AmericanPapist Comments
AP wrote: "it is a very sad thing for a baby to be abandoned by its parents"
I guess I don't see this as "abandoning" babies.
We have such a "drop box" in my city (Germany). Since its installation 6 (?) years ago, it has been used three times. This does not seem much, but considering that three lives have been saved by installing the box, it is priceless.
This is a very good thing, even if it is used once. One more blessed child saved from the abortionist.
Also, I'm interested in the stats for Japan's readily available abortions at 290,000. Is that more or less, proportionally to population, vs the US abortion rate of about 1.2 million a year?
In any case, we should have more of these here in the US.
It's making the best of a bad situation. I wish more people would pursue adoption through regular channels, but as others have said, it's better than having a life destroyed.
I also with more Catholic institutions stood up for their Catholicity.
290,000 abortions and the Japanese wonder why thier native-born population is declining. I do like the idea of the "Jizo" statues set up for unborn or miscarried infants.
It HAS received attention. I first read about it more than 2 months ago in the Washington Post and CNN.com.
I'm from MN and I was surprised that more cities and hosp.s haven't thought of this. But even with this available, we've still found babies in swamps, garbage cans, and other places abandoned and dead. I'm glad this is available and like the other poster said, if it's used even ONCE it's worth it. It's a sad state of society but I think it also says that SOMEONE thinks babies are worth saving.
I, also, saw an article about one of these in Italy (?) a few months ago or so in the New York Times.
And I agree with all the other posters. Like one person said, even if it's used only once, that's one more child's life saved.
Angela
I hope everyone who read the article took note that this hospital is Catholic. That is the only reason this baby hatch exists. The Japanese government would never allow something like this in a publicly-insituted hospital. They didn't even want to allow it for a Catholic hospital, but once the story broke internationally they weren't about to shut down the baby hatch and send the message that Japan doesn't care what happens top abandoned babies.
What this Catholic hospital is doing is directly counter to Japanese society and culture that says it is better to abort an unwanted child (they also venerate their dead unborn children and ask for their forgiveness in "the afterlife"--odd) than to suffer the humiliation, indignity and "loss of face" (a HUGE thing in Asian culture) by willingly abandoning your baby. In Japan it is better to die (abortion, suicide--both are problems in their culture) than to be shamed publicly. Many men commit suicide for losing money in bad business deals, many teenagers commit suicide over bad grades or unwanted pregnancies, and many people are shunned by their families because they DON'T commit suicide when they cause scandal.
I just wanted to point these things out (I love many things about Japan, by the way, and the Japanese are great people in many ways) so that everyone who reads about this hospital will have a greater understanding of what a profound work of mercy they are doing--going counter to a staunch "don't rock the boat, go with the establishment" society like Japan is literally an act of heroism. It this kind of witness of Christian values that will slowly help to shift the non-Christian thinking of their culture.
I hope you can take some time to read this excellent article about women and abortion in Japan. It is written by a priest and gives an excellent Christian perspective. I think many of the readers here who are not familiar with Japanese culture will be very surprised by this information:
http://www.pregnantpause.org/abo...ted/
japview.htm
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