Newborn Found in Queens Trash Bin

[B_Italian1]

SICK!

December 18, 2007
Newborn Found in Queens Trash Bin

A newborn girl was found Monday night — one of the coldest nights so far this year — in a commercial trash bin in Queens, the police said. She was wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a paper bag.

A group of teenagers walking past the steel bin near Case Street and Lamont Avenue in Elmhurst about 8 p.m. heard the baby’s cries and moved closer to investigate, the police said. There, they found the baby, just hours old, the police said.

Two of the teenagers ran to a nearby police station to get help while the other two called 911, the police said.

Emergency medical personnel arrived and took the baby to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she was listed in stable condition, the police said. On Monday night, investigators were searching for clues to her identity, as well as that of the mother and whoever else might have been involved in the baby’s abandonment.

So far, the police have no suspects.

 

[donnydon]

o ga o!

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

Yeah, that's pretty fucked up, eh? It's happened a couple times in the past few years here in my city... one woman gave birth to a baby in a McDonald's toilet.. another girl (teenager) gave birth to a baby without her parents knowledge that she was even pregnant... she claims that the baby was stillborn, so she put him in a backpack and threw him in a nearby dumpster. WTF is wrong with these people?! They have programs ya know... where babies can be dropped off at safe locations with no repercussions on behalf of the mother. *sigh*

 

[DC_DEEP]

Proof-positive that abstinence-only and pronatalist programs are working just dandy!

 

[ManlyBanisters]

Proof-positive that abstinence-only and pronatalist programs are working just dandy!

Ah now - come on! Try posting without a politcal agenda for once. There is so much more to it than just ignorance and unwanted pregnancy in these cases. There has to be an aspect of extreme pressure or a mental health issue in these cases - often abuse is involved. A direct antecedent of mine was an abandoned baby - left on the steps of a city hospital - and I have often thought about the emotional turmoil his mother have been in to do that. I don't just think these people are evil (maybe in the cases where the baby is taken from the mother and abandonned by someone else) but that they themselves are victims - not capable of rational thought, so scared that they can't think straight - can't get to the places that Meg refers to, or don't know about them. I feel for that baby, and equally I feel for her mother - who is probably right now in need of medical attention and extremely traumatised by what has just happened to her. I pray for both of them.

 

[rob_just_rob]

Ah now - come on! Try posting without a politcal agenda for once.

Assuming the OP was made with a political agenda in mind, responding in kind is appropriate.

With that in mind... It's interesting that thousands of children die of malnutrition, neglect, or disease daily, but we largely ignore them because they're remote. They are nameless, faceless children in countries far away and far different from our own. So they get very little attention from the press on an individual basis, compared with the occasional North American or European child who dies/is kidnapped/falls down a well. Now consider the effort and money that gets spent on lobbying for an abortion ban in Western countries, and imagine that money being spent on actual living, breathing, thinking children in LDCs who are in desperate need of help.

 

[HazelGod]

Ah now - come on! Try posting without a politcal agenda for once. There is so much more to it than just ignorance and unwanted pregnancy in these cases. There has to be an aspect of extreme pressure or a mental health issue in these cases - often abuse is involved.

Actually, no, there doesn't have to be...and that's the fucked up reality here in the US of Abstinence. These occurrences might make more sense to the rational mind if that were the case, MB, but it isn't. Most of these incidents have involved otherwise "normal" urban and suburban teenagers who simply lack the understanding that their pregnancies result in actual living (and legally protected) human beings, not disposable inconveniences.

Oddly enough, my state pioneered the "safe haven" law back in '99, as we were seeing lots of these infant abandonment cases every year...with about 1/3 resulting in mortality. Since then, all the states (except Hawaii and Nebraska) have adopted similar laws that allow mothers to surrender their babies with no questions asked. Sadly, it's reduced the number of babies abandoned, but as we saw yesterday, it hasn't eliminated them entirely. If anything, it compounds the senselessness.

 

[DC_DEEP]

Ah now - come on! Try posting without a politcal agenda for once.

Because of your political agenda, you can't see what's right in front of your face.

My "political agenda" is simply that children should receive a comprehensive education regarding human sexuality. Here's a hypothetical for you:

Two 13-year-old girls, with nearly identical urban middle-class background. Both have parents so ashamed and embarrassed about sex, that they leave it up to the schools to educate their children. One girl attends a school with abstinence-only education (basically consisting of the mantra, "sex is a beautiful thing, but only within the construct of a happy marriage. Otherwise, don't have sex.") The other is in a school with a comprehensive program for teaching human sexuality (consisting of anatomy, physiology, abstinence, contraception, and social responsibility.)

You and I both know that just telling a teen "don't have sex" will not work. It just will not.

When they both become sexually active at age 13, which one do you think is more likely to try to avoid becoming pregnant (i. e., use contraception)? If they both become pregnant, which one do you think is more likely to be socially responsible? What do you think each one would be likely to choose, with the choice of 1) carry to term & keep the baby; 2) carry to term and give the baby up for adoption; 3) get an abortion; or 4) keep it a secret, give birth, and dispose of the neonate?

Everyone knows that the majority of teenage children don't simply do what they are told, especially if it involves something mysterious that adults seem to enjoy. To believe that you can simply tell them "don't have sex until you are married" is ignorant and naive. They need to be given proper tools to make rational decisions, and to understand that breaking the rules can have consequences that have to be dealt with.

It's not much different than the stupid Nancy Reagan "Just say 'no' to drugs" plan.

 

[arliss]

tragic

 

[ManlyBanisters]

I don't have a political agenda on this one - I just don't - the abortion thread is very easy to find - If I want to go political or ethical, in that regard, I can go back in there.

