- Title: GERMANY: SOCIAL WORKERS OPEN CONTROVERSIAL "BABY BANK" IN HAMBURG.
- Date: 9th March 2000
- Summary: HAMBURG, GERMANY (MARCH 8, 2000)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. CU/PAN/GV/CU: "FINDELKIND" SIGN OUTSIDE CLINIC (3 SHOTS) 0.13 2. MV: VARIOUS WOMAN WITH DOLL WRAPPED IN BLANKET SHOWING HOW BABY LETTER BOX WORKS 0.30 3. CU/MV/PAN: "FINDELKIND" PROJECT MANAGER HEIDI ROSENFELD TAKES DOLL OUT OF COT AND CARRIES IT AWAY (2 SHOTS) 0.45 4. GV/MV/CU: VARIOUS CHILDREN'S PLAY GROUP IN KINDERGARTEN BELONGING TO "FINDELKIND" (4 SHOTS) 1.20 5. CU: SOUNDBITE (German) PROJECT LEADER HEIDI ROSENFELD: "No woman gives away her child light-heartedly. A woman only ever gives up her baby in a real panic situation where she has no alternative. Every baby whose life we save justifies our work. We would rather accept 10 more children than see one die." 1.49 6. MV: VARIOUS OF PLAYING CHILDREN (2 SHOTS) 2.03 BERLIN, GERMANY (MARCH 8, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. GV/CU: VARIOUS EXTERIOR BERLIN OFFICE OF GERMAN CHILDREN WELFARE ASSOCIATION WHICH ENDORSES THE SCENE (3 SHOTS) 2.19 HAMBURG, GERMANY (MARCH 8, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. GV: PEDESTRIAN ZONE 2.26 9. CU: SOUNDBITE (German) SHOPPER SUSANNE FELDMANN: "I think the idea is very good. One can prevent babies from being abandoned. Women do not abandon their babies voluntarily but must be very desperate to take such a step." 2.44 10. CU: SOUNDBITE (German) UNNAMED SHOPPER: "I read it in the paper. t reminds me of garbage cans or recycling bins. On one hand I do not like it, on the other there are many young mothers that have no other choice." 3.06 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 24th March 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HAMBURG AND BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAA6KWKQFM77N6FY3XMB7EJH3M1
- Story Text: Social workers in the German city of Hamburg have
opened a controversial "baby bank" to allow despairing mothers
to post unwanted infants through a letterbox day and night.
The scheme, opened close to the notorious "Reeperbahn"
red light district, is a bid to halt a spate of abandoned
newborns in the port city but has been attacked as making it
too easy for women to shrug their responsibility as mothers.
Under complete anonymity, a mother can pass a child
through a secure letter-box into a crib within the social
centre that is backing the scheme.An alarm is set off to
assure the child is attended to within 10 minutes.
"A woman only ever gives up her baby in a real panic
situation where she has no alternative," project leader Heidi
Rosenfeld said on Wednesday.
"Every baby whose life we save justifies our work," she
said, adding the mother had eight weeks to return and collect
the baby before adoption was considered.
The scheme is not wholly original.In 1709, a rich Dutch
philanthropist offered a similar service, also in Hamburg.
That scheme had to be closed after a year as people started
bringing in increasingly older children.
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