Oh my, the issue of baby dumping in Malaysia has gone insane that articles relating to that appear nearly every day in the news. Is this a new epidemic or what? Disowned babies alive or dead have been found everywhere you name it; bus stops, mosques, bins, in the toilet or even by someone's door. More recent news entails the dead body of a baby was discovered by a school gardener beneath the garbage at the school's backyard, burnt. Another story that I read 2 days ago, a dead body of a baby blanketed in a piece of cloth was found at a bus stop with bruises on the skin suggestive of physical abuse. And the founder at first thought the object was a chempedak fruit (Artocarpus integer)!

Is this a problem? And if it is, then whose?

I know that to simply claim that the mothers who abandoned their babies as mean or heartless as such is probably unfair, particularly from the eyes of women activists or feminists. Having said that though would there then be another adjective to describe such an action in a better way? I think if we thought we deserved to live as in when we were born, then so did the babies. Who are we to terminate someone's life anyway?

Again reading up on the news there's some humble remarks left by an interviewee whom herself had an experience in a premarital pregnancy in which she gave up her baby. She explained that she had to disown the baby because if not so her family would then disown her. She says, "I'm not saying it is right, but I can see why they (other mothers) do it".

True, even though I wasn't in her shoes but indeed I  can imagine how terrible the situation must have been at that point in time. But yet unfortunately 'wrong' cannot be spelt in any other way I'm afraid. Excuses can't be made for things that we are clearly aware that it's just not right ethically, socially and spiritually. The bottom line is how do we deal with this baby-dumping phenomenon?

Just a bit of statistics, according to the police since 2005 a total of 472 babies have been found abandoned, out of which half were found dead. So far this year, 65 babies have been found. The severity of the situation has then led the Cabinet to mull the death sentence for those found guilty of the crime.

I'm referring to this one article in The Star Online which asked for an opinion from a couple of sources, in which I sincerely respect their statements but I would like to express my own arguments below.

Reading the above statements for the first time might make someone think, oh those really are the best solutions. Wait a second, do we just have to follow the flow and not need to own our own principle? Yes, education is of extreme importance I don't deny that. However if we look at this issue from a bigger angle, from the society point of view, do all people in Malaysia manage to receive formal education? Okay say, probably most of the kids are sent to primary schools at least, so we can begin making them aware at that age then (primary school- contraceptives?). 

Then comes the issue of even if they have the knowledge, will they be able to apply them, and can they afford to buy those contraceptives whatsoever? Let me remind you that we are talking about handling this issue to rescue the whole country, so we shouldn't just be talking about urban areas where the habitants could've been better at digesting new knowledge and put them into practice, plus furthermore contraceptives are  affordable for them.

Imagine if premarital sex becomes a norm in Malaysia. Everyone does it without feeling that they should be hiding it from being known by other people, that it progresses into a trend. The trend of premarital sexual intercourse. Everyone wants to follow the trend just like we followed the flow. Girl A follows the trend. She knows about contraceptives and she has money so she uses them. Girl B wants to follow the trend too. She learned about contraceptives at school but she forgot about their names. (She failed all papers in SPM or leaving cert equivalent). She couldn't care less about getting to know about them, let alone to speak to the chemist or a doctor.  "About my personal life? No way", she says. "But still, I'm with the trend". Girl C heard about the trend and wants to keep to it. She comes from a poor home. She'd rather get her family some food and new clothes than getting herself contraceptives. But she still wants to follow the trend.

After a year of relationship Girls B and C get pregnant. Their unemployed boyfriends disappeared not long after they told them about what's happening. The girls freaked out 'cause they knew they wouldn't be able to raise a child on their own without a partner. They however decided to continue with the pregnancy because they are afraid of methods and procedures to terminate pregnancies. Then their little babies are born. They wonder who's going to look after their babies when they're at work and college? They don't have enough income either. They couldn't find any way out so they trash their babies. And the 'Baby in the Bin' becomes newspaper headlines again.

If so then probably in the future we should consider thinking baby dumping is lawful too, change the stigma. Allocate special bins for unwanted baby collections at potential areas. And years to come, make rape and burglary lawful too, is it? Well I don't think so. Babies are innocent, their mothers are.

I believe that when we are faced with any problem at all we need to go back to its fundamentals. Identify where does the problem originate from? Like an unwanted cherry tree growing in our yard. (Bats love cherries and they soil in the ceiling, so cherry trees can be troublesome). We can't merely be chopping  off its branches now and again if we want to get rid of the whole thing. We'll get tired before we succeed if we do so. Therefore we need to look at its root, and remove the entire tree so that it'll never grow again.

The same applies to this issue, try to think again are we solving the problem or are we creating an alternative as an excuse for the problem. Islam prohibits premarital sex because of its predictable unfavourable consequences. Marriage is an ideal institution to raise children as with marriage comes responsibility and balance. The dad does what he should so does the mum. If mum can't do this then dad will try to do it vice versa. That's a family which practices Islamic teachings. Islam knows where our limits are and Islam wants the best for our children. We don't want our daughter to be growing up learning 'Mum did that so could I'. Neither do we want our son telling us 'I've got a new girlfriend 'cause my ex got pregnant'. We don't want to create a community that lacks values and sense of accountability.

I found the below an interesting enough a statement so have a read;

"She stresses, it is not sufficient to just say, "premarital sex is against our religion" or that "our religion forbids premarital sex".

I couldn't agree more on what she says. Religion is not the problem, the core of the problem is the lack of understanding as to why do we ought to comply to what our religion says in the first place. I suggest this is the issue that we have with our current educational system. We failed to give enough emphasis that Islam is the way of life as it comes from our Creator. The Sole Creator who knows everything both in retrospect and prospect. So how can we deny thus make excuses about something so true?

That ends my personal opinion on the issue.

P/s: From a medical student's point of view:
* Oral contraceptive pills ("the pill") have a strict regime in order to become effective in preventing pregnancies. That's the reason why I highlighted education and the application of education.
* Even with contraceptives there's still a chance of getting pregnant. We call it 'Pearl Index' in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
* Only if the mothers knew how difficult it is for subfertile couples to conceive.

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