Future mothers without ID to be photographed in hospital

Bucharest Daily News 5/12/06
Future mothers without ID to be photographed in hospital
Alecs Iancu

Pictures of pregnant women who are admitted to maternity wards will only be taken in the cases of women who do not have identification papers when they come to the hospital, according to the head of the Romanian Adoption Office, state secretary Theodora Bertzi.

The reason is that women without IDs are the ones who usually abandon their children immediately after birth.

"The most cases of abandonment of new-born children in maternity houses involve mothers who come to hospital without any ID and who, in most cases, give a false name to the medical staff," Bertzi explained.

The head of the Adoption Office said that this measure, from the legal point of view, does not represent a violation of human rights, given the fact that abandonment endangers the child's life. The U.N. Convention stipulates that child interest comes before the adult's interests, the state secretary added.

Representatives of the child protection system suggested on Tuesday during a meeting with Bertzi, maternity house managers and representatives of Bucharest child protection departments that pregnant women who come to hospital to give birth without ID be photographed. The measure is designed to help identification of mothers who abandon their children after birth.

Maternity house managers and doctors suggested that babies who are abandoned in the hospital be given a personal numeric code before the parents' identification, to help the medical staff obtain a state discount for the mother and child's hospitalization expenses quicker.

Although the law for child protection provided that children under 18 years old have the right to free medical assistance, expenses for abandoned children are not discounted because the Health Insurance Chamber allocates funds only for Romanian citizens with identification papers and a personal numeric code.