Pakistan: Child given away to pay hospital bill

The Australian:

AN impoverished Pakistani couple has given away their new-born baby to a childless couple because they could not pay the hospital bill for the birth, the mother said.

Mohammad Hanif and his wife, Hakimzadi, gave away their five-day-old son to the childless couple who paid the 4500 rupees ($95) bill to the hospital in the southern province of Sindh.

“We already have six children while three others died because we could not care for them. At least this child will be taken care of,” Mrs Hakimzadi said at her home in Tando Adam village, 200km north of the city of Karachi.

“It is our child and we can do what we want with it,” she said.

District police officer Zafar Iqbal said police were investigating but they had been told by the couple who took the child the baby had been adopted.

“The couple gave it to them for adoption as they don't have any child after 20 years of marriage,” he said.

Mrs Hakimzadi said her husband was a labourer and a chronic tuberculosis patient who could not afford to feed their other children properly.

Ever hear of birth control?