Baby hatch

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Baby hatch
The baby hatch on Mengstrasse in Lübeck has been in a private house since 2000

A baby hatch , even Baby Nest , bassinets , baby window or turning loader ( Italian Torno ) called, is a device with which newborns anonymously will be issued at an institution. The newborn baby can be placed in a warming bed through a flap. As soon as the hatch is closed, an electronic alarm calls for help so that the child can be looked after.

A characteristic of the auxiliary concept of the baby flaps is that they offer the possibility to give up a child and that care is taken both for the health of the child and for the anonymity of the mother. Many institutions put in the flap (mostly multilingual) information material in which the affected mother is offered anonymous advice.

Baby flaps have been around since the 12th century. In various countries, modern baby flaps have been in operation since the beginning of the 21st century for different motivations and interests. According to the operating institutions, their aim is to prevent the release or killing of newborns . Baby flaps are controversial, both legally and morally and with regard to their usefulness.

history

Rotary cylinder for dropping off children at the Ospedale degli Innocenti

So-called foundlings were taken in by foundling homes and orphanages centuries ago . One of the oldest “baby flaps” is still visible today at the Italian Hospital Santo Spirito . Pope Innocent III at the end of the 12th century was the first to have so-called rotating shops ( Torno in Italian ) attached to the gates of the foundling houses ( which were numerous at the time, especially in the Romanic countries) . The first turntable was built in 1198 in the Hospital of the Holy Spirit ( Ospedale di Santo Spirito ) in Rome. In the 14th century the foundling houses of the Santissima Annunziata in Naples and the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence were donated; Both have a rotating wooden cylinder ( Ruota in Italian ), on which infants could be handed in anonymously until 1875.

In Hamburg, in 1709, a rotating drawer was set up in the local orphanage, expressly to prevent child murder, but it was closed again in 1714 due to the great "success" (more than 200 children given in one year).

Johann Georg Krünitz describes a corresponding device in his Oeconomic Encyclopedia with these words:

“At the foundling homes, the arrangement is made so that the children are placed in a certain rotating cabinet, roll or cylinder, called a torno, and the same is turned over so that the child comes to lie inside the house. Then one pulls the bell or bell there and walks away; because the child is immediately received by the guards who are on duty at this given sign. Imaginary container or torno, which is fastened in the wall to an iron spindle; generally looks like a large grain shepherd and can be turned around as soon as the lid is removed. "

And elsewhere he adds:

"The torno at the Hamburg foundling = and orphanage has the following strange heading:
Let the child murder not be perpetrated in the future,
Which is often told by the tyrannical hand of the mother, Who,
as it were, throws Moloch's rage over her child,
Is this torno here forever erect. ANNO 1709. "

There were also forerunners of the baby hatch in Kassel (1764) and Mainz (1811). In Mainz she was in a midwifery institution , the so-called Triller .

In 1811, Emperor Napoleon I decreed that foundling houses equipped in this way should be built in all French departments. In the Middle Ages, the rotating drawer was often misused by abandoning sick children there. Even married people who could have raised their child gave it up there out of poverty. In 1906 there were still 464 rotating shops in Italy. The last rotating shops are said to have been closed in Toledo in 1913, in Warsaw in 1939 and in Cuba in 1952.

functionality

The newborn baby can be placed anonymously in a warming bed through a flap or a door. Some devices can be opened with a button. The warming bed is constantly heated to a temperature of 37 degrees. The opening closes very slowly on its own if it is not closed by hand. The closed baby flap is locked to protect the child. In some facilities the helper system is informed when the door opens, in others as soon as the door is closed. A message is forwarded with a delay as a silent alarm . The specialist staff notified by the silent alarm can now take care of the baby found. The baby is in safe hands and receives immediate medical attention.

In some baby flaps there is a form on which the name of the newborn can be entered. The mother can leave passwords and anonymous identification tags, which are kept in sealed envelopes. They should enable later identification and contact. In some institutions, the mothers are asked to take a hand or footprint of the child using a stamp pad in order to ensure recognition if the mother wants to contact them later.

Baby flaps in different countries

Germany

Baby flap illuminated at night at the Dortmund children's clinic

The first modern baby flaps in Germany were installed in Hamburg and Lübeck in 2000 and in September by Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin as the first German hospital, and in 2001 in Karlsruhe and other cities, since child abandonment is still relevant to a certain extent, as the historian Wolfgang Reinhard suspects . They consist of a warming bed into which the baby can be placed from outside. A silent alarm is triggered with a time delay that gives the person placing the insert the opportunity to leave undetected and thus preserve their anonymity. He calls in specialist staff to take care of the foundling.

