It has been alleged that around 20 babies have vanished from a Sofia’s Sheynovo Hospital. It has also been alleged that they may have been illegally adopted. Below is a transcript of a Bulgarian TV interview with Doctor Ivan Kostov, director of Sheynovo hospital. Source FOCUS Information AgencyHost: Now we will focus on the case concerning the babies that disappeared from Sofia’s Sheynovo Hospital.
Yesterday, an inquiry of Social Municipal Council reported that about 20 babies, the so-called children at risk – whose mothers’ have abandoned them, have disappeared without a trace from Sheynovo and there is a suspicion that these babies have been illegally adopted. As you know, under the law, a baby cannot be adopted immediately after it is abandoned by his mother.
Good day, Mr. Kostov, would you tell us something more on the issue? Can we say that every year about 20 babies disappear from your hospital?
Ivan Kostov: Good day. I cannot tell that every year some babies disappear from the hospital – this is matter examined by the authorities in charge. We filed a signal right after we took the control over the hospital in summer 2008. In October, we asked the previous management to hand us all documents related to the number of children given to the social services. However, we did not receive such list. We were forced to send a notary invitation to hospital’s former lawyer to provide us the information. We even filed official letter to the Social Assistance Directorate, which informed us that it is required to keep books on the number of babies for the past five years.
Since we did not get a list of the babies we got concerned and sent another letter, this time to Sofia Municipality, to alarm municipal chair Mr. Andrey Ivanov on the issue. It is now up to the municipality to start investigation and say whether the babies have been disappearing.
Host: I did my own private investigation. Some maternity nurses, who will remain anonymous, said there really are such incidents. Mothers give up on the children and they are given for adoption. There is also something else. There is no law, a legal framework, that obliges maternity hospital’s management to keep such register. Is that true?
Ivan Kostov: After consulting with lawyers, I learned that this is true. I am grateful to you for making the issue public, an issue that has to be put for wide public discussion. I also thank Sofia Municipality for speaking about it. The registration of such children has to be made obligatory under a law. It is unacceptable not to keep record about the number of these babies. The information must be also shared with the social services. I guess you must get into contact with the social services, too. This is not normal.
Host: Thus, the former management of the hospital did nothing illegal and there is no way to obtain information about whether these babies have been sent to social homes for abandoned children as the state did not do its job.
Thank you, Mr. Kostov, for your vigilance and for alarming Sofia Municipal Council on the issue.
Unfortunately, it seems as if this will turn barren, as there is no law to trace these children after they are born and mothers leave them.
A notorious Bulgarian writer – Elim Pelin, said it in the past that to some the state is a mother, while to others – a step-mother. Both literally and figuratively.
