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Help for desperate migrant couple in Shenzhen

By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-10 07:53

SHENZHEN: A laboratory in this city has offered to conduct free DNA tests on a desperate couple trying to reclaim their daughter.

Feng Jingguo and his wife, Tang Dongtao, both migrant workers, abandoned their 2-year-old extremely ill daughter outside a hospital on Aug 28 because they could not afford her medical bills.

The girl is suffering from infantile fibrosarcoma, a malignant (cancerous) tumor.

The girl, Feng Lingling, was subsequently taken to a welfare center for children.

Tang Dongtao show a picture of Feng Lingling at her home in Shenzhen on September 2 2008. [China Daily]

"When we left Lingling we thought of three possibilities: The hospital would find and treat her, some kind people would pay for her treatment, or it would draw the attention of the media and help might be offered," Southern Metropolis Daily quoted the parents as saying.

The parents, however, had a change of heart and went to the center to reclaim her, but lacked legal proof of parentage.

Lingling is the couple's second child, thus in breach of the family planning policy.

She was delivered by an unregistered doctor who charged 600 yuan ($88). The normal fee at a registered hospital is 3,000 yuan.

It meant they could not obtain an official birth certificate. They could not even register Lingling with the police department in Sichuan, hometown of the father, because they would be fined of 3,000 yuan for breaking the family planning rule.

The Shenzhen welfare center told the couple they must undergo DNA tests, costing 4,600 yuan, and it would take 15 days to complete.

"If we had that money, we would have sent Lingling for more chemotherapy treatment," Tang said.

Lingling had been receiving treatment at a children's hospital in Chongqing since March.

The parents ran out of money and were unable to borrow from relatives and friends.

"The doctor told me Lingling must complete the treatment as soon as possible, no longer than two months," Tang said.

The Shenzhen Wuzheng Test & Athentification Center, on hearing of the couple's plight, offered to do the tests free.