In Hamburg there have been baby flaps in three places since 2000. By early 2020, 56 children had been placed there, 16 of whom were later brought back by their mothers. The second city in Germany with a baby hatch was Lübeck . By August 2020, 22 newborns had been placed there, one of the children was later taken back by the parents.

Between 2000 and 2009, around 80 baby flaps were created in Germany. According to Terre des Hommes , 38 children were abandoned elsewhere in 2008, eight of whom were found alive. By the end of 2009, at least 209 children had been given or left at 98 baby hatches and comparable facilities in Germany, some with the option of anonymous birth . By January 2012, there were 278 discarded children, 652 anonymous births and 43 anonymous handovers.

Alternatives

In the pregnancy conflict counseling service there is the possibility to discuss economic questions about pregnancy.

Since 1999, the church and independent organizations of the pregnant women, children and youth welfare as well as hospitals offer the possibility of anonymous child surrender in Germany. There are four different models for the anonymous delivery of an infant: the anonymous child delivery to another person, the baby hatch, the anonymous birth and the confidential birth . In all cases, the child is first taken to foster parents.

Legal evaluation

According to Section 16 of the Personal Status Act (PStG), the birth of a child must be reported to the registry office within one week, and the mother's name must always be given ( Section 21 (1) No. 1 PStG). The violation of the duty to notify is basically an administrative offense and can also constitute a criminal offense of falsifying personal status in the form of suppressing personal status according to Section 169 of the Criminal Code. In addition to mother and father, all persons who were present at the delivery are required to notify according to Section 17 of the PStG. Criminal liability can also exist according to § 170 StGB (violation of the maintenance obligation ) and does not apply until adoption. Whether the act is justified by the justifying state of emergency under the StGB is controversial. (see: Anonymous birth # Germany )

So far, several attempts to achieve a legal regulation for the handling of baby hatches and the children deposited there have failed. Obstacles for the proposed regulation were family and constitutional concerns, which saw the personal rights of the anonymously given children threatened, because it is a fundamental right of every child to know his true origin. For this reason, some parties are calling for the baby hatches to be closed and for other solutions to be found instead.

Austria

In Austria , the first baby hatch was opened in Vienna in autumn 2000 . There are currently baby flaps in Vienna, St. Pölten , Wiener Neustadt , Klagenfurt , St. Veit an der Glan , Villach , Wolfsberg , Graz , Salzburg , Hallein , Lienz , Linz , Wels , Vöcklabruck , Ried and Bregenz . With two to three times a year, they are used much less often than anonymous deliveries , which occur 30 to 40 times a year.

Switzerland

In Switzerland , the first baby window was opened in 2001 at Einsiedeln Hospital . Eight children had been handed in there by February 2012. In June 2012, Davos Hospital opened a baby window, in June 2013 the Cantonal Hospital Olten and in November 2013 the Lindenhof Hospital in Bern. In 2014 the Zollikerberg Hospital in the Canton of Zurich and the San Giovanni Hospital in Bellinzona also opened a baby window.

The baby windows are financed by the Swiss Aid for Mother and Child (SHMK), a foundation that works against abortion . The SHMK also pays for the follow-up costs that arise from giving up a child. The costs per case are between 10,000 and 20,000 Swiss francs and arise primarily from the time the child is placed with foster parents until the adoption is completed.

There has been a baby hatch in Basel since 2015 and the eighth baby hatch in Switzerland has been in Sion since 2016 . From 2001 to 2019, 24 babies were given.

