New hope for infant abandoned to her fate
- Source: Global Times
- [02:14 February 08 2010]
- Comments
By Guo Qiang
Legal action is being sought against a father who abandoned his newborn daughter because she suffers from birth defects, leaving her to die.
The girl, who suffers from a kidney defect, heart disease and a malformed rectum, was said to be doing well in a Beijing hospital Sunday, and doctors said her defects can be successfully treated, according to Chen Lan, who helped move the girl from the Tianjin hospice, where she was abandoned, to the hospital.
Chen is among those pressuring the father to fulfill his paternal responsibilities. The 10-day-old girl was abandoned January 25 because the family reportedly didn't believe she could be cured and hoped to see her die without further suffering, the father told authorities.
Upon finding out about the abandonment, five people, including Chen, went Friday to the Tianjin Yan'an Hospital where the baby girl was being treated. Chen was given the girl simply by claiming she was her mother, and Chen then took her to the Beijing United Family Hospital for treatment.
The girl, named by Chen as "Little Hope," was doing well and was in stable condition after medial checkups, and there was hope that her diseases could be cured, according to one of the five people who spoke to the Global Times Sunday.
"Right now, the baby can drink about 30 ml to 40 ml of milk, pee and poo with the help of pipes," said Chen, who is a freelance writer and the mother of a 9-month-old girl in Jiangxi Province. "I am optimistic about her recovery."
Describing her appearance, Chen said she looked "too thin," "like a human skeleton."
"When I first saw her, her belly was like an inverted watermelon," Chen said.
Medical experts from the US, the Child Welfare League of China (CWLC), the Children's Hospital and the Beijing United Family Hospital will discuss the girl's condition and decide when to operate on her, according to Chen.
The cost for treating the infant was estimated at between 40,000 yuan ($5,860) and 50,000 yuan.
Her rectum defect, according to doctors, occurs in about 1 out of 2,800 births.
"The couple's decision to leave the baby girl to die in a hospice only reflected well-rooted discrimination over babies with defects," Chen said. "Letting the baby die quietly with a hope to end her agonies is nothing but an excuse."
After "Little Hope" was taken away from Tianjin on Friday, the girl's father immediately rushed to Beijing along with Tianjin police officers to talk with Chen and her friends.
"CWLC, along with us, has obtained the right to custody of the baby for a week because CWLC has reached an agreement with the father that the institution will not make any comment to the media," Chen said.
The father had refused to grant custody of the girl for at least half a year, which was what the good samaritans were asking for.
Yang Yang, the mother of a 2-year-old boy, also volunteered to help the baby. She told the Global Times that "one week is too short. The baby is too weak to undergo an operation. We don't know what will happen after the week, especially when the Chinese New Year is nearing."
Wu Minjun, a lawyer at the Beijing Yonghao Law Firm who specializes in labor protection and criminal law, told the Global Times that what the father has done constitutes a crime of abandonment and it would be indirect intentional homicide if he doesn't seek medical treatment for the baby and lets her die.
"What the volunteers are doing right now is not only rescuing the child but also rescuing the father, who is very likely to face legal sanctions if the baby dies," he said.
