Welfare Director says parents partly to blame for baby dumping

18 sept 2010, saturday :- Parents of unwed mothers are partly to be blamed for the seemingly endless baby dumping cases, State Welfare Service Department director Kendy Edward, Said yesterday.
           She said most of the discarded infants were born out of wedlock or from unwanted pregnancies. In the first place, parents should always watch their children closely, males and female alike. “Parents must observe the movements of their teenage children as close as possible so that they can sense early when anything amiss happens to them, “ she said. She suspected that those dumping their babies were unwed mothers who could have done it out of fear that their forbidden acts would be discovered by others, especially their parents.
          “ On this, Kendy said that unwed mothers should not have such fear because the department was ready to provide protection and shelter for them and their babies. She said that the government was not trying to encourage unwanted pregnancies but it would be very inhumane if the innocent were left to suffer for die. 
          Unmarried girls who got pregnant should not dump their infants but should realise that life is so precious and that the babies, even though they were products of unwanted pregnancies, also have every right to live. We should not let them become the victims of circumstances and human lust. Dumping new born babies is not only immoral and inhumane but also sinful in the eyes of any religion in the world,” said Kendy.
           “It is so saddening to hear about a case when we had just conducted an a awareness programme on the same subject in the continuous efforts we put in, it seems that there is no need to the problem in our society,” she said.
            She said even for stillborn babies, their remains should not be disposed just like ordinary rubbish. Even if they are dead they are still human and need to be given some kind of respected and they also deserve proper burial,” stressed Kendy.

The Borneo post, 18 September 2010