Tragic: Woman Gives Birth On Flight, Dumps Baby In Lavatory Trash Can

A sad story out of Mauritius, where a 20-year-old mother gave birth to a baby boy in-flight, only to dump him in a lavatory trash can of the A330 aircraft she was traveling on. Thankfully, the baby was found alive and is doing well.

Woman Dumps Baby In Lavatory Trash Can After Secretly Giving Birth In-Flight

The incident occurred on January 1, 2022 on Air Mauritius Flight 289 from Antananarivo, Madagascar (TNR) to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius (MRU). The 20-year-old woman was a Malagasy national traveling to Mauritius on work visa.

Customs officials found the baby onboard the Airbus A330neo while performing a post-flight inspection. The mother was quickly located (though multiple reports of the incident do not explain how) and initially denied the baby was hers, before confessing after police forced her to undergo a medical evaluation.

Both she and the baby were taken to an area hospital, but both are doing well. The woman now faces charges of child abandonment. The baby is being cared for by social workers.

The incident brings to memory a similar incident which took place in Qatar in late 2020. There, a baby was found abandoned in a restroom at Doha Hamad International Airport nearby a departing flight to Australia. Numerous women on the flight were forced to undergo vaginal exams as authorities sought to find the woman who had just given birth.

Qatar’s handling of the investigation sparked international outrage and has led to legal action against the government by at least a dozen Australian women.

As I argued at the time:

But importantly and thankfully, the child did not die. In fact, the child appears to be doing well. Only a desperate woman wholly unfit to be a mother would abandon her child in an airport restroom. In that sense, what was the point of finding the mother? To throw the mother in jail? To what end? So the baby and mother could be re-united? I certainly hope not.

This is tragedy and the blood on the baby’s face in the picture above screams for justice. A society that does not punish evildoers is an unjust and immoral society.

But what that punishment should be is hardly so straightforward. It isn’t clear how or why this woman was identified as the mother, but let’s assume in this case (unlike the Qatari case) authorities had probable cause to conduct this search.

Now what?

Throw her in jail? Deport her? She’s probably already earning slave-like wages looking for a better life in Mauritius and was absolutely desperate to show such a wanton disrespect for human life.

I really can’t answer what punishment is appropriate; I can simply rejoice that the baby is healthy and will hopefully have a better life in Mauritius or with loving relatives in Madagascar than her mother ever could have given him.

> Read More: Was Qatar Justified In Strip Searching Female Passengers After After Baby Found Abandoned In Airport Bathroom?

CONCLUSION

A baby boy was born onboard an Air Mauritius flight, only to be dumped in a lavatory trash can by a 20-year-old mother. Authorities have arrested the woman and she now faces criminal charges. Thankfully, the baby boy is doing well .