The cultural preference for boys and healthy children in China is so prevalent that a baby “postbox” to save abandoned babies from infanticide has had to close because of overwhelming demand. News reports indicated as many as three babies a day were left at the “postbox” — most of them ill or having some sort of disability.
Now, one newspaper has posted heartbreaking pictures of parents who have been forced to abandon their newborn children at these so-called “baby hatches.”
The images were taken at a center in Guangzhou, southern China and the photos show the last moments before parents give up their children.
“The images taken at a centre in Guangzhou – one of 25 such hatch facilities in mainland China, spanning 10 provinces and major cities – show the last moments before parents give up their infants often due to poverty or an inability to cope with disease or disability,” the London Daily mail said. “Abandoning children is illegal in China, but the ‘hatches’ were introduced so parents could abandon infants safely rather than leaving them in the streets.”
Here are pictures and a video from the newspaper:
‘My baby cannot take care of itself when it grows up. I just want my baby to survive,’ said a mother reported the South China Morning Post.
