THERE WAS public horror in China yesterday after hospital mortuary workers in the city of Jining were accused of dumping 21 dead foetuses and infants’ bodies along the banks of the Guangfu River.
Eight of the 21 bodies had tabs with clinic code numbers attached to their feet, showing they were from the hospital attached to Jining Medical University.
Some of the infants and foetuses were in yellow medical waste bags. They were found last weekend floating and strewn along the banks of the river on the outskirts of the city, in Shandong province. Jining is best known as the birthplace of the philosopher Confucius.
It was not clear how they died, but news reports said that some had been aborted. Police did not say whether the bodies were male or female. Boys are favoured over girls in rural China, and baby girls are sometimes abandoned. A spokeswoman from the Jining Medical University confirmed by telephone that the bodies of 21 babies and foetuses had been discovered.
Ma Guanghai, deputy dean at Shandong University’s School of Philosophy and Social Development, said: “In some parts of China, especially in poor rural areas, parents are reluctant to take baby bodies home for a funeral. They would rather dump the body in a corner of the hospital or pay someone to bury it.”
The city government said on its website an investigation revealed that two mortuary workers, Zhu Zhenyu and Wang Zhijun, had “privately struck oral agreements with the families of the deceased babies to dispose of their remains and had taken payments from them.” They had been detained by police.
