A NEWBORN boy who was rescued from a toilet pipe in China has been released from hospital and his mother will not face charges, five days after an ordeal that captured worldwide interest.
The mother remains in hospital and is unlikely to face criminal charges after authorities concluded the baby fell into the toilet accidentally, local officials and media reports said.
The child, from Jinhua in the eastern province of Zhejiang was rescued after he become lodged in the pipe for hours after his mother gave birth in a toilet.
The baby, known as "Baby 59" in China, was released from a hospital to his maternal grandparents late on Wednesday.
His 22-year-old mother was hospitalised due to complications from the delivery and was not staying with the baby, and remains under medical care, the state-run Jinhua Evening News reported. A local police official confirmed that report.
The baby's stunning, two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Zhejiang province's Pujiang county captivated the world, prompting both horror and an outpouring of charity on his behalf.
The mother initially raised the alarm about the baby when he got stuck Saturday in a pipe just below a squat toilet in a public restroom of a residential building, but she had cleaned the room of signs of a fresh birth and did not immediately come forward as the mother, officials have been quoted as saying.
The Chinese newborn who was rescued from a sewer pipe after his mother gave birth in the toilet has been released from hospital, and will be looked after by his mother and grandparents. Picture: AP
She admitted she was the mother two days later when confronted by police, who found baby toys and blood-stained tissues in her apartment, the reports said.
Police later concluded that the incident was an accident and that the woman did not initially come forward because she was frightened, but that she later started telling the truth, the Jinhua Evening News and a Pujiang county propaganda official said.
The police initially treated the case as a possible attempted homicide, but now are unlikely to file criminal charges, the newspaper and the official said.
A man tracked down by police who is believed to be the baby's father has requested a paternity test and - if the baby is his - is willing to help support the child, said the Pujiang official, who declined to give his name, as is customary among Chinese officials.
Officials have not publicly released the names of anyone connected with the case, which has raised discussion over China's lack of proper education about sex, birthing and contraception in many schools. Unwanted pregnancies have been on the rise because of an increasingly lax attitude toward premarital sex.
Duan Wanjin, a criminal lawyer based in Xi'an, said local police erred in not prosecuting the mother. He said the woman could be charged with attempted homicide for not immediately calling for help after the newborn became stuck.
Rescue workers break away bits of a sewer pipe to save the newborn in the city of Jinhua, China. The baby boy was rescued from a sewage pipe in a Chinese apartment building after being flushed down a toilet after his mother gave birth in secret. Picture: AFP
"The local police may have considered the woman was still young and did not have any malice, and have come to the decision from the human perspective, but it sends a terrible signal to the public,'' Mr Duan said.
Sociologist Li Yinhe said the only mistake by the woman was not to immediately admit the baby was hers.
"I don't think that's a big deal. After all, the child is safe, and it has a happy ending,'' Li said. "The Chinese people still lean heavily on the human considerations. Let it be bygones if there's no serious crime.''
The woman told police she got pregnant after a brief affair with the man, hid her pregnancy from family and neighbours, and secretly delivered the child Saturday in a rental building's restroom. She said the infant accidentally slipped into the squat toilet and - after she cleaned up the scene - raised the alarm.
Firefighters who arrived at the rental building found the infant trapped in an L-shaped section of sewage pipe just below the squat toilet in one of the building's shared restrooms.
In video footage, officials were shown removing the pipe from a ceiling that apparently was just below the restroom and then, at the hospital, using pliers and saws to gently pull apart the pipe, which was about 10 centimetres in diameter.
The baby, who weighed 2.8 kilograms, had a low heart rate and some minor abrasions on his head and limbs, but was mostly uninjured, according to local reports. The placenta was still attached.
Users of China's hugely popular Sina Weibo, a social networking service similar to Twitter, condemned the parents while expressing good wishes for the boy.
"The poor baby, hope the child can grow up healthy," one user wrote.
The mother, 22 and unmarried, had kept her pregnancy secret and gave birth unexpectedly when she went to the toilet on Saturday, police and state-run media said.
She "tried to grab the newborn before it fell into the toilet, but its body was too slippery", Xinhua reported, citing police records.
Chinese babies born out of wedlock are sometimes abandoned because of social and financial pressures. The country's one-child policy can also mean heavy fines for couples who have more than one baby.
One Sina Weibo user acknowledged public speculation that the incident may not have been accidental, but urged others to drop their suspicions.
"The child is innocent with an already unhappy family so let's don't make his life worse," the user wrote. adding: "For his sake, let's just buy the story."
With AP
31 May, 2013
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