Assignment 1

Question A

            Based on my reading on articles about the “baby dumping” issue which is now becoming people’s topic of conversation, I am surprised that there are nearly 472 of baby dumping cases since the year of 2005 and it is possible to be more than the amount now. In addition, there are at least half number of cases which babies were found dead. It is terrifying enough to know that people in present era do not care about the value of life! From my readings, I concluded that almost all baby dumpers are teenagers who do not qualified to be standard parents yet. Not denying, baby dumping could be avoided if the parents of teenagers stop blaming their children and the society stop pointing fingers towards the young parents. Instead, what young mothers need are their mates to be with them, supports from family and at least some kindness from the society, but not ridiculing.

            There are many solutions from the government and different individual. Among the alternatives, I think the most effective one is no other than offering sex education for teenagers. Sex education should no more be a taboo due to the efficiency and effectiveness of internet nowadays allow teenagers to get whatever information they want online. Curiosity killed the cat; the inquisitiveness of teenagers could not be satisfied by adults’ perfunctorily answers toward them. Therefore, they could only use their own ways to find out their preferred answer about sex. However is all the information received by internet users credible and valid? Who knows? Proper sex education can effectively prevent teenagers from absorbing not reliable sex knowledge. On the other hand, there is another way to work with it-using the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) system to find out the young parents of dumped baby and hence take action on them, whether counselling, penalty or punishment. Although this may be a best solution to deal with the thorny social problem, yet the high cost and time consumption make this system tough to be implemented.

Question B

            There is always no smoke without fire; everything happens with its own reasons and causes. It is same on the baby dumping issue; one of the articles which I have read stated that porn is a major reason of baby dumping. As what has been discussed in the previous question (question 1), grown up teenagers would start to wonder about relationship between men and women when reaching their age. No doubt, everyone has this experience before, nothing wrong on that; it is just how we are going to respond on our question. In this case, some deal with their curiosity in a correct way and some do not. The advancement and rapid improvement of Information Technology allow teenagers to get porn materials online easily, and some may use mobile phones and computers to achieve their wants. With this, young teenagers who could not differentiate between true and false well might be affected badly by pornography and then make mistakes which can destroy their future.

            Looking into before-married sex issue which is becoming popular nowadays, it might be the main cause leads to baby dumping. In my opinion, many teenagers today are affected by western thinking which is more open compared to the Asia’s. This teenagers’ attitude is getting worse and be in a risking level due to poor sexual knowledge of them. Affecting by pornography, they would start to feel like having sex with their mates. The insufficient of contraception knowledge, however, lead to before-married pregnancy. Consequently, young couple would the people who feel like in the hot water. Without seeking help from anyone due to their sense of shame and guilt, dump the baby is one of the irrational ways to go.

            On the other hand, poverty is another factor leading to baby dumping problem. Birthing and growing a baby are not easy provided that the high living cost in the present era. Some parents, not only referring to those young couples, managed to birth their baby yet the high cost for growing baby up forces them to make such heart-broken decision. Not denying, life is sometime tough and we could never do everything following our mind. There is no any parents who do not love their baby, but the problem is, their economic condition does not allow them to give a comfortable life to baby. Being good to the baby, they are looking for someone else who is affordable to the high cost of growing up baby. Consequently, this also lead to another problem: Isn’t their way to give away the baby wrong? It could be another rational and safer ways to do so.

Question C (i)

            Since the cases of baby dumping is rising day by day with terrible speed, for sure there will be many impacts towards the whole society and even the whole country. Here, I am going to discuss about the impacts of baby dumping in society. First of all, baby dumping could change the society’s view of moral and ethnics. Baby-dumpers are irrational and immoral, they do not think properly before dumping the baby. As more cases happen, the society would start to consider baby dumping as a normal case due to their numb towards baby dumping news. This is danger enough if the society starts to treat baby dumping cases as normal and common. Just as the scenario happens, society will feel sick and troublesome to handle and overcome it. “Just let it happen, it is already normal. How can I manage to solve baby dumping problem? It is rising and tough now.” The society’s mind would be changed as it; they would treat baby’s life is not important.

Talking about the parents of dumped-baby, they may feel guilty and false in their whole life. I believe many baby-dumpers would feel regret after their action if they think further about it. In facts, how many parents can be the murderer to their children with so hardhearted and pitiless? The feeling of guilty and sorry, if serious, may lead to trauma in the parents, especially the ladies. In addition to that, the family of baby-dumpers could be affected too such as the parents of baby dumpers. In this case, they may feel ashamed and shameful to face the others providing that the society would point fingers and blame on them. Lack of proper moral education from family would be the point that society criticism on baby-dumpers’ family. Consequently, this may lead to bad social relationship between one another.

How about the dumped baby now? Not denying, many of them dead due to bad environment, starvation and some of them became foods for hungry animals. However, there are also some lucky babies could survive and discovered by kind people. The question is, the baby could be saved and growing up in a safer environment, but how will the baby feel when he grown up? For sure, psychological unbalanced would happened and sometimes cause social problems due to the baby’s unhealthy mind. Another thing is shamefulness of the baby about his background could make him to keep himself apart without interaction with the others. Again, this is a social problem too.

Question C (ii)

            Looking into impacts of baby dumping issue on nation, the most serious impact towards the whole country is no other than the falling of country image. In this case, baby dumping issue in our country would be the focus point of the world if it is still in the worse level. No doubt, the global is concern about such immoral and serious issue about the lives and the whole world would try hard to overcome it. Just as this happen, our country would be considered as “incapable” to solve our own problem; instead, we need help from the others in dealing with baby dumping issue. How will the outsiders and citizens think about our respected government? There might be negative comments about our country.

            On the other hand, the increasing of baby dumping issue could directly affect the populations of our country. When the aged finish their remaining path of life, but there is none of fresh blood born to replace the decreasing population, how? Yes, there are many new babies born every day, yet many of them would be dumped a few minutes later, there is no any difference compared to the days before their birth. By the decreasing of population and intellectual capitals, our country would become weaker in the coming decades.

            Talking about government’s action to overcome baby dumping issue, it is not easy to be done due to the high cost and complicated procedures that bringing troubles to the Malaysians. With referring to the articles which have been read by me, one of them stated that the government is planning to implement the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) system in finding the baby-dumpers and hence punish them. However, the cost of implementation is expansive and causes stress on the government. In order for the government to practice the system in shorter time period, they have to raise the large amount of money from citizens. Hence, higher taxes might be charged and this action then makes the burden of citizens to be heavier.

Moreover, the law about baby dumping might be enhanced and more rules and penalties would be applied. Here, the cost in applying it is not the main problem. The burdens of law enforcement officers and the policemen, however, are the main consideration. The distraction might affect their working performance and the Malaysia citizens would be the victims who receive their imperfect services that do not reach the satisfaction level. Lastly, the baby dumping issue is subjective to everyone and not every people judge it as the same. The diversity of opinions about baby-dumping, the law and the baby-dumpers would create another argument between one another and also within the government in political side.