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Cellphone For A Six-Day-Old Baby?
I can hear Henny Youngman — “Take my son — please!” — only this is no joke. A young couple in Southwestern China actually sold their six-day-old son for slightly less than $400 in order to buy a cellular phone. Now there’s a couple of kids — he’s 21 and she’s 19 — with some mixed up values. I would have held out for enough to buy a laptop at the very least.
“I have no job and cannot support myself, let alone the baby,” the father reportedly said. He also noted that he didn’t want the baby back. The mother has said she would take the baby and raise him, but the police aren’t sure she will be able to do so successfully. After she sold, or at least allowed the father to sell the baby, I don’t think she should be allowed anywhere near any kids. In fact, if it were up to me, the two of them wouldn’t even get to see the light of day very often.
I used to joke around a lot when people would say how great my oldest son was, asking if they wanted him, until one time he asked me why I was always trying to give him away. I explained that I was just kidding and that I’d never actually give him away, but ever since, I’ve tried to avoid such jokes, especially when the kids are around. This couple in China actually went through with it, if the reports are correct. I can barely imagine the utter lack of respect for human life that it would take to sell a baby. I am very glad that people took action and reported what was going on.
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4 Comments
Ali commented on Dec 11 09 at 8:04 pmThis happens every day all over China. Poor people need money to live, they sell the kids they cant keep. It sucks but it is life in a developing nation.
Knitty commented on Dec 12 09 at 10:59 amI would agree with everything you said if this were a couple in the States, but this is China. Do you have any idea what sort of poverty the rural people live in? And what happens to the girl babies? Is the US I’d call it “mixed up values,” sure… in rural China, I’d call it the desperation of poverty.
Laure68 commented on Dec 12 09 at 1:00 pmI agree with the previous comments. Not only because of poverty but also because of China’s one-child policy, kids are abandoned (or worse) all the time. We can’t expect them to have the same “values” that we have, because they don’t have the same choices.
I’d like to add that I have occasionally seen posts like this on Babble. (Judging something that happens in a different country.) It just shows how isolated and privileged we are here in the US.
fuschiafinn commented on Dec 15 09 at 12:14 pmI’m going to have to disagree with the previous commenters somewhat. If the couple had purchased food, paid their rent or even given the money to family, I would be more sympathetic. But I’m hard pressed to believe that a cell phone is a necessity worthy of selling your child. I’ll give you that the value system may be different elsewhere in the world and that poverty makes people do things they wouldn’t normally. But the idea that its ok to sell your kid if your in China, poor and really want a cell phone, is a scary one.
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