Other countries

  • Belgium - the Federation of Dutch Moeders voor Moeders 'Mothers for Mothers' installed the first Dutch babyschuif 'Babyrutsche or Babyklappe' in Antwerp - Borgerhout in 2000 . It is called in Dutch Moeder Mozes Mandje 'basket of mother Moses' . No babies were placed in the baby hatch in the first three years.
  • People's Republic of China
  • Britain does not have baby hatches ; they are illegal there under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 . A mother who abandons a child under two years old can face up to five years in prison. The operator of a baby hatch would assist in the act.
  • Italy - Italy has around a dozen “Movement for Life” baby flaps.
  • Japan - Plans of the Catholic Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto to set up a baby hatch ( Japanese 赤 ち ゃ ん ポ ス ト akachan posuto ) with the name “Storchenwiege” ( Japanese コ ウ ノ ト リ の ゆ り か ご kōnotori no yurikago ) led to political discussions in 2007. The Japanese Minister of Health Hakuo Yanagisawa saw no legal means to prevent the plans of the hospital, which had informed itself in advance about baby hatches in Germany. In April 2007, the city approved the hospital to install a baby hatch, which went into operation on May 15, 2007. A total of 144 babies had been given up there by the end of March 2019.
  • Netherlands - In 2003, plans to install a babyluik in Amsterdam failed after violent protests. The Dutch Minister of Health Clémence Ross said baby hatches were illegal.
  • Pakistan - The Edhi Foundation has about 250 bodies that one jhoola-Offer service. Ajhoolais a suspended cradle with a mattress that stands in front of places where mothers can leave their children anonymously. There's a bell; Staff members check the cradle once an hour.
  • Poland - The First Window of Life ( Polish Okno życia ) was introduced in Krakow in 2006. The second followed in 2008 in Warsaw, and in November 2010 another was added in Szczecin.
  • Philippines - The Hospicio de San Jose in Manila , founded in 1810 and operated by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, has a "rotating cradle" labeled " Abandoned Babies Received Here ".
  • Slovakia - The hniezdo záchrany was introduced in Slovakia in 2005. By 2012, 35 children had been filed. As an alternative, anonymous birth is offered in Slovakia. 170 children were born in the same period. Due to concerns of the UN, which sees the child's right to biological identity robbed of the baby hatch, the baby hatch is to be re-evaluated in 2013.
Baby hatch in the Czech Republic
  • South Africa - In 2000 the non-profit organization " Door Of Hope " installed a "hole in the wall" at Mission Church in Johannesburg . By June 2004, about 30 infants had been left there.
  • Czech Republic - Babybox-Statim established the first baby hatch in 2005 in Prague . 192 infants had been placed there by June 2019.
  • Hungary - There are around a dozen baby hatches in Hungary, most of them in hospitals. The first was set up in 1996 at the Schöpf Mérei Ágost Hospital in Budapest .
  • Vatican City - In 2006 a modern baby hatch was installed at the Santo Spirito Hospital in the Vatican.
  • United States - Baby hatches are not known in the United States; however, 47 states introduced safe haven laws , starting with Texas on September 1, 1999. Parents are then allowed to leave their newborns (younger than 72 hours) anonymously at safe havens such as fire stations or hospitals.

Risks

In addition to possible medical dangers for mother and child before, during and after an unsupervised birth, the baby flap can harbor risks for the infant due to technical failure. One case became known in Germany: In January 2008, a frozen baby was found in front of the Friederikenstift private baby hatch in Hanover . The door had probably warped and the mother wouldn't open it. The child put this in front of the hatch when it was cold, which was very difficult to see and was not monitored by cameras.

Discourse in Germany

The motivation of the providers of baby hatches is cited as an attempt to avoid child abandonment or killing through anonymous child adoption . However, a causality cannot be proven, an actual link is sometimes doubted by the technical experts. In medicine, it is argued that with a neonaticide (killing a newborn) in many cases there are no warning signs indicating the impending killing. This makes it difficult to find alternative countermeasures to save the lives of the newborns. The lack of warning signals is therefore one reason why, despite all the arguments against them, baby hatches are still being considered as a possible life-saving measure. According to a study by the German Youth Institute with the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute, practically every woman who later kills or abandons her child has suppressed her previous pregnancy and panic.

At the end of November 2009, the German Ethics Council recommended that the existing offers of baby hatches and anonymous births be abandoned. They are "ethically and legally very problematic" because they violate in particular the child's right to know his or her origin. Experience also suggests that women who are at risk of killing or abandoning their newborns are often not reached by the offers. The public agencies of child and youth welfare as well as independent organizations provided “an extensive range of effective assistance for women even in extreme emergencies”, in which the child's origin is not unknown. The Council recommends expanding these offers and providing more information about them. Further measures are required.

