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Add page to: Add page to: The latest thing to take my fancy has been baby bins. Initially I found the idea of binning babies highly comical, in a black humour kind of way.
I skimmed an article in Marie Claire, then did a quick search on the web to see if more information was available from other sources (it is my motto never to blindly believe all I read in girlie magazines). Google came up with oodles of pages matching my search but I was busy so decided to locate them again later, when I had more time. I didn't stop thinking about it though, and as such based on my considerations alone and without the benefit of more facts (yes, yes... having gone off half-cocked) I am rather impressed at this German iniative.
I know... you are still digesting the idea and are either laughing madly, or else muttering about how the world sucks and you never thought you'd live to see babies being legally discarded... but I don't think I am insane. It really is a good idea.
There is a obvious social issue with babies being abandoned in Germany and rather than push this undesirable social problem under the carpet like so many cultures are want to do, the Germans have put 'baby bins' (individually known as a BabyKlappe) in the walls of hospitals, so that if mothers are going to abandon their baby, they can abandon it somewhere safe where it will be warm, get found within hours and will be put up for adoption by a family that do want that baby and maybe for a range of reasons are unable to have a child of their own.
The mother is not stuck, if by chance she abandoned the baby in a moment of insanity either, she has eight days to retrieve the child before it is put up for adoption.
In my various skimming activies, I noted that the Germans were trying to pass a law whereby mothers could legally anonymously abandon babies in these special 'baby bins'. Some of the people I have discussed this with said that an argument against this might be that by legalising this, the rate of abandon babies may increase. I don't think so. Currently the statistics on abandoned babies are only as accurate as the number of babies found and reported to the authorities, so it would be hard to know if the actual numbers were increasing or whether it is simply a caseof having the babies put somewhere where they are actually being found and reported. Also, even if the rate does increase, it probably means that those who really don't want their child and therefore may neglect and mistreat their children, will instead be able to give up their baby, knowing that it will be adopted out to someone who does want the child.
Some people belive that this is not the best idea and that it would be better to stop mothers from abandoning their babies in the first place. In a world where there are educational or health disadvantages, where people are so judgemental and where family, religous, financial, legal pressures mean that keeping the baby or abortion are not options, some parents may believe they have no other choice but to abandon their child to fate - in such cases, I think it is great that they can now ensure that their baby will get the care it needs and will not die from the elements before it is found. The world is not a perfect place, and babies are not always best off with their natural parents.
In Australia it would not be such a bad idea to have 'pet bins' in the walls of vetinery surgeries where people can responsibly abandon their pets rather than leaving the pet to the elements and hoping it will either die quickly or be found by someone more responsible than themselves.
Anyway... back to being amused... when I was discussing this with one of my friends he very enthusiastically suggested that you could do a whole 'put it in the bin!' campaign. And... to get really tacky about things you could get all sorts of celebrities to advertise the policy - either in the finding or retriving of babies. Like for instance, the crocodile man. Or Rolf Harris.
And then there's the idea of bins for donating tin food to the homeless... but I've got to say the idea of the Crocodile man doing 'put in in the bin' campaign is going to keep me going for sometime yet.
m.
written 19 May 2003