Woman who abandoned baby convicted without punishment

Well, I'm guessing by now everyone has heard about the tragic event that shocked the nation. Not long after boarding a Pacific Blue flight on March the 19th from Apia to Auckland, a woman suddenly gave birth to a baby girl and dumped her in the rubbish bin of the aeroplane cubicles. The mother, Karolaine Maika was 1 out of 72 other people that were hired and sent to New Zealand to work as fruit pickers. Immediately, after the baby was found, police were called as soon as the plane landed. Karolaine and her baby were taken straight to Middlemore hospital for further care.

I personally don’t understand how this woman was given permission to board the plane without people noticing that she was heavily pregnant. Before boarding a flight all passengers should be informed and aware of all rules before flying. I found on the Pacific Blue’s website, “pregnant women need medical clearance to board a flight if they’d had complications or were more than 36 weeks pregnant.” After researching this horrific event, I find it very hard to believe that absolutely no-one on the plane noticed something was wrong with this lady. You would think that the crew staff or even a person that was sitting beside her (if there was one) would have noticed how long she was gone for. Being realistic here, you can’t pop out a baby in 5 minutes, so I’m guessing she would have been in the toilets for an extensive amount of time. It is highly rare that there would have been no screaming or sounds during her labour and birth? And even if there weren’t people around at that time, I’m sure the toilets would have been covered in blood? So the next person to use the toilets would have found it a little strange. Don’t you think?

When she arrived in Auckland, “Auckland Staff became suspicious when the woman, who had misplaced her passport, approached a staff member, looking pale and blood-stained”, I mean come on, it is only natural to notice that something is wrong and pull her aside to ask a few questions. It is the staffs job to make sure every customer is well looked after. I feel that the Pacific Blue employees should be more aware of their customers and be more alert of the things that are happening around them. The rules and regulations should be stricter towards women flying whilst pregnant. They should at-least has to undergo some type of medical examination before being able to board any flight. Although staff had been “trained to check whether passenger are pregnant”, though the airline did not say whether these procedures were taken.

After this incident occurred police were likely to prosecute Karolaine after allegedly abandoning her baby. But, since appearing in Manukau’s District Court she was “convicted without punishment”. What are they showing the world? That it is okay to abandon your baby and even worse dump it in the bin and leave the airport like nothing had happened? Karolaine should have been prosecuted and not have been allowed to be reunited with her baby. Many people reckon that she should have been “charged for attempted murder” or even worse “sent straight back to Samoa and thrown into prison or locked up in New Zealand as soon as her baby was found”. New Zealand’s government should be cracking down on these types of women, avoiding and preventing this problem not helping them by giving them the easy way out. New Zealand’s government social welfare should take charge, separate mother and child for the mean while, and have Karolaine undergo psychological treatment.

Yes, I do understand how she would have been ashamed of giving birth to a child out of wedlock, but, I don’t see how she was able to just abandon her baby like that? Imagine if the cleaners chucked that bin into the next rubbish dump? Karolaine would have gotten away with murder and this innocent baby would have died. It was Karolaine’s decision to have unprotected sex so obviously there would be a high risk of getting pregnant. She should have thought about the consequences of her actions and how they would affect her life. I know the Samoan culture and I’m pretty sure they don’t tell you to throw your baby away? It was her choice she should just have just taken the crap. She should have stood up and taken possession of that innocent life. After asking a few people around school they also said that “she shouldn’t have tried so hard to condone her actions on being disowned from her family or ashamed, she should be given the right consequences”.

There are so many women in the world who are unable to have babies and I find it really sad as to how easy it was for this lady to just dump her baby in the rubbish like trash. I personally would advise all the women to realize the special gift they have been given instead of looking at it like a burden and for them to understand how lucky they are to be able to create life.