October 11, 2006: Buried newborn

Continuing a rather gruesome week - this newborn survived but his story is terrible. It turns out that he was born in a poor area in Laranjeiras do Sul, Brazil. He was then buried alive by his mother. Neighbors were alerted to the situation by a dog, who was smelling the location and who had begun to dig up the baby. Police were called to the location and rescued the lad. The mother has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Different societies have different views on recent mothers who try to kill their babies. Very strange "post-partum" maladies are reported, as hormonal swings cause odd reactions. Often the penalty for post-partum murder is lower than that of "regular" ? murder because there is an opportunity for temporary insanity. It's a real problem and not one to be mocked ala Mr Tom Cruise.

I imagine the cops took the picture when they assumed they were dealing with a murder. If they knew the baby was alive, they wouldn't have stopped to take pictures, would they?

I always feel very sorry for the mothers when I read stories like this. Sorry for the babies too - but that's a given.

The reasoning seems to be no Mother could hurt her baby.
Making you a monster if you do.

Which for me begs the question, if this Mother was able to harm her baby, surely something was wrong.

I think people are more understanding now and less likely to label it as wanton wickedness.

Makes you think real hard about licensing parents...

The caption - this came from the images of the day section of 20minutos.es which meant it had a wire service caption.

Sure is a lot of roots for freshly dug ground?

I suppose it could be a hole in the side of a hill. She stuck the baby in then covered the entrance, so the baby didn't smother while the dog went nuts and the cops were called....maybe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce Sure is a lot of roots for freshly dug ground?

Looks like the placenta may be on the ground around the hole. I'm not sure if abortions are commonplace in Brazil but the country is predominatley Catholic. One would have to wonder if the cause for the mother to do this was depression, shame or just not wanting to bring another child into a world of poverty.

Seems ironic that the police will charge the mother. The police in Brazil have a reputation for just killing off kids in the slums just to get rid of them.

Could be that the took the picture while they were trying to figure out how to get the baby out. The hole there isn't big enough to extract the child without hurting it, they may have had to work their way around the body to free it. While that's going on, why not take a picture for evidence?