Oh baby, baby

I found this on the Web today. A hospital in Japan has put in place a “baby hatch” where mothers can anonymously drop off unwanted babies.

You can bet that conservatives everywhere will be foaming at the mouth over this. That it encourages premarital and casual sex amongst singles. That it promotes lack of responsibility among new parents. Even that it destroys the foundations and sanctity of marriage.

In a perfect world perhaps it would do those things — I don't know. But we don't live in a perfect world. We do have have women who get pregnant and don't want to be but have no access to abortion. Maybe they don't want the baby because there is no economic way they will be able to afford, first, taking the time off work and, second, buying everything that new child will need. Then there are those women who could afford it, they just don't want a child at that point. Babies are innocents — they deserve to have the chance at a real chances in life rather than being poor, or the emotional problems of knowing that your mother never wanted you in the first place. And you know what? We do have a stigma in our society against people who give up their children and that stigma can prevent a woman from doing what is right for her baby. Not just adult women, but teenage mothers, too. Perhaps all hospitals should have baby hatches.

Me, I choose that which benefits the innocents in the picture, even if it promotes that which the conservatives fear it does.