Butterbox babies
Butterbox Babies was the name under which a case of adoptive child smuggling and multiple negligent child homicide was known, which took place between 1928 and 1946 in East Chester, Nova Scotia , Canada .
William Peach Young and Lila Gladys Young opened a birthing center there for unmarried mothers who could give their children for a fee. The children were mostly smuggled into the United States , where childless Jewish couples paid large amounts of money to pass a Canadian child off as their own. The reason for this was a law in force in the USA at the time, which forbade married couples from adopting children of other religions.
Because of the poor medical care and lack of training in midwifery among the deeply religious Youngs, many children died in childbirth. Some of the at times over 70 children in the home were sometimes only fed with molasses and water, and many diseases caused the babies to perish. The dead children were buried behind the house in small wooden boxes like those used for dairy products. Hence the name Butterbox Babies came later .
After several people complained about the poor conditions in the flourishing "The Ideal Maternity Home" , the authorities closed the home in 1946. There were also allegations that the couple should have suffocated children with pillows. The Youngs tried to keep the child smuggling going for several years, but this was finally stopped by the authorities. Both died impoverished in the 1960s.
Today several Canadian organizations are trying to reunite the children who were smuggled into the USA with their biological mothers.
Movie
Don McBrearty made the film Butterbox Babies in 1994 (with Susan Clark and Peter MacNeill , among others ), which was based on this criminal case.