To rob: I don't see that the OP was making a political statement by posting the report - his only comment was 'sick'

To HG: Is the US education system realy that bad? I do find that hard to believe.

To DC: I am very much in favour of sex education - I think it is vital. Check out the kinds of programs used in the Netherlands and look at their extrememly low rate of teenage pregnancy and low rate of abortions - case in point evidence that you and I are both right on that. I also think your example is a little patronising, oversimplified and well beneath your normal standard. Not to mention the fact that you are preaching to the converted. Or maybe you think because I've shown myself to be pro-life in one thread you can extrapolate what all my opinions on a variety of related and marginally related issues will be and have concluded I must be a bit of a simple conservative who needs talking down to. I hope not.

FYI, I am liberal Catholic (note the small 'l' and captial 'C'). Maybe, as HG suggests, I am seeing this from a different pov because I don't have the same insight in to the US system. The cases like this I have heard about in the UK, Ireland and around Europe where the mother has been traced have, as far as I recall, turned out to be cases where the mother abandoning the baby was mentally unstable for one reason or another.

 

[Qua]

One girl attends a school with abstinence-only education (basically consisting of the mantra, "sex is a beautiful thing, but only within the construct of a happy marriage. Otherwise, don't have sex.") The other is in a school with a comprehensive program for teaching human sexuality (consisting of anatomy, physiology, abstinence, contraception, and social responsibility.)

One of the bigger ironies in my sexual education is that I received a comprehensive sex ed class at a Catholic school, one that explained everything well enough to satisfy anyone. Of course it was prefaced and followed by the first example. But they aren't ignorant enough to get off on thinking that the pretty statement is enough. It was actually very clever. They explained all of the anatomy, physiology, etc. explained how all common contraceptives and contraception (not the same thing) work and explained the social responsibility aspect of everyhting, and then explained where Catholic doctrine stands on each of those things. So sure, they denounced the use of condoms and other birth-control devices, but they explained their use and purpose as well. Great way to keep everybody happy, and leave kids with the knowledge they need to form their own opinions. After all, most kids at that school were Catholic in name only, so the administration knew that mere prostheletizing wouldn't get them anywheres.

Just tells you how messed up and girdlocked the national public school system gets with all the conflicting opinions, and the misperception that high school kids should be told how to act sexually, not given the information and logical skills to make informed decisions about such things on their own.

 

[B_Italian1]

Yeah, that's pretty fucked up, eh? It's happened a couple times in the past few years here in my city... one woman gave birth to a baby in a McDonald's toilet.. another girl (teenager) gave birth to a baby without her parents knowledge that she was even pregnant... she claims that the baby was stillborn, so she put him in a backpack and threw him in a nearby dumpster. WTF is wrong with these people?! They have programs ya know... where babies can be dropped off at safe locations with no repercussions on behalf of the mother. *sigh*

This is what I find so appalling. Put it on someone's doorstep or somewhere where it can be found. Treating a baby like trash is the worst.

Proof-positive that abstinence-only and pronatalist programs are working just dandy!

Nothing works with kids these days. Britney's little sis got preggers. I'm sure she knew all about condoms, the pill, and the birds and the bees. They don't give a crap.

Assuming the OP was made with a political agenda in mind, responding in kind is appropriate.

I saw it and posted it because it's tragic. It had nothing to do with the abortion thread or any political agenda. It's just one of those things you hear about, shake your head, and wonder what led to it. You hear about kittens and puppies thrown in dumpsters and that's quite sickening, but when it's an infant.

 

[findfirefox]

Nothing works with kids these days. Britney's little sis got preggers. I'm sure she knew all about condoms, the pill, and the birds and the bees. They don't give a crap.

That is absolutely ludicrous, "kids these days" are just as responsive as past generations, the proof is in statistics. Teen pregnancies in the US have been trending downward until 2005r, we must look into what changed in the last year that caused teen pregnancies to increase (the first time since 1991 mind you) [Source WARNING PDF: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf ]

I wonder if has anything to do with the fact the abstinence only education is continuing to be funded in the United States even though congressional studies were able to find their effects harmful Abstinence education was found to damage education about contraceptives, in other words teens were just as likely to have too have sex but less likely to use contraceptives.

 

[HazelGod]

To HG: Is the US education system realy that bad? I do find that hard to believe.

Believe it, doll. It's that bad...and largely for the reasons DC_DEEP mentions.

 

[B_Italian1]

That is absolutely ludicrous, "kids these days" are just as responsive as past generations, the proof is in statistics. Teen pregnancies in the US have been trending downward until 2005r, we must look into what changed in the last year that caused teen pregnancies to increase (the first time since 1991 mind you) [Source WARNING PDF: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf ]

I wonder if has anything to do with the fact the abstinence only education is continuing to be funded in the United States even though congressional studies were able to find their effects harmful Abstinence education was found to damage education about contraceptives, in other words teens were just as likely to have too have sex but less likely to use contraceptives.

Young people have minds of their own. Whether their sex education is abstinence only, contraceptives only, or a combo of both, they are still going to do what they want to do. They are out of control and it's up to their parents to set them straight, not the government or the schools. There is no longer a stigma attached to being an unwed mother. Kids are having more sex today because the morals are looser which usually is fueled by the media. They have grown up watching "Beverly Hills 90210", "Dawson's Creek", and the "OC". The more sex they have, the more likely a pregnancy is going to occur. It's no different than adults who have sex. Adults supposedly know everything about sex and have access to birth control, but they have unexpected pregnancies from hookups and even when they're in relationships. Nobody is putting a gun to the heads of these children and forcing them to have sex. They know exactly what they are doing and the consequences.