Spread of 'baby boxes' in Europe alarms United Nations

[cali]

UN says hatches in which unwanted newborn babies can be left contravene children's rights to know and be cared for by parents

The United Nations is increasingly concerned at the spread in Europe of "baby boxes" where infants can be secretly abandoned by parents, warning that the practice "contravenes the right of the child to be known and cared for by his or her parents", the Guardian has learned.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reports on how well governments respect and protect children's human rights, is alarmed at the prevalence of the hatches – usually outside a hospital – which allow unwanted newborns to be left in boxes with an alarm or bell to summon a carer.

The committee, a group of 18 international human rights experts based in Geneva, says that while "foundling wheels" and baby hatches had disappeared from Europe in the last century, almost 200 have been installed across the continent in the past decade in nations as diverse as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic and Latvia. Since 2000, more than 400 children have been abandoned in the hatches, with faith groups and right-wing politicians spearheading the revival in the controversial practice.

<snip>

However UN officials argue that baby hatches violate key parts of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which says children must be able to identify their parents and even if separated from them the state has a "duty to respect the child's right to maintain personal relations with his or her parent".

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/10/unitednations-europe-news

[Warpy]

1. Somebody at the UN needs a reality check

The alternative to this policy is infanticide, either active or passive by discarding the infant in a place it is not likely to be found.

Not all infants are wanted. Not all parents are equipped to care for them when they arrive.

The right of the born child to survive should trump any right to know parents who were incapable of caring for it.

[Moonwalk]

2. Hear, hear, Warpy! Couldn't have said it better myself!

So, the infant's rights will be protected if it's abandoned in a place where it can't be found and cared for? Or if it's killed? Please! Anyone arguing against these boxes needs to get a clue.

[Sans__Culottes]

16. Succinct! n/t

[bullwinkle428]

22. EXACTLY - lots of states have enacted "Safe Haven" laws, which allows mothers of

unwanted babies to leave them at a hospital or police or fire station without any kind of fear of legal repercussion. I can't imagine why any rational human being would have a problem with this kind of law.

[MADem]

23. No shit! I think most kids, if they were able to make the choice, would give up the "right" to be

raised by someone who could so easily give them away.

Your last sentence, along with the rest of your post, nails it.

[Politicalboi]

3. Wouldn't surprise me if

The Repukes take this up. I give it next year perhaps.

[Nye Bevan]

4. The UN is just so stupid sometimes (nt)

[Kali]

5. complaining about a pretty decent bandage, one that does save lives

we all know the real solution is reproductive education and freedom, safe effective BC and legal abortion as a last resort.

[FrodosPet]

11. Being that it is Europe, don't they already have that?

How many countries is abortion still illegal in? And I have a hard time believing there is as much resistance to birth control in Europe as there is here. Then again, I am no expert.

In any event, it seems to me that the right to know and be cared for by one's parents may be a noble goal, but rights are meaningless to a corpse.

[Kali]

13. the countries mentioned in the OP

seem to share a history with the Catholic church - I suspect that might be at least a possible factor

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. It's illegal in almost all circumstances in Poland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Poland

In the others (data from 2007), it's available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6235557.stm

Though you might have to look at each country carefully to see if it has to be paid for, rather than coming as part of normal healthcare.

However, I suspect this is more about cases where the women (or men - the article says it's thought it may often be men taking the babies to the boxes) have personal objections to abortion, but are still trying to cover up the pregnancy as much as they can. It's only about 40 babies per year, in those 200 boxes; it's about unusual cases.

[southernyankeebelle]

6. My husband was in a German home for children. Parents who can't take care of them are put

there. They can visit the child if they want to keep up with them. His mother never visited and finally when he was 4 yrs old an american family wanted to adopt him and they had to hunt her down to let her know he was being adopted. Years after he went back when he was in the military we had friends that helped us find his natural family. Come to find out his mother moved to the US marrying a soldier. They lived in NY. We finally was able to find her. At first it was nice. But his half brother wasn't happy because she kept comparing the boys. My husband would tell her not to do that because it was hurting the relationship. Finally her true color came out. His adopted parents raised him right and to respect people. His half brother was totally opposite. It showed up when the brother's dad died. The mother wanted my husband to sit in the fancy car and wanted me to sit in someoneelse car with people I had never met before. My husband was dressed in uniform and that was the first time he met his cousins and aunt and uncle. It was a crazy day. My husband told his mother that he was going to sit with his wife and that the cousin could sit with her in the car. Crazy. Finally on the way back his brother got into a shouting match with his mother. I don't know what happened. From the funeral home my husband and I and his brother drove back home. We got to the front of the building and he looked at me and yelled to get out. I was shocked since I never even opened my mouth. He and my husband drove around in the car. I couldn't wait to leave and go back home. Then it was a few more things that happened and finally it was enough and my husband said no more contact with them. It was way to much drama with them. We were quiet people. Til this day we haven't heard from them. I hope we never do. Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes it's not healthy to reconnect.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. that's a lot of funeral drama. Sharing DNA with someone doesn't mean you'll get along

glad you set boundaries.

