses found floating on some river or something when he was a baby?

i think this is a novel and positive approach to the problem. again, good job nippon.

 

Early Stage Abortion or Post birth dumping ?

Having sex is very easy, having a Child is really very expensive, keeping one in Japan currently is also very (nearly prohibitively so) difficult.

Should a Woman experience a problem, she should be given the choice of what to do - simply dumping the child after it's been born is cruel - however under some circumstances is understandable - though that situation shouldn't even exist if the support was out there, beit it in helping Women/Couples in such a situation or whatever - the current American fad of stopping all abortions is wrong.

Has anyone here... been to an Orphanage, adopted a child from one, or even come from one ?

 

In Manila ...half way across the Ayala Bridge there is a short 50m road onto an Island in the middle of the river. The whole island is an Orphanage run by catholics. In front of the gate is what looks like an empty flower box (concrete and cold)..above which a sign which says:"Leave your babies here". Abortion is ilegal there. Saddest & most shocking thing I ever saw.SO, Please when you go on vacation this Christmas to SE Asia or the like, Gather some clothes together for women & kids and check them in(20KG),carry-on your personal baggage. You have no idea how much you'll be helping. BTW, here in Japan the Japanese as a society dont adopt unless its kin as they: " dont know whats in the genes" theyre taking on. OF all the countries !!! HERE where the gene pool is most similar.

 

Convenient, and just one more way of making life a bit better.

 

"The hospital will also leave in the box leaflets informing the parents how to claim their children if they had second thoughts."

So how long after leaving the baby do they have? After the baby has been adopted and properly housebroken?

 

...has been tried in Germany for a while, and has generally not been sucessfull.
While the high-tech baby drop-offs remain unused, babies are still left in toilets or other unsuitable locations.
That is because the confused/desperate/il-informed pregnant girls in question do not spend the ressources to find out where such a location exists. And if they are organized to do that, they would not be in that situation in the first place. Contradiction in terms.
So, another gimmick.

 

We already have these laws here in California. Women, often a teenager mother, who did not want their baby and did not want their parents to find out, were often secretly having the baby and then dumping the baby in the trash.

Several dozen babies have been turned it to fire stations and hospitals because of the law here and it can be assumed that some of the babies would have been dumped in the trash had it not been for the law allowing the mother to leave their baby at a hospital or fire station.

 

Although this initially sounded like a good idea to me, we have to ask the reasons why this is being setup. I think it definitely tackles the problem of babies showing up in the wrong places and this is a relief. However, it's not really tackling the problem. Will it be used by parents who just cannot bring-up the child for financial reasons, or don't have the appropriate governmental support, or don't/won't have the family support, or are too young to take care of the baby, or just simply don't want to take care of the baby?
These are all issues that require attention and can be tackled in many different ways.

 

It depends on what are the main reasons why people abandon their babies. If the reasons are the same in Japan as they are in California, teenagers having babies who don't want them, then the law is a good thing.

But if the reasons in Japan are different, for example the reasons you gave, then more should be done such as more support for low income families, etc.

 

Rejection of course. its better to have an abortion. quality of life is far more important than absolute life.

in other words, its better to abort than to put the child in this situation.

 

How low does your quality of life have to go before you kill yourself?

I think this hatch is a great way to help reduce the, what, 300,000 abortions that happen in Japan every year. (correct me if I'm wrong)

I think abortion is similar to suicide, except it's "forced suicide".

"You're going to have a terrible life kid, so you should just shoot yourself now. No, wait. Let me do it for you." Am I wrong?

 

In the old times in Italy and in other European countries there was a device like an horizontal wheel mounted in a slot in the door of a side entrance of many orphanages. It was called the "infants' wheel", and anyone who couldn't or wouldn't take care of his/her baby could in this way place the child in the care of the nuns, who would raise him/her and provide for his/her education and upbringing.
Nowadays any woman who delivers her baby in a hospital can refuse to be named in the birth certificate as the mother of the child, which is subsequently put in foster care, and she will be free to walk away without any consequence. There are however still too many cases of dead babies found in toilets or trash bins. Anything that could be done to stop this shameful waste of human lives should be welcome.

 

It's a definetly a good initiative but to be effective it should be extended to many locations and public should be broadly informed so that women in the need will know beforehand were to go.

On the cons of the "box" type is that it does not leave the room for discussion with the mother to determine the reasons behind the rejection i.e. young & single mother, one night stand mistake, financial burden of raising a child, shame of having a baby ex-marriage vis-a-vis parents or society and may partly take out the responsibility of the parents or single mother... All those case need different solutions to be put in place as only on or two of those reason could be adressed by the "box type no question asked".

In my opinion the one night stand may be adressed by the "next day pill" or aborption because if its an "unwanted" child it's seldom that he/she could have an happy life (at least big big identity issue) also women have their share of responsibility (not to say that the "father" does not). If it's a real "difficulty" some kind of more appropriate support (financial or psychologic) should be put in place. In any case rejection should be the "last" way for me (aborption for some cases notably rape) and hence all means should be provided to limited those case at least for the sake of the baby and its future life.

 

this story.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061120p2a00m0na004000c.html
Maybe, if there was one of these baby hatches in Aichi, this baby would still be alive.
gifuken, kudos to your friend. I'm surprised that she was able to adopt being a single parent and a non-Japanese. I wish all the best to this new family. Also, not surprised about the hassles she's getting from the embassy. I had some trouble getting my daughter registered at the consulate and my wife and I are both US citizens.

 

the box can't hurt. as for questions of why someone might feel the need to use the box seems pretty universal. what really needs to be addressed in Japan is the lack of support for "the pill". if young women were encouraged to get on the pill then the need for "a box" would certainly be lessoned. however there is a cottage industry of abortion in this country that actually lobbies against the pill. Japanese women per capita receive abortions at a higher rate due to this lack of information and access. boxes are certainly a better option than a coin locker, but an informed young girl on the pill is best.