2,000 fetuses found at Thai Buddhist temple

2,000 fetuses found at Thai Buddhist temple

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BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police investigating a strong smell emanating from a Buddhist temple have found more than 2,000 fetuses hidden in the complex's morgue that appear to have come from illegal abortion clinics.

During an initial investigation at the temple in Bangkok on Tuesday, police discovered piles of plastic bags containing more than 300 fetuses. Police Lt. Col. Kanathud Musiganont said workers pulled more bodies from the temple's morgue Friday. More than 2,000 have been unearthed from vaults where bodies are traditionally interred pending cremation, which under some circumstances

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I thought Buddhism was a life-loving religion? This goes to show the world the kind of charade another religion can put on while in fact promoting death to the truly innocent.

This is just one Buddhist temple. A TEMPLE! 2000 infants.

How many temples are there in Thailand? Are they all following the same priciples?

This is a staggering nightmare. May all of those responsible find their place in Hell.


www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

EDIT: OK. Let me apologize for jumping to conclusions. I didn't read the entire article. I was just stunned by the number of fetuses that were found at this single location. The stench is what prompted a search and for someone to allow these unborns to lie around and rot is beyond belief.

I'm still in disbelief at the number. 2000? That's a lot of lives.

omg...thats horrible

well..sex and money makes everyone weird :S

I believe abortion should be a last thought. I don't know about Thailand and how people there live and believe. I doubt Buddhism was the cause of this and I believe people just hid the bodies in the Buddhist temple. I believe they shouldn't have or use the Buddhist temple for this use.

Please remember that assigning your cultural, religious, or moral values to others is otherwise known as "intolerance". There is nothing in Buddhism that specifically disallows anything because all is on the path to spiritual growth. We all start somewhere.

Be careful how you judge others. Others can always look at you with the same judgmental eye.

Originally posted by Intelearthling
I thought Buddhism was a life-loving religion? This goes to show the world the kind of charade another religion can put on while in fact promoting death to the truly innocent.

This is just one Buddhist temple. A TEMPLE! 2000 infants.

How many temples are there in Thailand? Are they all following the same priciples?

This is a staggering nightmare. May all of those responsible find their place in Hell.

Um.. The temples were not performing the abortions. They were handling the disposal of the bodies. From the mindset of the monks, they probably felt that even though the fetus's life was terminated, the body still deserved a proper cremation.

According to the article, cremations can take a long time to perform in these temples. Thus the back log. I am not astonished by the numbers at all, but I am stunned by the horrible risk to public health. Even if they were in plastic bags (as described in the article), if the smell can get out, then infectious material can as well.

reply to post by Intelearthling


Buddhism is not a religion.

I don't see how getting an abortion could be opposed in Buddhist philosophy- it teaches to have respect for life. If you can't give that baby the best life it deserves, then you make sure it doesn't suffer.

reply to post by Intelearthling


You know... With my studies on Buddhism.. and knowing buddhists.. I doubt that they were the ones that promoted or did the abortions.. and they probably had some insane reason that they were keeping them, probably as a ritual or something like that..

Abortion is illegal in Thailand. This kind of thing happens when abortion is illegal. It's not a Buddhist thing, it's an illegal abortion thing. If abortion were legal, these fetuses would have been properly handled and not 'hidden'.

It's a sad story, as Thailand has a huge sex worker industry because of their lax views on sex in their culture.

However, the article states that the abortions aren't happening at the temple. The fetuses are being accepted to the morgue so they can be burned eventually. The problem here is that these fetuses are suspected of being the results of illegal abortions.

It's normal for churches (of any religion) to be a place of refuge for people involved in excessive government laws. My speculation is that this Buddhist temple probably initially decided to accept these fetuses from guilty (former) mothers that wanted their dead babies to be burned in the proper Buddhist manner for spiritual concerns of the babies.

Then the word most likely got around and the temple received WAY more dead fetuses than they were expecting. Believe it or not, even Buddhist temple managers can make poor planning decisions. So while trying to figure out what to do with all these fetuses (and probably even beginning to have second thoughts about their decision to accept them in the first place), the fetuses began to do the natural thing: decay. Hence the smell.

This is what happens when you make laws that human nature will simply not obey.

It's true what they say. We always want to blame someone....

How one would blame anyone other than the mother or father of the child for a voluntary abortion is beyond me.

Buddhism is now suddenly to be associated with abortion? Take a very close look at how this argument is couched.

This is an example of how sensationalism plays on emotion.

At some point some 2000 fetuses were aborted. - How is Buddhism related to this fact?
2000 fetuses were found near a crematorium at a Buddhist temple. - In what way does this implicate Buddhism at all?

Had the fetuses been found at the city dump, should we decry the presumably evil civil servants working there?

Check you passions at the door - when it comes to people deciding to terminate pregnancies, we must start at the beginning.... namely, the people deciding to terminate the pregnancy. Whether you believe them to be within their rights or morally wrong - THEY are the actors in the scenario. Buddhism is just a circumstantial element to this story.

The need for illegal abortion clinics, the magnitude of their prosperity, and the impact on public safety seem more immediately noteworthy.

Originally posted by Intelearthling
I thought Buddhism was a life-loving religion?

Christianity claims the same thing. But there are millions of Christians around the world who kill their children in the womb as well. I feel so bad for the children .... abortion is such a painful way to die.

I dont think the Buddhist made them. I do think they may have allowed the bodies to be within their spiritual location more less as giving the dead safe passage. It is sad either way but I dont think the Monks were performing any abortions or scientific experiments on the fetuses as well, LIKE SOME I WONT MENTION. Anyway its sad situation and hopefully they will cleans that location of any potential health risk and continuing being who they are...

