South Africa’s Times newspaper reported today on a controversial new scheme in Cape Town that allows parents to leave unwanted babies anonymously in a “baby safe” mounted on an exterior wall of a community center.
The initiative was launched last week by charity worker Kim Highfield. “Less than 10 seconds after a baby is placed in the metal structure, which is lined with a baby blanket and pillow, an alarm is triggered inside the building”, the Times reported.
“Child welfare experts agree that, though Highfield means well, her initiative could increase baby abandonment and create a myriad of legal and social problems.”
Nobody has yet made use of the safe, but the newspaper reports that about 101 babies have been deposited in a similar facility in Johannesburg since January 2007.
Related historical trivia: In 1670, France’s Louis XIV opened the Foundling Hospital to house abandoned children. In the first year, 312 children were dropped off; by the end of the eighteenth century more than 6,000 children were admitted each year. Five children that were abandoned, as Voltaire noted, belonged to philosopher/cretin Jean-Jacques Rousseau. ( Source)
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
