[Baby hatch] Jikei Hospital， with the highest number of babies taken in， calls for improvements to the system to get babies to foster families as quickly as possible
Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto City, which is involved in the “Stork’s Cradle” (baby post) and “confidential births,” is calling for the establishment of a system for quickly transferring babies to foster families. The number of babies being cared for in the hospital temporarily reached a record high of seven, and the government called on the Kumamoto City Child Consultation Center to work with child consultation centers across the country to increase the number of places that can take them. Director Takeshi Hasuda held a press conference on August 8th. As of the same day, a total of seven people, including three in a “cradle” that cares for infants and young children whose parents cannot raise them, and two who were born in “confidential births” where their identities were revealed only to the hospital, remained in the hospital because their next destination had not been decided. This was the highest number since the baby hatch was opened in 2007, and the longest period of time that babies were left in care was over a month. Since then, the number of undetermined babies has decreased. For babies left in cradles or born secretly, the Kumamoto City Child Welfare Services will handle procedures such as placing the baby with foster parents registered with the city, special adoption, or placing the baby in an infant home. However, according to the city’s child welfare office, there are cases where it is difficult to quickly accept a child due to circumstances on the part of the foster parents or because the infant home is nearly full. Hasuda argues that “in order to form an attachment, it is ideal to entrust the baby to adoptive or foster parents after about five days.” “The Jikei Hospital receives donations from outside Kumamoto Prefecture. “We ask the city child protection agency to ask child protection agencies and private organizations across the country for cooperation.” The city’s child welfare office stated, “We are currently cooperating with other local governments, but we need to consider expanding this further.” 2024/9/2 16:55 (last updated 9/2 19:35) Mainichi Shimbun.
At the time, there were many voices opposing the plan, but they went ahead and built the baby hatch, and then in the end, they passed the responsibility on to the government and local governments.
>>7 You were pretty adamant then. It’s as if they are shaking off government guidance. But you can’t replace a child’s life. It’s true that some people throw them away, and the government doesn’t exactly abandon them, but they do leave them alone. It could be said that doctors did what the government should have done instead.
>>8 Contrary to expectations, the first child was not a baby but a 3-year-old. Now that he’s grown up, he shows up saying he was saved by the baby hatch.
I think it would be better to register the DNA of every citizen using the My Number system and identify their parents. It would be mentally crazy to never know.
In principle, in the case of a secret birth, even if you tell the hospital your identity, it’s not binding. There are cases where you don’t tell them your identity after all, and the health insurance card used as identification may be someone else’s. Even if the baby wants to know about its mother in the future, it may not be told, or there may be trouble because of someone else’s health insurance card. I doubt many people would want to go to the trouble of adopting a child with such circumstances.
83% of people say the declining birthrate will not improve by 2030. Government measures questioned over effectiveness in Fukushima Prefecture mayoral survey ★2 [Capital Region Tigers★] https: //asahi.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/newsplus/1725186438/.
Hurry up and establish laws so that this is available to wealthy childless people and high-income couples. It’s fine if their identity isn’t known. Just tell your child that you were given it by the hospital.
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