Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Group 3 : Anonymous Baby Disposal

We never really reached a consensus on how to resolve the issue, aside from the fact that we thought McGee made too much of a fuss about the issue altogether. He was very passionate about the mechanical nature of the German baby depositories, but aside from that, there seemed to be nothing remotely inhumane about the practice, other than the fact that the people involved dealing with people with questionable parenting qualifications and ethics. We doubt that anything like this could really be instituted in the United States due to the issue of funding, and the fact that it's already possible to put your child up for adoption, and with the text citing 100 infant deaths a year WORLDWIDE due to abandonment, while it is extremely unpleasant to think about, it isn't enough to "wage war on infanticide," as Glenn fervently announced at the end of the article.

9 comments:

  1. You summed it up pretty well. McGee made the claim that the amount of baby amandonment is terrible, and I'll make the claim that his outlook on the topic is terrible. I don't have much else to say other than I'm glad we'll soon be reading a book by a different author.. ):

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    1. Well... not that soon.

      Not sure I see the "terrible" aspect of his treatment of this case in particular. What am I missing?

      May I suggest that we all do our best to supplement McGee's text by discovering and sharing "links" etc. that shed more light. We're not moving on to another book just yet, let's make the best of this one.

      The sloppy copyediting really is quite annoying, isn't it?

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    2. I think he blew certain things out of proportion, such as his saying we need to declare war on infaticide, and that if we don't, it is our fault when kids kill their children. He also made the blatant statement that "children should not have sex," which in my opinion is not even relevant to the bioethics of this case.
      I keep an open mind before I read each new case, I just think it will be refreshing to get a different author's perspective.

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    3. Fair 'nut. Let's all be looking for other perspectives now & not wait to finish w/McGee. Let me know if you discover texts you'd recommend.

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    4. Fair enough, I was trying to say :)

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  2. I noted that access to and dissemination of information about birth control would probably help solve this problem by preventing unwanted pregnancies in the beginning.

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  3. Although I haven't fully researched the German depositories (I read the Wikipedia), I do not see how it is much different than the safe-haven laws already in place in the US. You can already leave your child at any designated 'safe place' (police stations, hospitals, I actually saw a safe place sign on the kroger on MTSU Blvd.). You can still remain anonymous and there are no legal repercussions unless the child is harmed in some way, and in most states you can remain anonymous.
    The only difference that I could tell is that in the German ones you just put the baby through a flap in the hospital wall, whereas in the US you might have to sit down and sign away your parenting rights.

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    1. Betsy I think you are misinterpreting the "Safe Place" signs as Safe Haven locations. By my understanding (just having researched the topic on Wiki as well) you cannot drop your unwanted offspring off at a Kroger location or any location that has a Safe Place sign on it. Safe Places are for "at risk adolescents and children" who need somwhere safe to go in a time of crisis. The presence of a Safe Place sign does not signify that nocation as a baby depository.

      Am I wrong?

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  4. I still believe that the issue is not how to prevent or control baby depositories, it seems more relevant to look at why this is happening. It just seems counterproductive to allow individuals to leave their unwanted babies without asking them any questions. I believe that these baby depositories serve the best interest of the babies being abandoned but they do nothing to solve the problem. In most abandon cases the parents are teenagers or young adults who may be too overwhelmed at the prospect of both raising themselves and their children. It would be nice to see a depository that gave a teenage mother the option to keep the baby at a depository for a month while the depository gave therapy sessions and parenting sessions to willing teenage parents. After the "therapy" is over, the teenager could then choose whether or not to bring the baby back home. It could just be that these teenagers are scared, like most new parents, and they do not feel adequate, but if we give them the knowledge and the ability to step back and re-asses their situation, maybe they would feel confident in becoming a parent. Like I said before, I believe that these baby depositories are a better solution than simply leaving a baby in a dumpster, but I also believe that they serve no purpose in stopping or fixing the issue of abandoning your children.

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