The easiest way to get rid of a baby is to kill it, as evinced by the many reports of dumpster babies, of baby corpses, and of babies being flushed down sewage pipes. Following that is abandonment; people leave their babies on streets, at the doors of strangers, or at churches. Most times, babies that have been abandoned die before being found. They are left outdoors, vulnerable, defenceless, and hungry; many die of the cold. Throughout the ages, there have been attempts to protect the lives of these innocent, abandoned babies, the latest being that of the baby hatch, as seen in the documentary ‘The Drop Box”. In the documentary, Pastor Lee Jong Rak of Jusarang Church has a box in the wall installed. The box is ventilated, cushioned, and kept
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The foundling wheel was the original version of the baby hatch. Originating in the Middle Ages, the foundling wheel was much like a revolving door behind a glass window; mothers would put their babies in the revolving cylinder through the window, and spin the cylinder such that the child faced the inside of the church, and ring the bell to announce the baby’s presence. Baby hatches or foundling wheels are found all over the world, in Europe, Canada, USA and Africa, not just in Asia. The maintenance of a baby hatch system is hardly an easy one. It is hard work. In most places where there are baby hatches installed, they are not funded by the government, and receive no help whatsoever from the government. The caregivers, in the case of the film, Pastor Lee and his wife, obviously spend a fortune on raising and caring for the children. Normal babies require clothes, milk powder and diaper, which would be easy enough for the couple to manage. But then, there are the disabled children who would require so much more. Aside from the financial cost of raising so many orphans, there is the physical toll on the Pastor and his wife. In the documentary, Pastor Lee says he is always on alert, ready to react immediately to the bell announcing the arrival of another baby; he does not get sufficient sleep, and has developed many health problems,
The foundling wheel was the original version of the baby hatch. Originating in the Middle Ages, the foundling wheel was much like a revolving door behind a glass window; mothers would put their babies in the revolving cylinder through the window, and spin the cylinder such that the child faced the inside of the church, and ring the bell to announce the baby’s presence. Baby hatches or foundling wheels are found all over the world, in Europe, Canada, USA and Africa, not just in Asia. The maintenance of a baby hatch system is hardly an easy one. It is hard work. In most places where there are baby hatches installed, they are not funded by the government, and receive no help whatsoever from the government. The caregivers, in the case of the film, Pastor Lee and his wife, obviously spend a fortune on raising and caring for the children. Normal babies require clothes, milk powder and diaper, which would be easy enough for the couple to manage. But then, there are the disabled children who would require so much more. Aside from the financial cost of raising so many orphans, there is the physical toll on the Pastor and his wife. In the documentary, Pastor Lee says he is always on alert, ready to react immediately to the bell announcing the arrival of another baby; he does not get sufficient sleep, and has developed many health problems,