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Babypost? What do they expect?
May. 10th, 2007 06:31 pmThe news here in Japan spent some time on the opening of the akachanpost service today (that's baby post). The commentator noted that while people are referring to it this way, that is neither the official name (apparently the Stork's Cradle) nor particularly a good name. Basically, it is a system to allow mothers to anonymously leave their baby at a hospital.
The system is a hatch from the outside of the hospital. When opened, someone can reach in from outside and put a baby down on a bed inside. Opening the hatch sets off an alarm at the nurses' station. Then the nurses will take over.
Apparently, the hospital has gotten quite a bit of hate mail, mostly based on the notion that this encourages people to get rid of their babies. There are comments about the need to provide counseling, and the news people showed that in fact right beside the hatch there is an intercom and buzzer if people want to talk, along with a poster showing when to call (and numbers to call) for counseling or aid, plus several batches of business-card size contact cards. So it isn't as if the hospital isn't providing help.
The news people also pointed out that this is actually a new form of something that started 20 years ago. At that time, someone had found a baby left in a coin locker. There was a man who decided to do something. He set up a small shed, with a bed and a few furnishings, and made it publicly known that anyone could leave their baby there if they needed to. If I understood the news report correctly, he ended up raising three abandoned children.
Unfortunately, in 1995 the police asked him to shut down. Apparently someone was misusing the shed.
So now the hospital is trying a new incarnation of the same idea. The pediatrician involved, an aging doctor, talks about avoiding trapping people into killing babies and discarding them in places that clearly can't take care of them.
I found a news report online in English at http://www.cathnews.com/news/705/23.php which has some of the information.
I don't understand. Here is someone who is trying to deal with at least a part of a really bad problem, and instead of encouraging them, apparently people feel it necessary to vent their spleen on someone who is trying? Sure, it would be great if there were some way to ensure that people did not get in a situation where they need this service, but I haven't seen the magic wand that is big enough to really take care of that. So why not support someone who is trying?
Personally, if this service keeps one baby alive that would have died from neglect, inadequate food or other resources, or any of the other issues that may force someone to use this service, then I think we should applaud.
I know we like to shoot the messenger. I wasn't aware that we had to shoot the dreamers, those who are trying to build a better world, too.
The system is a hatch from the outside of the hospital. When opened, someone can reach in from outside and put a baby down on a bed inside. Opening the hatch sets off an alarm at the nurses' station. Then the nurses will take over.
Apparently, the hospital has gotten quite a bit of hate mail, mostly based on the notion that this encourages people to get rid of their babies. There are comments about the need to provide counseling, and the news people showed that in fact right beside the hatch there is an intercom and buzzer if people want to talk, along with a poster showing when to call (and numbers to call) for counseling or aid, plus several batches of business-card size contact cards. So it isn't as if the hospital isn't providing help.
The news people also pointed out that this is actually a new form of something that started 20 years ago. At that time, someone had found a baby left in a coin locker. There was a man who decided to do something. He set up a small shed, with a bed and a few furnishings, and made it publicly known that anyone could leave their baby there if they needed to. If I understood the news report correctly, he ended up raising three abandoned children.
Unfortunately, in 1995 the police asked him to shut down. Apparently someone was misusing the shed.
So now the hospital is trying a new incarnation of the same idea. The pediatrician involved, an aging doctor, talks about avoiding trapping people into killing babies and discarding them in places that clearly can't take care of them.
I found a news report online in English at http://www.cathnews.com/news/705/23.php which has some of the information.
I don't understand. Here is someone who is trying to deal with at least a part of a really bad problem, and instead of encouraging them, apparently people feel it necessary to vent their spleen on someone who is trying? Sure, it would be great if there were some way to ensure that people did not get in a situation where they need this service, but I haven't seen the magic wand that is big enough to really take care of that. So why not support someone who is trying?
Personally, if this service keeps one baby alive that would have died from neglect, inadequate food or other resources, or any of the other issues that may force someone to use this service, then I think we should applaud.
I know we like to shoot the messenger. I wasn't aware that we had to shoot the dreamers, those who are trying to build a better world, too.
