Reviving The Midle Ages
First it was Al Gore and his pompously self-righteous promoting the purchase of medieval indulgences - oh, sorry, "carbon offsets" – to forgive environmental sins. That way, Gorezilla can indulge in his unusual attraction to high-tension power lines and consume vast amounts of electricity while still pretending he's an environmentalist. Now Germany has taken a step back to the good, old middle ages as well. They are doing it with something called a "Baby-Klappe". This is similar to the arrangement most libraries and banks have for dropping off books or deposits. A slot to drop things through. In Germany, this means mothers can drop unwanted babies into these "night depositories" and walk away from them.
Good lord.
Desperate mothers are being urged to drop their unwanted babies through hatches at hospitals in an effort to halt a spate of infanticides that has shocked Germany.
At least 23 babies have been killed so far this year, many of them beaten to death or strangled by their mothers before being dumped on wasteland and in dustbins.
Police investigating the murders are at a loss to explain the sudden surge in such cases, which have involved mothers of all ages all over the country.
Now city councils have launched an advertising campaign to highlight the problem and to promote greater use of the Baby-Klappe hatches that allow women to drop off their babies to be found and cared for without having to give their names. Posters were being put up in cities and towns across Germany yesterday, urging women to make use of the Baby-Klappe, with the slogan “Before babies land in the rubbish bin . . .”
The campaign has already attracted criticism from senior clergymen and from charities, including Caritas, who argue that it could actively encourage mothers to dump their children. But there is agreement that something must be done to address what appears to be an infanticide epidemic.
The article even recognizes that these are modern trappings on a custom that was begun in the middle ages.
— In the 12th century Pope Innocence III permitted mothers to dump unwanted, and often illegitimate babies, on church doorsteps
— In 14th-century Florence a church used a wooden cylinder, the ruota, to deposit unwanted babies
— First modern baby-drop in Germany was introduced in Hamburg in 2000. There are now more than 90
Not that it isn't better than just letting mothers dump their unwanted kids somewhere in a garbage can. It just points to a sickness in the society as a whole. It is also prone to abuse, as even supporters admit. Mothers can drop off severely disabled babies or ones that are more than three months of age. Neither of those actions are legal under German law. But dropping off a healthy two month old like an overdue book is perfectly ok. Everything old is new again.
World news | Gaius March 28, 2007
