My suggestion was that the murder of one’s own child(ren) often happens in an act of emotional instability, either directly after childbirth or later in a crises (too much strain related to childcare, separation from the partner, financial ruin etc.). This means the parent would be too emotional to think clearly and therefore does not even think of such institutions where you can abandon a child (and where it would at least stay alive). Since you’ve stayed in Germany this year, you should be able to remember all the many times we’ve been told about the discovery of another killed baby. So, this happens here as well, despite the Babyklappe.

For some parents, the reason may be that they consider being brought up in an orphanage worse than death. Orphanages did not have a good image in the past (see Oliver Twist) and have not recovered from that yet and partly they still need to improve a lot (see present reports about orphanages for handy capped children in East European countries).

We also spoke about adaption and how difficult it is for the potential parents since there are more people wanting to adopt than there are children waiting for adaption. A “solution” may be to adopt a child from abroad but as you surely know this also bears risks, such as children being taken away illegally. Another solution may be to adopt an older child. However, older children are less likely to find new parents. My cousin who worked in an orphanage for a year commented on this “I would not advice to adopt an older child, they are a lot of trouble”. Well, and then everybody wants cute, little babies.

Germany is now going the way of controlling parents more strictly, e.g. by making regular visits to the paediatrist obligatory. However, that won’t effect cases in which the mother was able to hide her pregnancy, gives birth to the child in secret and then kills him/her. My current flat mate, a medical student in her final year, told of a case in which even the mother didn’t know she was pregnant until the baby was born. So, I can well imagine a woman, especially a more heavy woman, to be able to hide her pregnancy and thereby bypass the controls.

My suggestion was that the murder of one’s own child(ren) often happens in an act of emotional instability, either directly after childbirth or later in a crises (too much strain related to childcare, separation from the partner, financial ruin etc.). This means the parent would be too emotional to think clearly and therefore does not even think of such institutions where you can abandon a child (and where it would at least stay alive). Since you’ve stayed in Germany this year, you should be able to remember all the many times we’ve been told about the discovery of another killed baby. So, this happens here as well, despite the Babyklappe.

For some parents, the reason may be that they consider being brought up in an orphanage worse than death. Orphanages did not have a good image in the past (see Oliver Twist) and have not recovered from that yet and partly they still need to improve a lot (see present reports about orphanages for handy capped children in East European countries).

We also spoke about adaption and how difficult it is for the potential parents since there are more people wanting to adopt than there are children waiting for adaption. A “solution” may be to adopt a child from abroad but as you surely know this also bears risks, such as children being taken away illegally. Another solution may be to adopt an older child. However, older children are less likely to find new parents. My cousin who worked in an orphanage for a year commented on this “I would not advice to adopt an older child, they are a lot of trouble”. Well, and then everybody wants cute, little babies.

Germany is now going the way of controlling parents more strictly, e.g. by making regular visits to the paediatrist obligatory. However, that won’t effect cases in which the mother was able to hide her pregnancy, gives birth to the child in secret and then kills him/her. My current flat mate, a medical student in her final year, told of a case in which even the mother didn’t know she was pregnant until the baby was born. So, I can well imagine a woman, especially a more heavy woman, to be able to hide her pregnancy and thereby bypass the controls.