Some critics see the baby hatch concept as a failure and criticize the fact that the number of abandoned children has not decreased despite the introduction of baby hatches and other offers for anonymous birth. The killing of a newborn follows a different psychodynamics than the planned abandonment of a child in the flap or its anonymous birth in a clinic. Instead, baby flaps are used by parents who would otherwise have given their child up for adoption on a regular basis. Baby flaps and facilities for anonymous birth made it possible "for this group of people to evade parental responsibility in the simplest possible way".

Sascha Braun, legal advisor of the Police Union (GdP), on the other hand, points out that "the existence of baby flaps can even exacerbate the situation of some desperate mothers ". The baby hatches have made it easier for the criminal courts to assess the internal deliberation process of a mother who killed her newborn.

literature

  • Werner Beulke : Can the baby flap still be saved? In: Holm Putzke , Bernhard Hardtung, Tatjana Hörnle u. a .: Criminal Law between System and Telos, Festschrift for Rolf Dietrich Herzberg on his seventieth birthday on February 14, 2008. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149570-0 , pp. 605 ff.
  • Daniel Elbel: Legal assessment of anonymous birth and child handover: with special consideration of the basic rights dogmatics of defense rights and duty to protect. Frank & Timme, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86596-132-7 (also dissertation at the University of Potsdam 2006).
  • Winfried Hassemer, Lutz Eidam : Baby flaps and the Basic Law. Using the example of the “Findelbaby” project in Hamburg. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8329-6945-5 .
  • Markus Lehmkuhl: Baby flaps in the German press ( memento from October 16, 2011 on WebCite ), 2011 ( study prepared for the German Ethics Council ).
  • Cornelia Mielitz: Anonymous child handover: baby hatch, anonymous handover and anonymous birth between defense and protection rights. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 978-3-8329-1850-7 .
  • Mirjam-Beate Singer: Baby flaps and anonymous birth. Do offers of anonymous child surrender prevent child killing and abandonment? A quantitative study. RabenStück, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-935607-26-1 .
  • Christine Swientek : suspended, collapsed, anonymized: Germany's new foundlings. Church tower, Burgdorf Ehlershausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-934117-10-5 .
  • Nils Dellert: The anonymous child transfer. Anonymous birth and baby hatch. Lang, Bern et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-58950-2 .

