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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The title of this post comes from the slogan for a campaign in Germany to persuade new mothers to place their unwanted babies in hospital "baby hatches" rather than killing them or leaving them to die somewhere. Unfortunately, this has become necessary since there have been more than 20 newborn babies murdered this year in Germany by mothers who didn't want them and didn't care enough to put them up for adoption. Here is the article.
Desperate mothers are being urged to drop their unwanted babies through hatches at hospitals in an effort to halt a spate of infanticides that has shocked Germany.

At least 23 babies have been killed so far this year, many of them beaten to death or strangled by their mothers before being dumped on wasteland and in dustbins.
...
Experts believe that the true figure is even higher. Professor Helmut Kury, a criminologist, say: “Some women have a greater fear of losing their partners than of losing their child. They take desperate measures to save a relationship.”
...
But the baby-drops, modelled on foundling wheels that were first used in Italy in medieval times, are not the final antidote to these killings. “Often the mother is under such psychological pressure that she doesn’t even register alternatives like the Baby-Klappe,” Dr Neises said.

But they do offer an alternative for some mothers. The drop-off point is usually hidden from view, shielded by trees and away from security cameras. The baby is put on to a tray that slides through a hole in the wall and is gently lowered into a heated cot. An alarm bell alerts nursing staff — but only after the mother has been given sufficient time to make a getaway. The baby can be reclaimed, usually up to three months later, should the mother change her mind.
...
Initial scepticism started to melt after a woman in eastern German was arrested for letting nine of her babies die. Some were buried in plant pots in her garden.
Germany already has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and is having its population every 40-50 years. And those that are having babies don't appear to keen on keeping them.

Two thoughts come to mind from this story. One, the argument that legalized abortion and contraception eliminates or significantly reduces the number of "unwanted" babies appears to be proven wrong by this situation. Germany already aborts nearly 1 in 5 of their babies, and 30% of German women are childless as is, with all sorts of contraceptives available. Yet, INCREASINGLY mothers are killing their babies post-birth. Second, if most of these women are killing their babies so that their BOYFRIENDS don't leave them, it would appear that the complete disregard for marriage in Europe has reaped the whirlwind. We are living in evil times when mothers throughout the world can throttle their infant children to death for no reason other than motherhood makes them uncomfortable. I leave you with a graph. One hint, it's not the percent of pregnancies taken to term. Communism appears to haunt Eastern Europe to this day.

2 comments:

sarah said...

That is a very interesting post Darius. I would agree with the link you made between the subject matter and communism - in Ukraine last year I saw many psychological influences of communism. About Sheaffer's book - it's great - except that it speaks mostly in referrence to modernism, which is now, a little out-dated, I wish he'd wrote a parrallel one on post-modernism :-]

Darius said...

thanks for the comment, Sarah Jo. One of the best ways to show the effect communism had on Europe's behavior toward children and pregnancy comes from when Germany was split into the East and West. In the free West, the abortion rate was 9%; in East Germany, the rate was 32%. Stalin still indirectly kills millions to this day.

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The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Overcoming Sin and Temptation
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
Disciplines of a Godly Man
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Respectable Sins
The Kite Runner
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, ... anabaptist/anglican, metho
Show Them No Mercy
The Lord of the Rings
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
The Chronicles of Narnia
Les Misérables


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