Japan's Abortion Alternative

Germany pioneered the idea of a "baby hatch" where parents could drop off unwanted infants. However, the idea has been slow in catching on. Now, a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture has opened the first Japanese "baby hatch" according to Breitbart News.

This seems to me a good idea, in the main. It is a much more humane idea than abortion, as it gives the child a life- albeit one without it's natural parents. However, being adopted myself, I can testify that if one lands with a loving adopted family as I did, then the lack of natural parents is not such a handicap. And certainly, I would prefer to see babies live than murdered in the brutal process of abortion.

However, the article also reveals government-think that I do not agree with. Upon the opening of the baby hatch, several officials of the Japanese governenment were quoted, one of whom, identified as government spokesman Shiozaki Yasuhisa said, "It is the government's role to help parents raise children on their own."

Now this statement can be interpreted in many ways, but at heart it seems to me to be a declaration of the Nanny State at its worst. It is the government's role to protect it's citizens and provide a safe environment so that they can raise children on their own. Government should have no more of a role in child-rearing than it does in who a citizen goes to bed with in the evening or what adults do behind closed doors. While Japan's government is generally bevevolent and definitely is protective of the family, no government should be able to dictate to its citizens what or how they rear their children, with the obvious caveat of raising their children as traitors, etc.