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Thursday November 9, 1:28 PMKumamoto hospital plans hatch for parents to entrust baby anonymously(Kyodo) _ A hospital in the city of Kumamoto plans to set up a baby hatch where parents can anonymously leave their babies they cannot take care of for varied reasons.Jikei Hospital says it will begin the work to install the hatch as soon as it obtains permission from local public health authorities and that it wants to set it up by the year-end. A baby hatch has already been introduced in places such as Germany, where it is known as a Babyklappe or Babyfenster in German and a Jikei Hospital official visited to learn about it. This will be the first such facility in Japan, according to the Kumamoto hospital. Some institutions in Okayama and Fukuoka prefectures are also eyeing similar initiatives. In Germany, these hatches are usually set up at hospitals or social centers. Jikei Hospital says its baby hatch, to be named after cradle of storks, will be a box-type one accessible from outside the hospital by opening a window. The box is conditioned inside the same as an incubator. When a newborn is deposited, an alarm will be triggered later. The hospital plans to introduce the babies put in the hatch for adoption, through the local administration, by among some 160 couples from across the country who have registered with the Okayama Prefectural Medical Association. The hospital will also leave in the box leaflets informing the parents how to claim their children if they had second thoughts. Hospital director Shoichi Hasuda says the baby hatch "is an emergency measure and is not aimed at encouraging parents to abandon babies." Hasuda says he wants to "see a reduction in the number of abandoned newborns and unhappy abortions as much as possible." Kumamoto prefectural police said they will make a judgment based on law and evidence on each case of a baby abandoned if it constitutes a crime. The Penal Code's Article 218 sets penalties for those who have neglected to perform their duties to protect the elderly, infants, disabled or sick people who were to be guarded by them. The Kumamoto municipal government also says it has found no problems under medical laws because a hospital can check a baby's health and is there to protect a baby's life. Jikei Hospital says Taiji Hasuda, president of the operator of Jikei Hospital, has continued to make preparations to install the baby hatch after visiting Germany in 2004 for an inspection of the baby hatch system in that country. |
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