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Man if you had been there you would of looked for a hole to hide in. We were so embrassed. Right

on the streets of New York. I mean I come from the suburbs of Maryland where it's pretty quiet.

Funny now but sure not then, LOL

[MADem]

24. You poor dear! Glad you survived that mess! nt

[southernyankeebelle]

28. Thank you. Gosh that was so many years ago. I guess it really had an impact on me. LOL

You know people say and do the funniest things during funerals. I remember when My dad died and his father was still living. He was riding with was in the car. I have a big family. Here we were in the car laughing and joking. I remember my oldest brother asking the driver were we strange for laughing. The driver said he has seen it all. No it wasn't and he would rather have us laughing and remembering the funny times. The only sour note was when good ole grandpa said to my mother in the car "well now that my son is dead his name will go off the will for the house". We all looked at him and mother said to him not to worry we had no plans ever to have contact with him and his family after the funeral was over anyway. He looked at her and didn't say another thing. We all went back to laughing and talking about the good times we had with dad. None of us were ever close to my dad's side of the family anyway. I don't know what possessed him to say something like that. We never got anything from them in the first place but headaches. Mother was right after that we never heard from any of them again. We were happy because they treated mother badly.

[kestrel91316]

7. Is the RW in Europe making birth control hard to come by?? WTF???

[Xithras]

8. About six months ago...

...a young woman dumped a newborn baby into a trashcan at a gas station in the small town of Waterford California. There were no baby boxes nearby. I'd like that UN official to explain to me how that child would have been harmed by a baby box, and how it would have been worse than suffocating to death in a garbage bag full of half-finished slurpees, cigarette butts, and candy wrappers.

Baby boxes save baby lives.

Besides, this is the same UN Committee that has condemned closed adoptions in the past, stating that the childs right to know its parents trumps the parents right to move on with their lives. They're idiots, and their opinions are worthless.

[FarCenter]

12. "known and cared for by his or her parents" -- but 10% of the "fathers" aren't!

You'd need to implement universal DNA testing to make this happen.

[Shankapotomus]

15. A partial solution

might be the parent can leave an anonymous way to be contacted by the child later on when they grow up if circumstances become suitible for a reconnection. Like an untracible email address. So if the child feels they need answers or some kind of closure later on, they can contact the anonymous parent through the email. That way, if the child expresses a need to find their parent later on they could go to an agency that has their anonymous parent's email on file and, provided their circumstances meet certain requirements previously outlined by the parent (i.e. their adoptive parents agree) the child is given the anonymous contact information. From there, they could both determine whether a physical meeting is warranted.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. How do you make someone monitor an email address for 18 years or more

with it being in the least bit 'anonymous'?

I don't see how email helps at all. You either try identify the person, by not having 'baby boxes', and making it the law that at least one parent needs to be identified - which is more than anonymous email, which can just be ignored; or you allow them to remain unknown.

[Shankapotomus]

18. A third party would have name

and contact info other than the anon email that they would not be able to disclose but would be able to forward an email alerts in the event a user hasn't read a new email within a week or two. So a user of the anon email address could periodically update their real contact info for where the email alert were to be sent. But that contact info, again, would only be accessed in the event a user hadn't viewed a new email after a week, maybe more...depending on the user's settings and could never be disclosed by the third party government run email provider to anyone.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Isn't this like a normal adoption process?

In which the adoption agency knows the identity of the birth mother, but will only release it to the child, and only when they are an adult?

[Shankapotomus]

21. It is?

Well, then problem solved. I'm good.

[MADem]

25. I agree--not feasible. The "receiving agencies" know where and when each child was received.

If the parent knows that information, too--June 13th 2012, at the baby drop box at the corner of Fifth and Main, a two week old infant in a blue blanket--I'd wager the receiving agency could figure out, if the parent contacted them years later, who the kid was.

It would be a one-way street, though, as adoptions always were back in the old days. There was no open adoption, and no rules that allowed the children to find their parents. Both parties had to agree. Of course, people could always put their DNA in a registry if they were determined to find out their past--and that might or might not work. But with the baby boxes, the parent is the one in the driver's seat, because the only known person in the transaction is the child.

[lapislzi]

26. Great in theory. Will never work in practice.

If I were a person who wished to make use of a baby box, I would leave a contact name should the child wish to find me in the future.

But you cannot expect people under extreme duress to think rationally or long term.

The UN is being severely shortsighted here. One must deal with reality: there are unwanted children whose parents want nothing to do with them. Those children deserve a chance at a decent life, and some of us don't get to find our biological parents. That's the way it goes. I'd rather be alive not knowing whose DNA I had than dead in a dumpster.

[WolverineDG]

19. Dear UN:

"baby boxes" are there to save the child's life, ffs. Otherwise, these kids would end up in the dumpster. Or abused & neglected by their parents.

[Butterbean]

27. Exactly. If you've ever taken care of an abandoned newborn,

then you know how bad it can get, and how fast it can get that bad. Just 45 minutes of lying in the woods exposed is enough to drop a newborn's temperature dangerously low. Having been one of the nurses who was on the receiving end of one of those babies left in the woods, I would have much preferred that child had been left in the baby box. SMDH.