Formally relinquishing one’s rights is seen as a ‘conscious act’ of rejecting a child that has been given to you by your ancestors, who could then exact a similar punishment for that of abortion (infe
Formally relinquishing one’s rights is seen as a ‘conscious act’ of rejecting a child that has been given to you by your ancestors, who could then exact a similar punishment for that of abortion (infertility).
Most felt that a women who could not take care of her child would do better to abandon them into someone else’s care, as the mother could always apologise to the ancestors at a later stage, and claim that she was not herself at the time.
Most felt that a women who could not take care of her child would do better to abandon them into someone else’s care, as the mother could always apologise to the ancestors at a later stage, and claim that she was not herself at the time.
Unlike adoption, abandonment is not necessarily seen as permanent:
“A women called me yesterday about two children that she abandoned nine years ago at our baby home. She just told me, ‘I am well now and would like to have my children’. I remember her from when she left her children with us. She was young, on drugs, living on the street and HIV positive. She told me that she has now found God and put her life back together, but she is not sleeping at night. The fact that she left her children is tormenting her and she is suffering. She literally arrived with the children and then disappeared, she never formally consented. When I told her that her children had been adopted and were now living overseas, she got very angry with me. She said ‘these are my children and I am suffering’, but it seemed to be more about her than about her children.”
