Baby box

The baby box can have a different design (a “safe” with doors on both sides, such as an “aquarium”, etc.), but its operation scheme is stated to be the same:

1. It is located where there are no windows or video surveillance cameras to preserve the anonymity of the person who brought the child, and to relieve him of any responsibility ,
2. Information posters should be located next to him, indicating where the young mother can get help in a difficult situation.
3. From the side of the street there is an unclosed door in which a person puts a born child.
4. After some time (usually called 30 seconds) after closing, the door locks and cannot be opened from the outside. Immediately, a signal is sent to the remote control for the baby box that the child is in the receiver. In some regions, automatic sending of SMS messages to the project manager is practiced.
5. Immediately after receiving a signal to the child, specialists who conduct honey should go. inspection. Police officers are also invited to properly formalize the child. Then the child is transferred to take care of him to the guardianship authorities .

The return of the child is possible until he is adopted , if his mother brought him to the baby box. In this case, a genetic examination is carried out , and when the relationship is confirmed, the child returns to the mother ^[1] .

This design became widespread in the Middle Ages. , and was also used in the 18th and 19th centuries and was called the “stroller” for foundlings. Since the end of the XIX century, this system was abolished, and began to be used again only in 1952. , received the name "receiver for foundlings". Since 2000, this project has been implemented in many countries, having received special distribution in Germany, where at present there are about 100 such "receivers", and in Pakistan, where there are about 300 of them.

In German-speaking countries, such a “receiver” is called the “window of life”, “baby box” or “an anonymous receiver for foundlings,” in Italian, “the cradle of life” (Culla per la vita), in Sicilian, the “wheel” (la ruota ), in Japanese - “cradle of a stork”, or “baby mail”, in Chinese - “island of child rescue” (or “child safety”), in Polish - “window of life” .

The foundry compartments have existed in one form or another for centuries. This system was widespread in the Middle Ages.

Italy

The first "foundling wheel" was created in Italy in 1198. Pope Innocent III recognized that such facilities should be organized at shelters so that mothers can anonymously leave their child and not kill him (especially often babies were drowned in the Tiber River). The foundry compartment was a cylindrical device mounted on the exterior wall of a building, like a revolving door. The mother put the child in the cylinder, rotated it so that the child was inside the church, and then rang the bell to notify the caretakers. This system is described in detail in the novel by Angelo Coniglio “Lady of the Wheel”, which tells about the events in Sicily in the 19th century. One of these devices has survived to the present in the hospital of the Holy Spirit in the Vatican, where it was used from the Middle Ages to the XIX century.

Germany

In Hamburg, the first such wheel was installed by a Dutch merchant in 1709 in an orphanage. In 1712, the wheel was removed, since the number of children planted in this way was so great that the shelter could not support them. Similar "wheels" were also installed in Kassel (1764) and in Mainz (1811) .

France

In France, “turntables for foundlings” (tours d'abandon, abandonment wheel) were created by Vincent de Paul , who organized the first children's shelter in Paris in 1638. Such turntables were legalized by an imperial decree on January 19, 1811, and according to the writer Anna Martin-Fougeres, their number in France reached 251. Such turntables were installed at hospitals such as the hospital for street children in Paris. Despite the fact that the number of children tossed in this way reached tens of thousands a year, economic problems forced the abolition of the “turntables” in 1863 and replaced them with “foster care departments,” where mothers could abandon the children anonymously and get advice. Officially, “turntables for foundlings” were abolished on June 27, 1904. At present, in France, women can anonymously give birth in hospitals (the concept of “ anonymous birth ”) and leave the baby there.

Portugal

In Brazil and Portugal, such turntables (“roda dos expostos” - “turntable for those left to their own devices”) began to be widely used after Queen Mary I announced on May 24, 1783, that hospitals for street children should appear in all cities. One such example is the pinwheel installed at the Santa Casa de Misericordia hospital in Sao Paulo on July 2, 1825; it ceased to exist only on June 5, 1949 after five years of debate about its incompatibility with the principles of the modern social system. The Brazilian film Pinwheel for the Outcast, directed by Maria Emilia de Atsevedo, was awarded the Best Cinematography Award for Short Films at the Gramado Festival in 2001 ^[2] .

UK

In Britain and Ireland, foundlings were brought to shelters that received tax funding for the poor. There were also shelters in London and Dublin; the Dublin Hospital for Foundlings established a turntable for foundlings in 1730, and as an excerpt from the Board Meeting Book shows :

Hu (Butler) Armach, the Archbishop of Ireland, orders that a spinning wheel or other device for the reception of infants and children be installed near the gate of the workhouse, so that at any time, day or night, the child can be put in this device and found caretaker of the above institution.

