Parents with ill children need help

Comment on "Shelters reveal flaws in child welfare" (China Daily website, Feb 17)

No parents like to abandon their children. In fact, they are reluctant and feel extremely sad to leave their children even in orphanages.

Only extreme circumstances can force parents to abandon their children. Imagine you have a child who suffers from cerebral palsy, and the doctor tells you that it has to undergo intensive treatment to be cured before the age of 3, because that is the golden time for recovery, or it will remain disabled throughout its life. But you are also told that you have to pay 8,000 yuan ($1,320) per month for the therapy when your monthly income is just 2,000 yuan. Under such circumstances, if somebody were to tell you that your child could receive free medical treatment in an orphanage, what would you do?

The point is that the government hasn't paid enough attention to the families burdened financially by seriously ill children. Many people cannot imagine how hard it is for such families to make ends meet, and how desperate and helpless they feel.

It's time the authorities provided medical aid to such families instead of only taking care of ill orphans. If not, poor parents will continue to abandon their ill or disabled children.

Lilian Lee, from China Daily forum

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(China Daily 02/19/2014 page9)