In my comm class the other day, we looked at issues in other countries that we would find challenging. One of the issues was (this really happened to a girl from UNL)-- if you were a female worker in a hospital working in the obstetrics department and one day you helped deliver a baby girl. You ask the woman if there are any questions or concerns she has about raising a child. She whispers to the translator in a low voice. The translator tells you she already has four girls at home and is going to kill this baby girl to ensure she has a boy next time. The translator said the most common way to do this is by pouring hot soup down the baby's throat.
What would be you reaction?
What would you do in this situation?
9 comments:
HOLY CRAP!!!
Wow...I can't believe this. In an earlier blog, polygamist boys were thought as useless, and now in Russia, it's the girls.
If I were in this lady's position, I think I would talk to the mother (or translator) and ask if she would consider putting the baby up for adoption. And I would really try to persuade her to do so!!! If she wouldn't see to it, I would report what I had heard she was going to do, and have an authority come and take the baby out of her possesion and into a more safe one.
Sadly I do believe this is still happening. To go even further, women in many eastern European countries (former Soviet states) are abducted and sold as sex slaves into many other countries. Even though we believe things have changed for the better for women because of laws established here in the US, the world at large is still very barbaric in its treatment of women - including baby girls as in this example.
I think it is the hospital's responsibility to call child service and get the baby away from the mother. It is known that in other countries families don't want girls and only want boys. With this woman already having four girls, it is likely what she is saying could be true. I think that awareness and more light needs to be shed on issues like these dealing with baby girls being abondonded and killed.
This is sooooo sad and appalling! If I was this lady I would report it to the authorities immediately and try to convince her to put the baby up for adoption. I know a lot of people who would love to have another baby girl (they have 5 boys and 1 girl). It is sad how in most other countries there is geneicide occuring because of a baby's sex.
I agree with classblogger, I think that it is the responsibility of the hospital to call the child protective services. That babies life is in danger and how can you live with knowing that you could have helped save that babies life but instead you did nothing? There are plenty of families out there that can't have children and would love to adopt. The idea of killing a child because of their sex just makes me sick!!
In china there are really strict rules when it comes to how many children each family can have due to the overpopulation. They are facing extreme girl to boy ratio problems there because the families are killing off their baby girls. They do this so they can have boys to carry on the family name and also boys are considered to be better there.
Why can't people just be happy that they could have kids in the first place?
Well I would hope the woman was joking to see the look on my face. But she probably wasn’t and if that truly is that case of what she is going to do I hope that is not a cultural thing there and this is a one time incident. It is terrible that this may happen. But here is an unreported incident of a “women” potentially committing violence.
I find this type of story disturbing not matter the sex of a child, you should not be ashamed of the child and have to kill it. I am not sure how we could change any culture so that they do not despise one sex over the other as a child. I do however know that we need to encourage adoption if the mother feels that she cannot keep the child as murder is never the option we should go with.
This is going to sound awful and might offend those in the class who are very religious but this type of story only reinforces my belief that people should have to have a license to have children!
What an awful and sad story. I would turn the child to a protection agency.
I don't know what exactly I would do... grab the child and run for our lives?
Keep in mind the condition and situation of the Russian orphanages and the children who are there.
This thinking (boys are more desirable than girls) is also prominant in many Asain cultures. I don't recall the exact quotes/stats, but we talked about this in one of my classes and the professor was showing us the numbers and research about how some Asain countries are expected to have a very hard time in the not so distant future because of the severe imbalance/ratio of men to women.
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