Bodies of 21 Babies Found in China River

[Stuart G]

Source: Huffington Post

BEIJING — Bodies of 21 babies have been discovered in plastic bags in a river in eastern China and authorites suspect they were dumped there by local hospitals, state media reported Tuesday.

An initial investigation showed that eight of the 21 babies wore identification tags on their feet tracing them back to Jining Medical College Hospital in Shandong province, the according to the People's Daily Web site. The other 13 were unidentified.




Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/china-river-dead-babies_n_518169.html

---

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/30/bodies-babies-chinese-river

The story above gives a little more information...from the Guardian.

[UpInArms]

1. here's your link

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKjFz0oMdXxHsfY96RaLMqi9NHIwD9EOS8QG0

[midnight]

2. I suppose they were all girls?

[BlueIris]

4. "Three of the eight were admitted to the hospital in critical condition"

I don't know if that means the babies had been admitted before they passed, of if the police sent the bodies back to the hospital and the hospitals labeled them "critical."

I think it's interesting the article--as far as I could tell--didn't mention the sex of the infants.

[ensho]

14. that's the first thing I thought too

nt

[Haole Girl]

17. My first thought, too.

:-(

[KittyWampus]

18. this is about improper disposal of bodies. Another hospital dumped corpses at a construction site

This is what you get without Federal regulations and regulatory agencies enforcing the law. Or what you get with total corruption.

[get the red out]

3. A country of irony

When I went with my sister on her trip to adopt their second daughter from China, we were constantly criticized and put down by virtually everyone we encountered because my sister dressed her baby in an American way, without bundling her in so many layers of clothing that she couldn't breathe, she was dressed warm enough for the weather but the Chinese people couldn't accept someone not bundling a baby until they couldn't breathe and let us know about it. In their minds they were trying to make sure the stupid Americans didn't kill the baby.

But dead babies in the river.....................

Living under a totalitarian regime produces a great deal of irony, there is only so much the citizens can control. And probably only so much they can afford to think about because they have no control. I feel very sad for them.

[LibertyLover]

6. I know what you mean

when my husband and I were in China to bring home our daughter our group was taken to a factory to see silk carpets made (yeah like any of us were going to buy them - we'd all just paid thousands of dollars to adopt our kids and fly to China to bring them home) and to a street market. As we walked along the market area, many women came up to us and inspected how we had dressed the kids. I had put a nice fuzzy track suit on my daughter together with a fleece blanket and was given thumbs up by all the grannies in the crowd for bundling her up correctly. Little did they know that the track suit was, shall we say, all fuzz and no weight, so she was actually dressed just fine for the slightly cool weather and not over-dressed. We were also thanked by many people wherever we went with the children for taking them into our families. It was a very odd feeling.

[Berry Cool]

21. I've heard that that happens to non-Chinese couples with Chinese baby girls.

They will have Chinese stop them in the streets and thank them for adopting the babies.

[PassingFair]

11. The Chinese might feel the same way about Americans cutting parts of baby's penises off.

Cultural norms are often baffling.

[heliarc]

23. I find it ironic...

that the right wing in this country is hell bent on opposing safe abortion practices, but we still can't get unwanted kids through child protective services without getting killed, raped or severely beaten by the time they're grown.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7334460

Some of the people on DU who have a hard time with other countries and their treatment of children/dolphins/Endangered Species need to look a little closer to home.

[get the red out]

26. To be honest

I have a hard time with all of that. While kids languish in foster care good parents are denied the right to adopt them because they are gay. I cut zero slack for the "good ol' USA". Fundamentalism wrecks our attempts at civilization.

[soleft]

5. I just went to the Bodies Exhibit here in New York

They had one room with just babies, all girls. All Asians.

[marshall]

7. Post partum abortion?

Maybe they didn't have access to ultra-sound to determine the gender of the babies. Or an official could be cracking down on parents who violate the one child policy.

[Warpy]

8. Or they were dead infants dumped by the hospital

which is what it sounds like to me. Poor rural people don't put bunches of babies together in plastic bags to drown them in the river. Those plastic bags cost money and anyone who gets one uses it until it's in shreds. That's what third world poverty is all about.

Those were likely infants who died in the hospital and had families too poor to bury them. The tags on them identified them and traced them back to that hospital.

[Regret My New Name]

9. That's what it sounds like to me.

I don't get why it would have been considered too much effort to bury them though. I'm guessing they usually don't send baby bodies down the river, since this is considered 'news' and not normal everyday stuff.

[Warpy]

10. Right, cremation is the norm since cemetary space is limited

in the cities and only the very wealthy can now afford to bury, dig the body up in a few years, and rebury the bones in an ossuary. Perhaps there's a crooked crematorium operator out there who took the hospital's money and just dumped the bodies.

Expect more on this story.

[harmonicon]

12. sense? who needs it....

haven't you learned that around DU the most fucked up explanation is always the one to go to?

[KittyWampus]

19. Read the second link- it's about not disposing of bodies properly. The claim is contractors

were hired and they took the cheap way out by dumping them in the river.

Hospital workers are taking the fall.

There are no federal laws on how to dispose of unclaimed corpses in China. And the corruption in China is so complete, there'd probably no enforcement if there were set laws.

[Warpy]

20. Read above

I already cited the problem as probably shady crematorium operators who pocketed the fee and dumped the bodies.

[wisteria]

13. Disgusting-absolutely no regard or respect for the dead. n/t

[Quantess]

25. Nor for anyone who ever visits the river.

Can you imaagine how horrifying it would be to walk along the shore and trip over a dead and bloated baby?

[AlbertCat]

15. Ancient Chinese alternative medicine, I guess.

[Nihil]

16. Someone's been reading them the story of Moses but the translation wasn't too hot ... (n/t)

:hide:

[Blandocyte]

22. Snert!

:fistbump:

[kimi]

24. Innocent little souls

Whatever happened, bless their hearts.