Number of Abandoned Infants Rises in Europe
via More Abandoned Children as Europe Austerity Wears On – Business News – CNBC.
As the euro zone debt crisis deepens and austerity measures take their toll across Europe, the number of young children and babies abandoned across the region has increased, according to local charities.
The rise in the abandonment of infants across Europe is most visible in the spread of “baby hatches” or “boxes” across Europe, where unwanted infants are left anonymously.
The phenomenon was previously more prevalent among immigrants, but it is becoming more widespread among financially desperate members of the local population.
The hatches are sensor-activated so when a baby is placed, an alarm is activated and a carer comes to collect the child. Despite the practice being widely viewed as contravening the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights, of the 27 EU member countries, 11 countries still have “baby hatches” in operation, including Germany, Italy and Portugal.
In those countries where hatches are illegal, the number of infants abandoned in hospitals, clinics and churches has also risen, raising concerns among European charities, the UN and the European Commission that austerity measures and increasing social deprivation are the catalyst for the rise in child abandonment.
According to SOS Villages, a European charity that attempts to help families in financial hardship before abandonment occurs, in the last year alone 1,200 children in Greece and 750 in Italy have been abandoned. That is almost double the 400 children abandoned in Italy a year ago, and up from 114 children abandoned in Greece in 2003.
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So, is this the way Europe will end? Not with a bang, but with a whimper?
There is nothing new under the sun. Ecclisiastes and Job are my favorite books of the Old Testament.
Under the Newest,latest and most New and really New Testament I think that Woody Allen should start an orphanage for the girls and Jerry Sandusky should start one for the boys.
I have to wonder if the Pope would do a worse job or better. I don’t enjoy saying this. I raised three children by myself. I value children highly. I would have raised them living under a bridge if I had had to. God Damn socialism. God damn it to hell.
Well my however-many-greats Grandfather was a foundling at an orphanage In the 19th century. The tradition continues.
In what country? In this country back then he could have risen to any height or fallen of his own accord. Not so much in the rest of the world.
Great Britain. His grandson (if I understand family history correctly) had to get a job at age 11 to help support his widowed mother, but stayed in school, became an engineer and was a millionaire around the turn of the last century (but the Great Depression wiped out most of that money.)
And the first thing that comes to a left/liberal mind here is: “Gosh, they must need more free abortions!”
Right. All that social welfare is for the able bodied, the work for 30 years and retire for 50 years crowd, for free college tuition, free abortions and birth control; not to feed little babies for heaven’s sake.
And then wonder why the worker-to-retiree ratio for their precious Social Security is below 1:1.
It’s better to abandon an infant, giving him the possibility of ending up in a loving family, than to abort a fetus.
europe has more restrictive abortion laws than the USA. So, they might not be able to be got shed of their child before birth.
Esposito was the Italian name given to abandoned infants- exposed. Since there are still Espositos running around being honorable and decent people in the United States, I’d say it works.
My question, with the extraordinary rate of rapes being perpetrated in Europe right now, by Muslim men, against vulnerable young women, and not being investigated by European police or social services: are these infants that the mothers don’t want, not from poverty, but from loathing? I’d think, if that were so, that putting the child up for adoption would be the most loving solution. The child lives near someone who could love it, despite it’s circumstances of conception.
Europe is where the US will be in the next decade or two — despite abortion and contraception, there is no shortage of children, but of people who would be parents.
Modern kids require serious effort in daily life, result in instant poverty and cost you your pension instead of being it.
Now you can say that line of thinking is selfish and people should wants kids anyway regardless of the cost and effort involved, but the same rules of life that govern the tragedy of the commons also hold for families.
Socialism doesn’t work, not even in procreation…
So are these kids available for US couples to adopt?
Nope, you can’t adopt them, because they generate cushy jobs with fat index-linked pensions for those who live by working in kids’ homes and other assorted ‘supportive’ services.
In the UK, the avg. cost to keep one kid in a kids’ home is £200k a year (about $220k) [1], less in a foster family, but it’s still a good living(if you can get it)
You have to pass the ‘saint test’ — not obese, not smoked(ex-smokers need not apply), not too old or too young, not drinking, proper PC attitude, not religious, etc. The same test also is required for adoption, and they adoption process takes about a year and is incredibly intrusive.[2] So, not many takers, just 60 last year in England.[3]
And if you get past all that, chances are that by the time you adopt the child, it is often too dysfunctional to integrate into a normal family.[4]
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9370986/Minister-care-homes-like-frying-pan-into-the-fire-for-abused-children.html
[2]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16285610
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/29/60-babies-adopted-england-last-year
[4] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2132834/When-Cherry-adopted-angelic-sisters-thought-loving-home-heal-wounds-troubled-past-How-terrifyingly-wrong-was.html
This is interesting….especially since I’ve heard so many mommybloggers with a love for government programs insisting that we need to follow the European model (long, paid maternity leave…..low cost daycare…..etc.)
Looks like that ain’t working so great after all, eh?
Considering that welfare bebefits have not been substantially cut in Europe, this means that the Eurotrashies, are choosing OUZO,and IPhones, over Bambini. Europe seems like it’s trying to win a prize for the most degenerate continent on earth.