Hospital offers up newborns for sale to infertile mothers

Razia says she paid Rs400,000 for ‘her son’, biological mother Sadia Bibi says hospital told her the child had died.

FAISALABAD:

A case has been filed against gang members involved in selling off newborn orphans to families who are unable to conceive.

According to police officials, the gang was discovered to be operating in collaboration with a private hospital in Chak No49-JB Munda Pind. A case related to such transactions was recently brought before the court of Additional Session Judge Zulfiqar Khan.

Abdul Majeed, who recently returned from abroad, filed an application with the court saying that he and his wife had been cheated by a local advertisement in the paper. “My wife has not been able to conceive and my family had been pressuring me to contract a second marriage. My wife then contacted a private hospital that had advertised fertility treatments,” he said.

Majeed’s wife Razia said that she contacted private hospital Al-Masoom Fatima Medicare after reading the advertisement. The hospital was being run by Mumtaz, a dispenser of a government hospital, in Chak No49-JB Munda Pind. “They had advertised that they were able to help women conceive with the aid of modern technology and other fertility treatments,” she said.

Abdul Majeed said that dispenser Mumtaz hired the services of a quack doctor and two female doctors who started treating his wife. “They charged me Rs200,000 but after some time said that she was not capable of conceiving,” he said. “Then they told me that they could help us by offering us a newborn child for a certain sum. They said that the condition was our keeping silent on the matter and the hospital administration said they would say that my wife was pregnant and within a few months they would give us the child,” he said.

Razia said that she agreed to the proposal and was admitted in the hospital. “After a couple of months I told my family I was pregnant and was admitted to the hospital,” she said.  “They gave me a newborn child and charged Rs400,000 and 12-tolas of gold for it,” she said.

Razia and Majeed said that following the exchange, the hospital officials kept blackmailing them for money. “They kept saying that if we didn’t fulfil their demands they would make the transaction public and tell everyone that he was not my son,” Majeed said.

Majeed said that when he returned to Pakistan, his wife told him about the truth and he approached the hospital demanding his money back.

During the hearing of the application, a case linking the adoption to Sadia Bibi was also brought to light. Sadia Bibi gave birth to a baby in that hospital but the hospital administration told her that the child which she gave birth to had died and had been buried. “The hospital administration told me the child died and showed me a grave but my baby was actually given away to Razia,” she said.

On the refusal of the hospital administration to give back the money, Abdul Majeed complained before the Nishatabad police for the registration of a case against the hospital administration. However, police officials refused to file a case and the incident was brought before the court.

Additional Session Judge Zulfiqar Khan summoned the SHO as well as the birthl mother of the child. The court, after adjudicating the matter, ordered the Nishtabad Police Station to register a case against the hospital administration and doctors. “We need to look into how many of such transactions have taken place before and the doctors will be interrogated,” Judge Khan said.

The court also summoned the mother of the child Sadia Babi and Razia Babi. The court ordered that the child be handed over to the Child Protection Bureau (CPB) until his paternity could be confirmed.

“This is my child and I have taken care of him for over nine months. I cannot hand him over. Everyone knows that Saim is my son,” Razia Majeed appealed to court authorities.

“I won’t be able to show my face in front of my entire biradari after this comes out. How can I face them?” Razia Bibi kept saying.

Court officials said that Sadia Bibi remained silent throughout the proceedings and did not challenge the court’s decision to send the child to the CPB.

The Al-Masoom Fatima Medicare administration has allegedly fled the area and the hospital building has been locked. Police officials are investigating.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.