The City of Lost Children

Shenzhen is unlike many other cities in China, it isn’t known for its busy factories or its neon-lit shops it is now associated with abandon babies. For almost a decade, a baby has been abandoned almost every day somewhere in the city. Now Shenzhen is taking a controversial step to protect the abandon children. They are reintroducing the Foundling Wheel (well known in medieval Europe), where there will be incubators, blankets, oxygen on standby, and a button for parents to press to alert staff to the new arrival. This was frowned upon and provoked a national media outcry. People said that this would encourage parents to dump their unwanted children which is illegal in China.  “Abandoning a baby is a crime in our country, but during the process of committing this crime, babies are the victims. Since the root of the crime which is caused by various complicated issues cannot be solved in the blink of an eye, it is a good option to shift our focus to protecting those victims." said Peng Xizhe, a professor at Fudan University. ("China's City of Lost Children Brings in Shelters for Abandoned Babies; Shenzhen Is Introducing What Was Known in Medieval Europe as the Foundling Wheel: A Shelter Where Parents Can Leave Their Babies Safely and Anonymously." N.p., n.d. Web.) Inside the Social Welfare Centre there are 560 children currently living in the dormitories, half of them will eventually be adopted.  The other half are too mentally or physically ill for adoptive parents to cope with. Beside all these sad facts there is some good news: abandonments have steadily decreased as china grows wealthier. The Centre now only receives 100 to 200 children a year which is down by more than a third from five years ago.  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10536358/Chinas-city-of-lost-children-brings-in-shelters-for-abandoned-babies.html)

Personally I think that, even though it’s against the law, the place to abandon babies is a safer option for parents to take their child to. With the family planning policy in China sometimes families are not allowed to have multiple children or they simply can’t afford it. Before parents would just dump their babies in the middle of nowhere they would freeze to death or other terrible things would happen to them.

Hyperlink:  http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA353777132&v=2.1&u=morenetspk&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=cbdcc0953035a36d450eb1268981cb3f

Citations:

"China's City of Lost Children Brings in Shelters for Abandoned Babies; Shenzhen Is Introducing What Was Known in Medieval Europe as the Foundling Wheel: A Shelter Where Parents Can Leave Their Babies Safely and Anonymously." N.p., n.d. Web.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10536358/Chinas-city-of-lost-children-brings-in-shelters-for-abandoned-babies.html