I was reading the latest edition of WORLD Magazine yesterday and stumbled upon a short article written by Susan Olasky, entitled "Unsuccessful Murder." The piece described the very disturbing predicament of Luo Cuiffen, a young twenty-something woman in Kunming, China.
For many years, Luo has suffered from depression, anxiety and insomnia and has been unable to exert herself to perform strenuous tasks. When she recently spotted blood in her urine, she went to her local hospital for assistance and care. That visit required a diagnostic X-ray of her pelvic area. In turn, the radiology results necessitated multiple scans of her whole body.
What the X-rays revealed was simply horrific and tragic.
According to the hospital report, "23 needles were deeply embedded in her body."
(DEADLY INTENT. One of the X-rays shows multiple needles in Luo's pelvic area. AP Photo)
Doctors believe that Luo’s grandparents, now deceased, had inserted the needles through her abdomen while she was an infant, most likely when she was just days old. They also forced one through the fontanel, the soft spot, in her scull. Their hope was that she would die and be replaced by a baby boy instead. In China, the preference for a male heir, coupled with the country’s one-child policy, means that many baby girls, "maggots in the rice," are frequently abandoned or killed by the family.
During the time of Luo's repeated trauma, X-ray machines were not accessible in many rural areas of China. Murder by slow internal bleeding could often be committed without any fear of repercussions. Doctors could even be bribed to submit false causes of death if they suspected that murder had occurred.
Luo beat the odds and survived, but the needles worked their way into her vital organs, including her kidneys, bladder, liver and lungs. The one in her brain eventually broke into three pieces.
According to Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, inserting a sewing needle through the fontanel and into the baby’s brain is one of the more "typical" methods of infanticide in China. Luo’s grandparents apparently chose a more systemic application and treated her like a human pincushion.
Luo's mother thought that she just had a really colicky baby. Now she knows the truth. She knows that her little baby girl was in utter agony from having almost two dozen needles pushed into her tiny body.
Boys carry on the family name and take care of their parents during their retirement years in China. Wives are expected by tradition to look after their husband’s parents, not their own. To have a girl means that you do not have nurture in your old age. That, together with a dowry that has to be paid when you marry off a daughter, results in strong cultural pressures to have a boy.
Olasky’s unsettling closing paragraph reads:
"Infanticide and abortions of unborn girls have created a skewed ratio between the genders, with 119 boys born for every 100 girls, according to official figures. Steven Mosher says the ratio in some areas is as high as 120-130 boys for every 100 girls, and that on some rural playgrounds it’s not unusual to see 25 little boys for every five girls. Most of the missing girls aren’t in orphanages or adopted into families: They’re dead."
There is hope though. One of our partners rescues these baby girls, often when graves have already been prepared.
...But we’ll save that story for another time.