Custom eyed to explain dumping of dead babies in China

BEIJING -- Rural traditions of abandoning dead infants because they're considered bad luck might have played a role in the case of 21 babies' bodies found along a river in eastern China, apparently dumped by hospital mortuary workers.

The little bodies -- at least one stuffed in a yellow bag marked "medical waste" -- were found last week floating and strewn along the bank of a river on the outskirts of Jining city in Shandong province.

Police detained two mortuary workers at a hospital who were paid by the babies' families to dispose of the bodies.

One question that arose Wednesday was why would the parents of so many dead children simply abandon their remains?

Hospital procedures normally call for families to take away dead infants, according to the Shandong province-based Qilu Evening News. However, the death of a young child is considered bad luck among some rural families, and the body is often abandoned or buried in an unmarked grave.

"According to customs in some places, dead infants are not considered to be a family member and will not be buried in family tombs," said Cao Yongfu, a professor at the Institute of Medical Ethic at Shandong University.

Some families would rather leave the body at the hospital or pay someone to bury it, Ma Guanghai, deputy dean at Shandong University's School of Philosophy and Social Development, was cited as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.