Turntables for foundlings were abolished in Dublin in 1826, after the closure of the Dublin hospital due to high infant mortality.

The first modern baby box was created in Germany in Alton on April 11, 2000 after a series of deaths among children in 1999, abandoned and found dead from adverse environmental influences. . By 2010, 38 children were thrown into the Baby Found box in Hamburg, 14 of which were subsequently returned to their mothers.

In the past, one of the main reasons for abandoning a child was his birth outside of marriage. At present, baby boxes are designed for mothers who, for various reasons, cannot take care of the child and want to remain anonymous. In some countries, for example, in Germany there is no law allowing a mother to give birth anonymously, and thus baby boxes are the only way to secretly leave her baby in a safe place so that they can be taken care of later.

In India and Pakistan, the main goal of baby boxes is to reduce the incidence of infanticide by women due to various socio-economic factors, one of which is the high cost of ransom for the bride.

Some legal issues in the application of baby boxes are related to the right of children to self-identification, guaranteed by Art. 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the inalienable right to life guaranteed by Art. 6. Baby boxes also deprive fathers of the right to find out what happened to their children, although genetic testing is one way to solve this problem.

• Austria - In Austria, the law defines children tossed in baby boxes as foundlings. The local office of social services for children and adolescents, “Jugendwohlfahrt” (“minors' care”), takes care of the child for the first six months and then passes it on for adoption. In 2005, baby boxes existed in 6 cities; since 2001, women have been granted the right to anonymous childbirth.

• Belgium - there are no baby boxes, throwing up children is illegal, but in practice such children are assigned to foster care and they can be adopted after a few months. Thus, there is no law defining legal norms in the field of thrown children. Even the dissemination of information on this topic is considered to be “advertising of throwing up children”, and those responsible for the existence of baby boxes are prosecuted by Belgian law. The Moeders voor Moeders (Mothers for Mothers) association established the first baby box (babyschuif) Borgerhout near Antwerp in 2000. It is known under the name "Moeder Mozes Mandje" - "the basket of the mother of Moses." Since its inception, 2 unidentified children (Thomas and Michael) have been found in baby boxing. The other newborn (Marieke) was saved after his mother dialed an ambulance phone during childbirth.

• United Kingdom - In the UK, baby boxes do not exist, as they are illegal. According to section 27 of the Crimes Against the Person Act of 1861, the law defines the mother who left her child under two years old as the person who committed the crime and that in turn threatens her with a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years. In practice, such prosecutions are extremely rare and apply only if the child was abandoned with malicious intent, that is, with the intention of harming the health and life of the child. A mother who wishes to abandon her newborn and give him up for adoption can do this. The counseling service was created specifically so that such a statement by the mother was her true desire and was considered an irrevocable decision.

• Hungary - there are about a dozen baby boxes, often open at hospitals, the first of which was opened in 1996 at the Shopf-Merey Agost hospital in Budapest.

• Germany - baby boxes have existed since 2000, in 2005 there were about 100 such institutions throughout the country. Prior to this, the mother who abandoned her child was prosecuted. Despite this, according to German social law, parents are allowed to leave their child in the care of a third party for up to three weeks if, for example, the parent is in the hospital. After 8 weeks, social services for minors' rights should be notified. German law treats a child left in a baby box as being left in the care of a third party. This loophole is very controversial and is the subject of lively discussions, as in Germany there were cases when children with limited legal capacity or children older than three months were left in baby boxes. Numerous attempts have been made to clarify the legal status of children left in baby boxes, but so far this issue has not been fully clarified.

• India - In the state of Tamil Nadu, in 1994, the first baby box was opened by the then Prime Minister of the country, Jayar Jayalalita , to prevent infanticide. Children thrown in this way are called “Thottil Kuzhanthai” (“children from the cradle”), their upbringing and education is funded by the state. In 2002, an e-cradle (“interactive cradle”) scheme was introduced in southern India after a thrown up newborn baby was torn to pieces by dogs on a street near Trivandrum Medical College.

• Italy - there are about 8 baby boxes organized by the Life Movement. In December 2006, a modern baby box was installed at the Policlinico Casilino in Rome, and in February 2007 he adopted the first child to be planted. It is also planned to install another baby box at the Santo Spirito hospital in the Vatican, in the homeland of one of the first turntables of life.