Considering Buddhists do not believe in harming any life, abortion is not something a Buddhist doctor would consider to be morally imperative. That said, this temple is not Buddhist.

reply to post by rogerstigers


The fact of the matter is that the corpses were found in the temple. Someone from within the temple had to allow these babies to be placed there. Being tolerant by not reporting to the authorities of the criminal actions of those who commit these acts can't be used as an excuse.

If a person can't report a known criminal act, then they are an accessory to that crime.

reply to post by filosophia


I don't know where you have come across that information, but lamas eat meat pretty regularly.

There is quite a lot of misinformation out there about Buddhism. Please do find out more out there in the webz. One thing I will tell you though is the a primary tenet of Buddhism is that "life is suffering". All things spin from that.

Take that as you will, but there is nothing in Buddhism that is specifically disallowed. All things are simply lessons on the path.

Go on. Wiki it already.

Originally posted by Intelearthling


I thought Buddhism was a life-loving religion? This goes to show the world the kind of charade another religion can put on while in fact promoting death to the truly innocent.

This is just one Buddhist temple. A TEMPLE! 2000 infants.

How many temples are there in Thailand? Are they all following the same priciples?

This is a staggering nightmare. May all of those responsible find their place in Hell.


www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Did you even read the article you posted? At no point in the article does it say either explicitly or between the lines, that Buddists , from the temple were involved in the storage of , or the abortions of the fetuses. Therefore your point about the number of temples in Thailand is utterly moot. Again, no resident , or operative of the temple has been arrested in connection with this discovery .
Another point, Buddhists will tell you that in no way is Buddhism an actual religion. It is a philosophy , claiming no true gods, and being nothing to do with worship, but about self advancement, about peace, and about sculpting ones own mind to be more in tune with the reality of the world, rather than being caught up in melodrama and foolishness born from the id . It is not a religion, it is merely a way of thinking. Its true that the Buddha is revered by people who follow his teachings, but that is not because he is thier god, it is because they recognise in him admirable foresight and a deep understanding of the human condition, similar to the way that people in America sometimes think "Boy o Boy, wasnt Abe Lincoln an awesome dude? I wanna be just like him when Im older!" . You show so little understanding of the people and the philosophy you are attacking, that you might as well sit down, shut up and listen. Its the only way you will ever gain enough knowledge to speak with understanding about the region ,its way of thought , way of life, or its people.

reply to post by Intelearthling


I'm sorry, but what point are you making here?

Buddhism is bad?
Buddhists love abortions?

I don't really get the point you're trying to make. Could you expand on it?

Yes, these aborted fetuses were found in the morgue of a Buddhist temple, awaiting proper disposal. And what does that tell you?

reply to post by TrueBrit


OK. I'll admit I didn't read the entire article because I was stunned that these fetuses could be found at a temple.

I just saw the numbers and was shocked that so many babies could be placed in one location. Maybe I am jumping to conclusions to think that all the temples in Thailand has the same problem.

I placed this thread here to show the staggering amount of lives being aborted. If 2000 fetuses found in one location isn't something to be taken aback on then what is this world coming to? I know the world is facing problems of overpopulation and starvation but to simply kill an unborn baby is not the solution to our worlds problems.

What I'm so shocked about is that the 2000 fetuses are found in one location in Thailand what's to be found everywhere else? Has the world become so desensitized that the news of all these aborted unborns is just common news?

People care more about the rights of a murderer that's been executed than the lives of those who never had a chance.

I'll make a promise to NOT to jump to conclusions and read an article in its entirety before making any comments on it.

My apologies fellow ATS members.

reply to post by Intelearthling


Okay, Im sorry if I jumped on you a bit there, but I have some very together and caring friends who happen to follow the way of Buddha, and from my association with them I have learned that the only reason the temple was the site of this discovery, is probably because the monks and so on from the temple were probably going to give those unborn a proper send off.
Now, I entirely agree that its terrible that these fetuses have been found like this, as it leads one to the unhappy discovery that the world is a crap sandwhich sometimes, and lets be honest, it is. Its very likely that this is not the only temple to have un buried corpses stored in it, and no doubt the backlog will prevent the majority from being buried in a timely fashion. Its right that you highlight the damning numbers involved, and that you highlight the plight of the child in Thailand. However, each of those 2000 babies unborn, has thier own history, and before assuming that the illegality of the circumstances means that the reason behind the abortions are ALL utterly without justification is somewhat short sighted. Here in the UK the laws are pretty relaxed on this subject , in comparison with Thai law, and yet I know people who have had abortions because of a range of factors. Psychological trauma was one. A girl I knew was with a fellow who had a taste for violence, and he impregnated her one week, then threatened her with a katana the next week. The man was insane, and being as totaly devasted by him as she was, my friend knew she would never be able to look after the child, but couldnt bare to give birth and give the child up. She took the only other way out.
I can only imagine how much more difficult things must be for a girl in Thailand, where law lets face it, is not the bastion we rely upon in the west. I have no doubt that some of these abortions were more to do with convienience than anything else, but without details on all of them, assuming the worst reasons for thier deaths is although understandable from a psychological point of veiw, invalid in terms of factual basis. Its terrible, but morality and law tend to dance in seperate discos ... know what I mean?

Thanks for being honest and apologising by the way. It does you credit that you are prepared to admit when words are spoken in vitriol rather than pragmatism. Really , many thanks.