newborn IVF twin girls abandoned at hospital because they're not boys.

[wannaBe]

shocking

"The husband then asked how soon it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly out again for further IVF in the hope of getting a boy to continue the
family name.".

They should bloody well have their passports taken away to prevent them flying out to have any further treatment. After they've been charged with abandonment that is.

Just done a Google search. The original article was written by The Sun and quoted by other newspapers and shows. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph are all saying it's mostly made up (there were girl IVF twins born in New Cross and moved to somewhere in Birmingham, parents have been visiting, no personal details - including age of the parents - has been released. Birmingham CC deny they've had a referral and the hospital say they know of none).

I don't think it's a big stretch of the imagination to think that The Sun has made up a sensational storyline. How they knew about the twins though is confusing.

wannaBe, just because a story is reported in international media doesn't mean it's any more likely to be true.

If it went on Reuters then they'd pick it up and lazily use it without checking the facts just the same as here.

As a journalist I would never run a story like this without double-checking the sources and running it by the relevant authorities first.

What would it take to convince you that this story is a load of bollocks - apart from what you already have, which is denials from the couple, the family, the police and the hospital?

Making a story up to start a race row? Not necessarily. Just to pander to the prejudices of their readership. Even now, someone is sitting in a pub, nodding sagely and saying 'oh yes, those Indians, they abandon their babies you know, I read it in the Sun...'

Just been to the shop and saw the local papers front page

Poor sods having to defend their actions.

Hope there is a hospital enquiry into the breach of confidentiality-probably won't get the culprit but a rocket or two amongst the staff wouldn't go amiss

I wonder if the "unnamed hospital worker" got paid by the Sun?

That is quite sickening that it was all made up then....

I thought it didn't make much sense...I mean if you to to the lenght of having IVF....and you would want a certain sex....there are ways to do that....

I am glad though, that it was all lies....well glad for the twin girls, anyway!

Unfortunately, I rather suspect it was not lies. Sensationalised and exaggerated certainly, as is the tabloid way, but the couple were immediately identifiable from the information and have themselves blamed the misunderstanding on poor english - rather suggesting that they did ask about going back for more IVF to concieve a boy!

There you go. Upwind. A perfect example of the sort of person the Sun and its ilk relies on. The sort of person who, even when confronted with the truth, prefers the lie.

Why do you prefer the lie, Upwind? Does it fit nicely in with what you think about certain groups?

Perhaps one day some anonymous person with an agenda will make something up about you, Upwind, and then you won't be so quick with your 'no smoke without fire' rubbish.

The truth is that twin IVF girls were born to an older couple (early 50s and late 60s) at New Cross Hospital because there weren't beds for twins in Birmingham, they were transferred when there was. They weren't looking for a son to carry on the name - they have sons. They have been at the hospital every day to see their daughters.

Who or how The Sun got the information from or why they gave such lies is unknown. I hope NCH find out and the person is disciplined. Who knows what the father said to the staff that he thinks they misunderstood? But even so, there were still lies.

Krang, what a spiteful personal attack.

Assuming you don't know the couple in question your guess is as good as mine as to what really happened. I just don't think it even remotely plausible that the story was made up to start off some kind of race row

Upwind it may not have ben made up PURELY to start a race row but it has been done as the result of some prejudiced health-worker snatching a few badly misenterpreted words & running to the media with it screaming"it shouldn't be allowed"

Whatever the real situation (and it its really NONE of our business) the fact remains that a tremendous breach of patient confidentiality has occured,and that health-worker should be hauled over the coals.

Agree absolutely Bossybritches

Though - to qualify my absolute agreement, we do not know for sure that the unnamed source was a health worker. It could have been another patient or hospital visitor, or even someone who knew the parents.

Message withdrawn

True Upwind- very true.

No more spiteful than believing the worst about people because you read it in the tabloids.

but we should all be aware that this DOES happen all the time( baby girls being dumped/left in gutters to die) especially in countries such as China.
Did any of you see the famous photo of the baby girl dying in the gutter?
it does sadly happen here too, women throwing themselves downstairs (a nurse told me) to cause a miscarriage once they have found out they're carrying a girl.

What a fucking sick world we live in, where men/patriarchy still dominates and our daughters are seen as a waste of space.

God in heaven some people just do not deserve to have children

Funnily enough, I thought this was button--pushing racist bollocks as soon as I saw the headlines. Come on, it's got everything to get the fuckwits going: dark-skinned foreign people! Older mothers having fertility treatment (at the taxpayer's expense! Bwaaaahgh, widdle, froth!) 'Innocent' ickle babies.... And Upwind, how trusting you are. The Sun has a long track record of making up stories from fuck all as do most of the tabloids. AN acquaintance of mine made himself a good few thousand pounds from simply making things up and telling the tabloids about them: they'd hand over the money IN CASH and run the story, he would run gleefully away and then the story would just quietly disappear.

Madamez - the only part that may have been made up by grasping journos or the snitch is that the baby girls were abandoned. The man's son blamed his father's poor English for the confusion. I don't like the sun and I have already posted that they sensationalise and exagerate. But, unfortunately, abandonment is likely to be more common than couples of that age deciding to have twins via IVF. If it was simply a "twins abandoned" story it would probably not have made the news the way it did.

I rather suspect that Krang's spite and sneering is directed at me because she imagines I am a lowly tabloid reader.

erm...the mans wnglish had nothing to do with it,though, really..........because if the couple have visited the children, then there is no case of abondenedment, is there....maybe they said somehting like, we would ahve loved a boy who kows...but how it can be twisted to abondendedment is anyones guess...however, like allgone said...of ocurse we can't close our eyes to the fact that this does sadly happens in other countries, aswell as here...but for a country that is as "equal" about sexes as Britain...there is a lot of mums worrying about the sex of their Baby and wanting one or another and even trying for a certain sex...so..maybe it isn't just "the foreigners" eh!

Upwind, Krang is exasperated because despite it being clear that the story is a load of bollocks, you are still pushing the no smoke without fire line. And, frankly, that is exasperating.

Kewcumber - think you mean muslim not Asian? There might be lots of Hindu and Sikh people who might not like being linked by implication to 9-11. (sorry but this is a bugbear of mine)

mrshedge -- sadly it wasn't just Muslim people who got racist abuse after 9/11 (so I think Kew's original reference to "Asian" stands). Balbir Singh Sodhi, for example, was killed because he was assumed to be a Muslim. And let's not forget Jean Charles de Menezes who died because he was brownish. For every death there will have been hundreds of non-fatal attacks and goodness knows how many incidents of verbal abuse.

I'm sure Hindu and Sikh people (and Catholic Brazilian people) don't like being linked by implication to 9-11 (I'm sure most Muslim people don't like it either), but given that demonstrably they do get linked to it by some ignorant sections of the public by virtue of their ethnicity, being concerned about racist attacks/abuse on an Asian teenager (of whatever religion) seems a perfectly reasonable attitude for a parent to take.

fair point p&l.