Crushing debt forces mother to sell newborn

A private clinic was raided and its owner arrested yesterday after a staffer arranged for a widowed patient to sell her newborn to pay off debts and hospital bills in Jhenaidah's Maheshpur upazila on Tuesday.

The incident took place at Pearless Private Clinic, located in the upazila's Nepa Mor area. Later, the upazila health department has sealed off the clinic.

The woman, in her early 30s, whose husband passed away when she was four months pregnant, said she was not accepted in her in-laws' or her father's home after her husband's death. "I eventually had to leave and stay at my maternal grandfather's house…."

The Daily Star is withholding the name of the woman.

As she struggled financially with two other children, she had to borrow money for basic needs. She had racked up Tk 40,000 in loans from several NGOs.

Before her C-section on Tuesday, clinic staffer Ismat Ara arranged for the woman to give up her child for Tk 65,000.

The mother said, "If my son had stayed with me, he would have grown up amid a lot of hardship. If he is raised by a better family, I will be at peace."

When the matter came to light yesterday afternoon, Maheshpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Khadija Akhtar and Upazila Health Officer Helena Akhtar raided Pearless Private Clinic and arrested its owner Selim Reza Babu.

A mobile court later sentenced him to six months in jail and fined him Tk 1 lakh, said UNO Khadija, adding that Ismat Ara, who arranged for the baby to be sold, was also detained and a case will be filed against her.

According to local and hospital sources, the woman had been living in her elderly grandparent's house with her two other children and thought it would be impossible to bear the expense of another child.

Her late husband's family also suggested she give up the baby.

Though the child was reportedly bought by a family in Cumilla, the mother does not know their identity.

Speaking to reporters before being sent to jail, the clinic's owner Selim Reza said, "After a cesarean delivery, my responsibility is to take care of the patient. If they make a private arrangement to give the baby away, I can't be held responsible."