Babies being found in dumpsters seem to be a common occurrence in places like the United States. A quick Google search will reveal many recent cases in places like Las Vegas, Chicago or Colorado Springs, but this disturbing incident puts a terrible spotlight on a horrific potential issue in our own country. If one person is capable of such an act, there are likely others, and how many babies have we lost in the trash already?
Whether it is social economics, drug abuse or simply a crisis of the mind there should be some way for challenged mothers to save their children and give them the opportunity to live.
In Germany mothers in crisis can bring their newborns to a babyklappe or baby hatch. Baby hatches are usually attached to a hospital or health centre and consist of a door in an outside wall that opens to a soft bed. The bed is monitored to alert staff when a baby has been placed in the hatch. Babies left with the hospital for less than eight weeks can be legally reclaimed by their mothers without fear of legal repercussions, however after eight weeks the child is put up for adoption. Austria, Japan, Belgium and Russia have similar systems. In countries like India and Pakistan the hatches are used to provide an alternative to female infanticide.
The idea that a mother will kill her own child in order to avoid responsibility is a terrible situation to consider, however such things have been happening for hundreds of years. In 1198 Pope Innocent III in Italy decreed that foundling wheels be installed so that mothers could leave their children in secret rather than kill them by throwing them in the river. A foundling wheel was a cylindrical device placed outside of churches. A mother would place her child in the cylinder, rotate it to the interior of the church, and then ring a bell to alert caretakers before she fled. Similar devices were installed in the sides of orphanages or hospitals all over Europe.
Having few options for mothers in crisis sets them up for terrible failure. We cannot begin to judge the circumstances of people who are driven to extremes. While our society has a tendency to want to seek out justice and punish the guilty, in a very public way, under these particular circumstances giving mothers in crisis a viable and anonymous alternative to infanticide might save the lives of innocent children.
