By RYO TAKEDA/ Staff Writer
October 25, 2022 at 13:30 JST
Hiroyuki Kogure, who chairs a medical corporation called Morgenrot, speaks online to The Asahi Shimbun on Sep. 29 about his plans to open the first “baby hatch” system in Tokyo. (Ryo Takeda)
Drawing on the success of the “baby hatch” system pioneered by Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto for unwanted newborns, plans are in the works to open the first one in Tokyo.
Pediatrician Hiroyuki Kogure, board chairman of a medical corporation called Morgenrot, said he plans to open the baby hatch in fall 2024 in the capital’s Koto Ward.
“I know it’s a controversial topic, but I want to create a baby hatch to protect babies’ lives,” Kogure, 43, told The Asahi Shimbun on Sept. 29.
Morgenrot operates five hospitals in Tokyo with departments for pediatrics, internal medicine and other disciplines.
The baby hatch will be established at a new obstetrics and gynecology hospital with 18 beds that the Tokyo metropolitan government has permitted the medical corporation to establish.
The system allows parents, for whatever reason, to drop off newborns for adoption that they are unable to take care of.
Viewed as a last resort for many young mothers, the system is aimed at reducing infant mortality and possible abuse.
He said the new hospital will also allow “confidential births,” whereby a woman can give birth anonymously by revealing her identity only to a single hospital staff member.
Currently, Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture is the only hospital in Japan where women can choose a confidential birth.
It’s also the only hospital in the country equipped with a baby hatch.
Kogure said his hospital will allow confidential births while referring to guidelines on the system that the government will publish soon.
“We hope to create a system to look after mothers and children while cooperating with public bodies,” he added, saying another factor is to prevent child abuse.
The Catholic-run Jikei Hospital courted huge controversy when it opened the nation’s first baby hatch in 2007.
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