Babies

You may have read about the recent and very sad news story about 21 deceased infants and aborted fetuses being discarded of and later found in a river in northeast China. (If not, you can read the story here. )

What is sad, is that although the Chinese public is outraged (as they should be), this story did not surprise me as much as it should have, simply because the value placed on human life here is heart-breaking.

In discussing this news story with a Chinese friend, he said he knows someone who lives in a poor province nearby. He said that locals often can see dead babies floating in the river--many of them girls, which are sometimes unwanted. This is due to the cultural custom of a son financially and emotionally providing for his parents, while daughters are married off and go to live with their new husband's family. For many poor families in China (where only one child is allowed), if the first child is not a son, it will be aborted or given away. It's easy to feel contempt for these parents; but after living here three years, I've begun to sympathize with them. Don't get me wrong... Nothing excuses killing or giving away a child; however, for many families, they see no option. It is a vicious circle in which no one really wins.

The propaganda to diminish the importance of human life is overwhelming in this country where abortion is not only legal, but encouraged (and often even forced) by the government. It is given little thought and seen as nothing more than a cure for pregnancy--as common as over-the-counter cold medicine. On the bus last night, there was an ad for an abortion hospital with this text: "It takes three minutes to drink a cup of coffee, three minutes to eat an apple, and three minutes to fix your problem." Wow.