A lack of solutions
The contrast between the living conditions at public and private homes brings into focus the deficits in Taiwan's child-welfare system.
Asked how the central government might improve conditions at privately-run homes, one official at the MOI's Children's Bureau (兒童局) who asked not to be named, seemed perplexed by the question.
"The government already helps private institutions as best it can. Those institutions are supported through charitable organizations," the official said, implying that it was not the government's problem to address.
Yet a quick accounting of the work done by major charities in Taiwan suggests that they could use a lot more help than they get. World Vision International claims to offer support to some 8,000 children in central Taiwan alone and another 22,000 in the rest of Taiwan, but doesn't differentiate between orphans, abandoned babies and other needy children.
"With that many children, it's impossible for us to operate on a case-by-case basis," said one World Vision worker.
An equally pressing problem -- and one that is surely harder to solve -- is social attitudes toward orphans and abandoned children.
Chung of Taichung's Social Services Bureau claimed that as many as 5 percent of orphans are adopted or placed in foster care -- the best of all solutions -- but that abandoned children with disabilities rarely benefit from adoption.
Keulers also recalled several children living at St. Anne's who were adopted by families in Holland decades ago, but they too were all healthy.
"These [disabled] children, they can't be adopted," she said. "Besides the pain of raising such a child, in Taiwan there is also shame."
After the baby with NT$100,000 was left on their doorstep, the social workers at St. Anne's were able to find its grandmother, who identified the baby's father, who is a doctor, and the mother, who is a nurse.
After discovering their baby had Down's syndrome, they abandoned it and moved to the US to restart their careers. The grandmother also refused to take the child.
"If this is how educated people react, imagine how others do," Keulers said. "If a family won't love its own child, you can't expect the government would either."
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