CCTV footage has captured the moment a mother abandoned her baby. The newborn was later found inside a pink plastic bag  just two hours after birth.
The newborn was found by shocked locals from the village of Wangjiaoqiao in southwest China, who immediately took the child to police, reports The Courier Mail. Officials drove the infant to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment, but after four hours of effort from doctors and nurses, it was clear there was no hope of reviving them.
The child - who’s gender was not reported - was pronounced dead.
What we know about the mother
Our hearts immediately break for the senselessness of this baby’s death - and we’re left pondering what series of events could possibly lead a new mother to do such a horrific thing.
Reports say the mother was young - only 20 years old. They say she had no stable income, and no knowledge of who the baby’s father was. Chilling surveillance footage shows her dressed in a red coat and black trousers, carrying the pink plastic bag across town - her newborn inside it, unbeknown to passers-by.
She is referred to only as ‘Wang’.
This woman carried her child to full term, and nurtured her body in order to help her baby grow. Perhaps she was living in hope that something unexpected would happen that made her life more suitable for raising a child? Perhaps not …
When police located her, Wang reportedly confessed to abandoning her baby only hours after giving birth, but she could give no clear reason as to why - and she outright refused to answer questions about the child’s father.
What punishment is suitable?
It’s horrid to hear of a mother having so little regard for their own baby’s life, and for that we hope her punishment truly fits her crime.
In 2014, a Sydney woman was accused of a similar crime after dumping her baby in a stormwater drain in Quakers Hill. Despite being abandoned for five days, the infant was miraculously found alive by passing cyclists, meaning the mother was only sentenced to three years and six months in prison. What would the verdict be if her actions had led to the infant’s death?
If Wang is found guilty of murdering her baby before discarding it, her sentence will be heftier than the charges she currently faces. But whether she did or not, ultimately the outcome is the same: the world lost a baby too soon, and that is something that cannot be reversed.