Web links

Commons : Baby flap  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ASL Roma 1: Presidio Ospedaliero di Santo Spirito in Sassia
  2. ^ A b Wolfgang Reinhard: Lebensformen Europa, a historical cultural anthropology : Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 2004, ISBN 3-406-51760-9 , p. 235 ff.
  3. ↑ Lucyna Reh: The historical development of child and youth welfare in Poland and Germany: from the beginnings to 1990 . Eul Verlag, Lohmar, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-8441-0480-6 , pp. 29 .
  4. ↑ Josef Lang Meier, Zdeněk Matějček : Mental deprivation in childhood: children without love . Verlag Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich, Vienna, Baltimore 1977, ISBN 3-541-07901-0 , p. 50.
  5. ^ A b Social Service of Catholic Women Fulde e. V .: Baby flaps ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 13, 2013.
  6. ↑ Sternipark: Function of the baby flap , accessed on May 13, 2013
  7. ↑ Familienratgeber-NRW: How the baby flap works  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 13, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.familienratgeber-nrw.de  
  8. ↑ According to Wolfgang Reinhard 1999, the significantly more frequent statement April 2000, which deviates from this, can be found here:, German Ethics Council (p. 14; PDF; 402 kB) ( Memento of October 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Daniel Elbel: Legal evaluation anonymous birth and child handover (p. 25) .
  9. ↑ Sandra Dassler: "I will wait for you every birthday" . In: Der Tagesspiegel , April 15, 2013, accessed on March 1, 2017.
  10. ↑ Senator Czaja informs himself about the baby hatch in the Waldfriede hospital . Senate Department for Health and Social Affairs of Berlin, April 13, 2012, accessed on March 1, 2017.
  11. ↑ Sterni Park e. V .: The Findelbaby project enters the second decade (PDF; 25 kB). Press release from December 15, 2009.
  12. ↑ Boy stored in Lübeck's baby hatch. Lübecker Nachrichten , August 12, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Sterni Park e. V .: Baby flaps in Germany , accessed on October 10, 2016 (PDF; 42 kB).
  14. ↑ Terre des Hommes: Newborns found dead or exposed-alive compared with the years ( Memento of January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed January 2012
  15. ↑ Study on Baby Flaps - One Thousand Babies Saved. In: Die Tageszeitung , accessed on April 7, 2017
  16. ↑ a b Nils Dellert: The anonymous relinquishment of infants: Anonymous birth and baby drops. Peter Lang Verlag, Bern et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-58950-2 , p. 14 ff.
  17. ↑ German Bundestag - Scientific Services: Baby Flap and Anonymous Birth ( Memento from September 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 77 kB)
  18. ↑ Study DJI Anonymous Birth and Baby Flaps in Germany ( Memento from April 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.8 MB)
  19. ↑ Wessels / Beulke: Criminal Law General Part , 42nd edition 2012, p. 115 fn. 63.
  20. ↑ Hanna Dierkes, Fee Kinalzik: Constitutionality of state-operated or funded anonymous baby flaps ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Iurratio No. 1/2010, p. 13 ff.
  21. ↑ Bernd Herrmann, Sibylle Banaschak, Reinhard Dettmeyer, Ute Thyen: Child abuse. Medical diagnostics, intervention and legal basics. Springer, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 3-642-10206-9 , p. 219.
  22. ↑ Anonymous birth lowers infant deaths , wien.orf.at, December 5, 2012
  23. ↑ List of all baby hatches in Austria. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Gesundheit.gv.at, archived from the original on March 25, 2017 ; Retrieved March 25, 2017 .
  24. ↑ First Swiss baby window opened (PDF; 18 kB). Press release of Swiss Aid for Mother and Child (SHMK), May 9, 2001, accessed on May 12, 2013.
  25. ↑ Eighth newborn placed in the baby window . babyfenster.ch, press release, February 18, 2013, accessed on May 12, 2013. (Archive)
  26. ↑ Davos baby window opened ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 33 kB). Davos Hospital and Swiss Aid for Mother and Child, press release, June 28, 2012, accessed on May 12, 2013.
  27. ↑ Baby window opened at Kantonsspital Olten (PDF; 81 kB). Solothurner Spitäler AG, media release, May 31, 2013, accessed on June 11, 2013. (Archive)
  28. ↑ From November there will also be a baby window in Bern , Berner Zeitung , October 24, 2013
  29. ^ First baby window in the canton of Zurich
  30. ↑ There is now a baby window in Ticino too
  31. ↑ Janina Gehrig: There are anti-abortion opponents behind the new baby hatch. In: Der Bund October 31, 2013.
  32. ↑ Switzerland gets new 'baby hatch' - a hole in the wall where mothers give away their newborn babies
  33. ↑ Vanessa Hann, Laura Bachmann: Stories and facts about the anonymous child transfer. Through the baby window into a new life. In: Blick.ch , November 1, 2019.
  34. ^ Successful but sad results , NZZ March 19, 2014.
  35. ↑ Seven infants left in Kumamoto baby hatch in fiscal 2018 , The Japan Times , May 28, 2019.
  36. ↑ What does the future of baby flaps look like in Slovakia? from aktuellne.sk on Radio Slovakia International on May 11, 2012, accessed on June 5, 2012.
  37. ↑ Do havířovského babyboxu někdo odložil čtyřměsíčního chlapce. July 2, 2019, accessed July 2, 2019 (Czech).
  38. ↑ Joint press release by the Hanover public prosecutor's office and the Hanover police department: Dead baby found
  39. ↑ The baby flap could not be opened - the infant died
  40. ↑ Anonymous birth and baby hatches in Germany - case numbers, offers, contexts, study by the German Youth Institute, 2012, summary of the results, PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dji.de  
  41. ^ Sophia Marie Hömberg: The killing of children by their own parents (infanticide) retrospective study for the period 1994-2007 . Inaugural dissertation to obtain the doctoral degree of the High Medical Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. 2011, p. 31 ( hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de [PDF; 917 kB ; accessed on October 22, 2017]).
  42. ↑ Anonymous birth and baby hatches in Germany ( Memento from December 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Article on the website of the German Youth Institute . Retrieved August 3, 2012
  43. ↑ a b "November 26, 2009: Ethics Council publishes its first statement - The problem of anonymous child surrender" ( Memento from August 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  44. ↑ Bernd Wacker: The End of Illusions ( Memento from January 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Article on the Terre des Hommes website . Retrieved January 3, 2010
  45. ↑ polizei-dein-partner.de: Baby flaps do not prevent child killing . Article on the website of Polizei-dein-Partner.de . Retrieved April 29, 2013