The death penalty is not the solution to curb unmarried couples from the cruel disposal of their newborn babies. Harsh punishment of this nature on the ‘ignorant’ would not solve this grave concern of our society.
Most cases of abandoning babies involve teenagers and in most cases, they are too ‘raw’ to discern the consequences of a sexual relationship. The girls, especially, are often helpless when they come to realise that they are pregnant.
They seek no advice or counselling for fear that their secret is known by others. This is due to their lack of spiritual guidance, their impetuous lifestyle and their sheer ignorance of sexual consequences. These are our young population who lack proper education and parental guidance on matters of sex.
Heartless punishment is not going to be the solution. Education, parental support and rehabilitation are still the best ways to alleviate this critical problem in our society.
As for education, our society should not forever look at the ‘secular’ approach to solving the problem of unwanted pregnancy. For instance, prescribing condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy or abortion may not be a long-term solution as it would only further encourage illicit sex.
In some societies, they teach their children that “prevention is always better than cure”. Thus, they have condoms dispensed in public places to ensure that they are used for two reasons – to avoid both unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases. Despite this move, the problem of unwanted pregnancy still persists.
Those who become pregnant would either go for termination or carry on with the pregnancy and end up giving birth to ‘unwanted’ babies. In some cases, these babies are abandoned in cruel ways. This happens in all societies.
Asians have their own religious and moral values that can be adhered to spiritually. Our society should start looking ‘inwardly’ for solutions instead of seeking solutions from ‘secular’ sources. It’s high time that spiritual values are emphasised in school – irrespective of race or religion. In fact, these good values come from all religions.
Asians generally have a good value system against premarital sex, abortion and the taking of innocent lives in all their major religions and philosophies. Parents and schools should have these values taught to children from young. It’s essential that strong religious and moral values are instilled in children before they are ready to explore for themselves what sex is all about.
This can be reinforced in the existing religious and moral lessons in school. The moral lessons, especially, should focus less on the theories of moral but more on the spiritual approach to a healthy lifestyle.
Parents these days are giving less attention to what children do during their free time. Their general intuition is, since ‘they are grown up children; let them decide for themselves what is good or bad in life’. When society becomes too permissive we are bound to see more social problems and this includes unwanted pregnancies that have become a bane to the society.
When too much freedom is given to our teenagers they would feel free to do what they like in life, including getting involved in premature sexual activities. When society is too permissive in the name of progress or modernity, we often see children having loose religious and moral values.
With less important roles played by parents in controlling the activities of their children, the former become more influenced by their peers, and also the lure of sexual excitement in life prematurely. Children these days can have access to most of the pornographic materials on the Internet and many would not hesitate to experiment with sex.
Rehabilitation should be another alternative. If drug addicts are sent for rehabilitation, we see no reason why these unwed teenagers cannot be rehabilitated. Instead of punishing these teenagers, let’s be more concerned for their welfare. Some of them come from broken families, are poor and lack the right virtues and values in life.
Many wayward children spend little time with parents and they lack parental love. There are also some who come from wealthy backgrounds and are too permissive in their lifestyle. They indulge themselves in social and sexual activities without realising the negative consequences. There have to be centres in the country to rehabilitate these wayward teenagers.
They need to grow up in a pleasant ambience where the right values in life are being taught to them. Thus, instead of imposing death penalty on these offenders, let’s be more compassionate by educating, guiding and rehabilitating them. Teenagers, especially, need to be informed of the consequences of impulsive sexual activities by parents, teachers and the media.