The dumping of a 17-hour-old baby by its 30-year-old mother into a drain is possibly one of the most heinous acts I have heard of in my life.
The fact that the “mother” (surely she has forfeited the right to the word) is now allowed to name the baby is outrageous.
I listened with horror as a caseworker for FACS (originally DOCS) said you must have some sympathy for what the mother was going through. Is she serious? Sadly the answer is that she is.
From personal experience I have come to the conclusion that far too much leniency is shown to biological parents who have abused or neglected their children.
Again and again, children are returned to the care of incompetent and often downright dangerous parents because of “biology.”
Jackie with her 15-year-old daughter Gabi.
My 15-year-old daughter, who was removed from a biological parent aged nine, said in a speech she gave at a Barnardos function last year that “biology is overrated”. I couldn’t agree more.
When does it become about the child and when do we as a society draw the line and say ‘that’s it…enough’? You forfeit the right to have a say about that child’s life when you neglect or abuse a child.
In this case the mother went five days without making even an anonymous phone call to police or hospital or anyone to say there was a baby in a drain and to rescue him.
We are so worried that we will have another “stolen generation” that we are pussyfooting around children who are in immediate and long-term danger and who should be permanently removed from people who harm them.
And yes, that is often the biological parent.