Japan opens 'baby dump' for the desperate

[pigpickle]

Source: The Age

A Japanese hospital is hoping to curb the alarming rate at which desperate mothers are dumping their unwanted infants by opening the country's first "baby hatch" this month.

The plan has scandalised the country's conservative element, which argues that it heralds the end of familial responsibility by encouraging immature parents to anonymously abandon their children.

Since November, parents have dumped at least 13 babies in public places, often leaving them to die. In a handful of cases, infants have been killed, sometimes strangled or scalded to death.

Health authorities have conceded that the baby hatch does not induce women to violate the country's strict abandonment law, which attracts jail terms of up to five years. After Kumamoto Mayor Seishi Koyama approved on Thursday the plan by a local hospital, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "For fathers and mothers to abandon babies anonymously is, to me, unacceptable. This does not mean the Government is accepting such behaviour."


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/japan-opens-baby-dump-for-the-desperate/2007/04/06/1175366475255.html

[madeline_con]

1. So, Japan has the same situation we have.

Some people dont want their babies, and will go as far as killing them to prevent taking care of them. An agency has decided to try to save their lives.

[rodeodance]

13. WE have had that law for a few years

[aquart]

2. Japan doesn't give a damn about its children.

I know a Japanese child who dropped out of school at the age of ten and nobody in Japan gave a damn. Nobody.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. It's not quite that--

There are a fair number of kids who simply refuse to go to school. Some have been bullied by other kids or picked on by teachers to the point of near suicide, but others are just frankly little tyrants in their homes who do whatever they please and their parents put up with it.

Without knowing the details, I don't know which category your ten-year-old fell into. Where were the parents?

[BayCityProgressive]

4. JAPAN SOUNDS LIKE A FUCKING MESS

just like us.

[EFerrari]

8. The headline is so effen skewed. What about

"Surrendering Infants Made Safe in Japan"

:wtf:

[Alcibiades]

26. It's that word

"Surrendering." Sounds like something the Japanese would never do, unless you had an A-bomb or something.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Japan has a long history...

Of cruel hazing and social stratas that is institutionalized in its schools.

An old friend of mine went to University of Tennesee and came out as an expert in all things Japanese. He spoke the language fluently, understood the culture, as taught. After he graduated, he went to work for Mitsubishi in Japan. He lasted two years. He left. He refuses any thought of returning. He absolutely despises Japan.

Part of the reason he may have had problems is Mitsubishi, like other companies of the daibatsu are really what remains of the old samurai clans and lords.

[kaneko]

12. Did you mean

zaibatsu??

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

16. Yes, thanks.

It's hell getting old. ;-)

All my first post aside, I had a wonderful time in Japan. I found my hosts to be very warm and accomodating. But I was a guest for only a short time and I tried very, very hard to maintain social proprieties and respect for the wa of all.

[donsu]

18. 'wa' is a good thing even though in the past the Samurai used wa

to bully and kill

respecting other's wa is a polite thing to do

[breakaleg]

27. It's a completely different experience to visit there versus to live there. nt

[barb162]

7. That's not at all typical for Japanese society,except recently?

"little tyrants"

[aquart]

14. Parents aren't allowed to "put up with it" here.

Ten year olds don't get an opinion on whether they should go to school. We mandate it.

The idea that "a fair number of kids simply refuse to go to school" chills me to the bone.

She's twelve now, pubescent and flirtatious. I can think of only one career that's open to her, with her non-existent education and non-existent skills.

[breakaleg]

5. While that sounds tragic, I wouldn't say it's the norm.

In fact, schools and teachers play a large role in raising children to the point where they interfere with the parents at home.

[EFerrari]

10. And JAPAN is special in this regard?

:wtf:

[EFerrari]

9. Hello! The practice of allowing infants to be surrendered

anonymously ain't a Japanese thing. It's a humane thing and is practiced in other places, too.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=surrender+baby+anonymous&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

[donsu]

19. true, in Miami you can leave infants at fire and police depts.

without getting in trouble

[Forkboy]

23. They have it here in Mass.

[Miss Chybil]

11. Wow. Such vitriol for Japan.

People are people most anywhere they live. Thank goodness somebody has opened a safe place for the babies born to scared, unprepared parents.

We have baby drop boxes all over Arizona in the hospitals and fire stations. I'm sure it's because we're all evil here, as well.
/sarcasm

[murielm99]

15. How many of these people would

have abortions if they weren't intimidated out of it, or unable to find a clinic in their area?

We have that law in Illinois, too. People may surrender newborns to fire and police stations, with no questions asked. Once in awhile, they still turn up in dumpsters.

What are the abortion laws like in Japan?

[Coventina]

21. I believe abortion is legal in Japan, because women on the west coast

of the US would routinely fly there for abortions before Roe v. Wade.

When my mother got pregnant with me, her doctor offered to set her up with one of those "abortion vacations." My mother, who was a fundie, angrily refused and never went to see him again.

I would actually like to know who that Dr. was, and if he is still alive, thank him for giving women a choice when they had none in this country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Abortion has been essentially on demand in Japan since the post WWII era,

when people were starving in the ruins.

What might prevent a young unmarried woman from getting an abortion (at least according to a TV drama that I saw) is that it would be on their medical record.

[donsu]

17. it's insane to make women keep children they don't want

if they can't get abortions, for whatever reason, then this hospital hatch is the best thing for the babies.

[kskiska]

20. There's a great Japanese movie – "Nobody Knows"

about a family of three children left to fend for themselves when their mother goes off to live with a lover who doesn't want children. You can rent it at Blockbuster.

[Joanne98]

24. Capitalism. The great family killer....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. In fact, ever since Japan adopted "international" (i.e. big corporate)

standards of business under pressure from the U.S. in the late 1980s, it's economy has crashed and crime, family violence, homelessness, and suicide are up.