Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Japan hospital plans 'baby hatch'

A Japanese hospital plans to set up a "baby hatch" allowing mothers to anonymously drop off their newborns so they can be put up for adoption.
The drop-off at Jikei Hospital in southern Japan will consist of a small window in an outside wall, which opens on to an incubator bed, officials say.

Once a baby has been placed inside, an alarm bell will alert staff.

Hospital director Taiji Hasuda told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper he hoped it would lead to a reduction in abortions.

The newspaper said Jikei hospital, in Kumamoto state, had decided to set up the programme after learning of similar ones in Germany.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6131744.stm

[Ya-ta Boy]

Didn't churches, monestaries and convents have essentially the same drop-off slot for unwanted infants back in the Middle Ages?

[mindmetoo]

I think a lot of hospitals and charities in North America have a similar thing. I believe they've even passed laws in a number of communities keeping a mother from prosecution if she abandons her baby in such a way. Keeps them out of the dumpster. I know when I drive in North America I avoid running over green garbage bags for fear some high school girl has put her newborn in there and tossed it on the road. Happens.