• Canada - in May 2010 St. Paul in Vancouver announced his intention to open the first Canadian "angelic cradle."

• The Netherlands - in 2003, it was planned to open a babyluik in Amsterdam, but was not carried out due to active opposition protests. Health Minister Clémence Ross has outlawed baby boxes.

• Pakistan - The Edhi organization has about 300 centers offering so-called jhoola services, which are said to have saved about 16,000 lives; jhoola is a metal hanging crib made of light metal with a mattress, into which a child can be planted, located outside the walls of the center. The abandonment of the child may be accompanied by a ringing of a bell, and the cradle is checked hourly.

• Poland - in 2012, baby boxes were opened in 47 cities.

• Russia - there is no federal law regulating the installation and operation of baby boxes. ^[3] At the same time, many specialized structures and organizations establish baby boxes on their territory. Since 2011, baby boxes have been installed at medical institutions and religious organizations in Krasnodar, Perm, Kamchatka, Stavropol Territories, Vladimir, Kaliningrad, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Pskov, Sverdlovsk Regions, Tatarstan. ^[3]

• Slovakia - operates 16 baby boxes in 15 cities across the country. Between December 2004 ^{[ specify ]} when the first baby box was opened and in April 2004 ^{[ specify ]} 30 babies were planted.

• USA - the concept of "baby box" as such does not exist. However, almost all states have introduced the concept of the Safe Harbor Act (first Texas State on September 1, 1999), which allows parents to legally anonymously abandon their newborn child (no older than 72 hours) in certain designated places called “safe haven” such as fire stations and hospitals. This law has a different name in different states, for example, the California Child Safety Act, and different age restrictions. For example, the Nebraska Safe Harbor Act has no age limit, allowing any child under the age of 18 to be abandoned, but the law was repealed in November 2008.

• Philippines - San Jose Hospital in Manila, founded in 1810 and run by the sisters of mercy Saint Vincent de Paul, is equipped with a rotating carousel with the words "Abandoned children are welcome here."

• FRANCE - On September 2, 1941, a legal decree on birth protection was adopted, allowing women to give birth anonymously. It was this law, slightly modified, that became the prototype of the modern Law on anonymous birth (accouchement sous X), which is prescribed in the French Civil and Family Code (Art. 222-6). It applies to children under the age of one year. In 2003, the European Court of Human Rights approved the law, stating that it does not contradict the European Convention on Human Rights.

• Czech Republic - Czech Republic The Ministry of Social Policy in 2006 approved the legal status of baby boxes in accordance with Czech law. Contrary to this law, in March 2006, police officer Anna Piskova announced on Czech television that the police would search for mothers tossing children. Ludwik Hess, head of the Czech organization of baby boxes Statim, filed a complaint against this statement and received official support from Save the Children. The first baby box was opened in July 2005 in Prague by the Babybox - Statim organization, and as early as March 2006, 3 children were thrown into it. In December 2007, there were 5 baby boxes in the republic; it is planned to open 4 more baby boxes in 2008. During the period 2005-2007, ten children were thrown into baby boxes, seven of which were in Prague. Some were returned to their mothers or received a birth certificate. As of December 2011, there are 47 baby boxes in the country, most of which are located in large cities. Currently, 62 children have been rescued in this way. One of the baby boxes was used for its intended purpose 13 times. The UN questioned the legitimacy of baby boxes, criticizing a large number of group houses (a home for cohabiting “difficult” and homeless teenagers and young people) and violating the rights of the child.

• Switzerland - One baby box was opened in the Einsiedeln hospital on May 9, 2001.

• South Africa , a non-profit organization, Doors of Hope, established an “opening in the wall” in August 2000 at a church in Johannesburg. By March 2011, about 96 babies were planted.

• Japan - abandonment of a child is punishable by imprisonment of up to five years. In 2006, officials at Jikei University Hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture announced the creation of a “cradle of storks” in an attempt to reduce the number of street children and abortions. As of November 26, 2009, 51 children were thus admitted. This system works under the supervision of a specially created committee, which notes that the recognition of anonymous children can adversely affect the moral identity of the nation.

• Archakova T.O. Practice of anonymous abandonment of a newborn child in Europe and the USA: a variety of approaches // Social Psychology and Society . - 2012. - No. 4 .

• The official text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Russian (UN General Assembly resolution 44/25 of November 20, 1989)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child , New York, November 20, 1989
• What is baby boxing? (unspecified) . TASS (2016). Date of treatment December 20, 2016.