Recently, a corpse of a baby was found at the Lukinskoye cemetery in Serpukhov.
The boy lived in the world for three days and, most likely, was killed by his own mother.
This is a terrible and even monstrous event, because such news is not uncommon in our country ... In a country where, according to new amendments to the Constitution, children are declared the most important priority of state policy!
Whenever I hear about another baby being thrown out a window or strangled with a plastic bag, found in a dumpster or in a sewer, I think back to our baby box bill.
He has been in the State Duma for four years with no chance of being adopted in the foreseeable future.
Some of the deputies who had previously advocated the legalization of the "windows of life" publicly changed their minds, some simply do not care.
In a word, things are still there.
I have never changed my position and still believe that “windows of life” are one of the few ways to prevent crimes such as the killing of a newborn child by a mother and leaving it in danger.
Of course, the anonymous abandonment of the child (as well as any evasion from the upbringing and maintenance of children) is morally unacceptable.
But baby boxes are opened with only one purpose - to save the life of a baby who is going to be thrown or killed.
I am closely following the experiment in Lyubertsy, where since 2013 a baby box has been opened at the children's regional hospital No. 3.
I studied the experience of this “window of life” in the Commission on Social Issues of the Public Chamber of the Moscow Region, and later as an ombudsman for the rights of the child in the Moscow Region.
The conclusions made by me formed the basis of the bill that I prepared and submitted to the State Duma.
Judge for yourself: during its operation, the baby box in Lyubertsy saved 51 babies.
The vast majority of children were adopted or taken into foster families.
Their fates are developing happily, they live with loving parents, who, upon adoption, have passed a rigorous selection process.
We have 19 baby boxes in 16 regions of the country, they saved 108 children - that's six classes of secondary school!
By the way, the oldest children who have passed through the “windows of life” will go to first grade next year.
I will definitely make a film about these guys so that no one else dares to raise their voices against the doctors, social workers and charities who gave them life.
Baby boxes continue to save lives thanks to the efforts of caring people, although the procedure for their work at the legislative level is still not regulated.
There are no uniform requirements for the procedure for creating and operating "windows of life", and most importantly, the status of children who are left in such places is not fixed.
Our bill is intended to eliminate these gaps, but, unfortunately, it got stuck in the State Duma.
We received negative reviews from the legal department of the lower chamber and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
If the formal approach of the legal department to our initiative can still be explained, then the position of the Ministry of Health is absolutely incomprehensible to me.
As well as the indifference of fellow MPs, many of whom understand that baby boxes are objectively needed.
It's time to admit that without the political will of the country's top leadership, this can continue for a very long time.
I am a systematic person and I perfectly understand that effective work is possible only in a team.
But if the right to life - the highest value of a person - is threatened, compromises are impossible for me.
Otherwise, the deputy turns into a thoughtless robot, and the State Duma turns into a machine for the production of indifference, which, in the words of Martin Luther, is "more terrible than war."
The baby box law is designed to protect the right to life of every baby whose mother finds herself in a difficult situation.
And such situations do happen, and in the face of rising unemployment, there may be much more of them.
It's time to put aside hypocrisy and hypocrisy, because there are no other people's children.
I ask all my fellow MPs to think about this: until the law on baby boxes is adopted, the state is responsible for every tragedy similar to the one that happened in Serpukhov.
Children should become the top priority of state policy, not in words, but in deeds.
It is in our power to achieve this.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.