Baby Buried In China Found Alive After Eight Days

A baby was found alive after being buried for eight days in China. The infant was found to have a cleft lip and was said to have been placed in a cardboard box two days after birth.

According to the Guangxi Online News, the parents left the baby in a far-flung rural area in the southern province of Guangxi. It was their relatives who apparently buried the child, with the belief that he was already dead. As per photos posted on the Sina Weibo account of China Central Television, the child was placed in a shoebox-looking container before it was buried in a dry, sandy countryside. Sina Weibo is China’s version of Twitter.

A woman who was then picking up herbs heard the baby crying and thus he was finally discovered. Apparently, water and air was able to enter the cardboard box container. The doctors who first examined the child said that he was spitting soil. "Five people including three relatives have been detained on suspicion of intentional murder," CCTV said.

A disabled child born to a Chinese family is said to significantly exhaust family resources to medical expenses and special educational needs. This then prompts parents to abandon their children with disabilities, authorities said. China is known for their strict child rules, particularly their one-child policy. This may also play a part in the reported incidences of child abandonment in the country. The one-child policy excludes families whose first child is a female or has a disability. In 2013, further amendments in the policy was made, allowing families to have two children if at least one parent was an only child.

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