Number of abandoned babies, many with birth defects, is a wake-up call to society

GUANGZHOU - Mandatory premarital physical examinations for engaged couples should be resumed in China, and the social security net should be strengthened to stop the increase in abandoned children, many of whom have physical defects, experts said.

Although the exact count of abandoned children in Guangzhou is unavailable, the number of children at the Guangzhou Children's Social Welfare Home, one of the largest of its kind in China, continues to increase, its president, Xu Jiu, told China Daily.

The majority of the children in the home were abandoned as babies. Some of them are also vagrants sent from rescue centers.

The city's social welfare home for children now cares for 1,900 children.

Some 900 of them live in foster homes with caretakers who receive a stipend from the government as child support payment.

Up to 98 percent of the children at the home center have physical defects, many of them serious.

The majority of the abandoned babies were brought to Guangzhou, where a number of large hospitals exist, from other cities and villages where they were abandoned after their parents found they could not afford the high medical bills.

The increase in abandoned children is linked to the abolition of the premarital physical examination policy, according to Xu.

Several other factors are responsible as well: birth defects; gender discrimination against girls, especially in remote underdeveloped areas; and births outside of marriage, especially to young parents, said Zeng Jinhua, director of the Guangdong Youth and Children Research and Development Center.

To stop the increase in abandoned babies, the mandatory premarital physical examination should be resumed with financial support from the government to help ensure the health of babies, both Xu and Zeng said.

Related departments should set up special institutions to provide such checks or subsidize existing hospitals to make these checks, Zeng suggested.

Examinations at home should be provided in some cases, he said.

Xu suggested the government boosts the funding for pregnancy examinations. The best scenario is that government offers them for free, he said.

The number of couples undergoing premarital examinations has been dropping drastically since the mandatory premarital examination policy was dropped in China in 2003.

The number remains low, although some cities later began to offer free premarital examinations.

Xu also urged the government to boost support to the families of babies with serious birth defects to prevent them from abandoning the baby.

The treatment of a baby with serious heart disease at the Guangzhou welfare home for children, for example, costs 300,000 yuan ($43,926), which is totally beyond the reach of poor families.

After a 3-year-old boy with serious complications from the H1N1 flu was found dead and abandoned in Guangzhou last December, a spokesman for the Guangzhou health bureau said more efforts are needed from all of society to help the financially disadvantaged patients, especially those from outside the city.

The city government of Guangzhou set aside some money last year for hospitals to assist poor patients from outside the city, but the maximum help for a patient is 7,000 yuan, he said.

"Better social security would also help change the long-rooted tradition of relying on boys to support the family," Zeng said.

"That might help end gender discrimination."

The abandonment of babies born out of wedlock has increased due to an increase in cohabitation and migrant workers having sex outside of marriage, since they are away from their wives for long periods of time.

Premarital sex, which often involves unprotected sex, is prevalent among those born in the last three decades.

Providing knowledge about responsible sex and protection, including the use of condoms, is very important, he said.

Shen Shuhui contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/25/2010 page4)