No bail for moms with fake HK doctors' letters
By Cai Wenjun |
July 4, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO pregnant women from Chinese mainland were denied bail after they were caught by Hong Kong police for using fake doctors' letters to deliver babies in the special administrative region, China News Service reported yesterday.
Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen on Saturday denied bail despite the defense's pleas for Su Zhongling, 39, and Chen Xiaohua, 33, to be released to receive prenatal check-ups, although both are due to give birth at the end of November.
Their case will resume on August 12 in Kowloon City Magistracy Court, Hong Kong Wen Wei Po newspaper reported yesterday.
Su and Chen entered Hong Kong with two-way exit permits and went to Hong Kong Princess Margaret Hospital to book maternity services with the help of an agent on June 29.
A non-Hong Kong woman must receive a prenatal check-up in Hong Kong by a local obstetrician and take the doctor's letter to a hospital to pay a deposit and reserve a legal child delivery service before their pregnancy reaches the seventh month.
The hospital became suspicious when the telephone numbers on the doctors' letters handed in by the two women turned out to be fake. When the doctors were finally contacted they denied issuing the letters.
Both Su and Chen's expected delivery dates were stated as March 2012, in the letters.
Their defense said Su is a company owner with one 19-year-old daughter. Chen is a married real estate agent.
Both claimed to have been unfamiliar with the legal process of delivering a baby in Hong Kong.
Mainland women opt to give birth in Hong Kong as this entitles the children to Hong Kong citizenship and circumvents the mainland's family planning rules.
As a result Hong Kong has introduced restriction, including reducing next year's quota of mainlanders allowed to deliver children in Hong Kong as an influx in recent years have overwhelmed the local medical system, causing complaints by Hong Kong pregnant women and over-pressure to hospitals and health staff.
A quota of 34,400 non-local pregnant women, including whose husbands are from Hong Kong, will be able to give birth in Hong Kong's public and private hospitals next year, a 7 percent decrease on this year.
Babies born to mainland mothers in Hong Kong rose from 13,000 in 2004 to more than 40,000 last year - 45 percent of the region's newborns.
Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen on Saturday denied bail despite the defense's pleas for Su Zhongling, 39, and Chen Xiaohua, 33, to be released to receive prenatal check-ups, although both are due to give birth at the end of November.
Their case will resume on August 12 in Kowloon City Magistracy Court, Hong Kong Wen Wei Po newspaper reported yesterday.
Su and Chen entered Hong Kong with two-way exit permits and went to Hong Kong Princess Margaret Hospital to book maternity services with the help of an agent on June 29.
A non-Hong Kong woman must receive a prenatal check-up in Hong Kong by a local obstetrician and take the doctor's letter to a hospital to pay a deposit and reserve a legal child delivery service before their pregnancy reaches the seventh month.
The hospital became suspicious when the telephone numbers on the doctors' letters handed in by the two women turned out to be fake. When the doctors were finally contacted they denied issuing the letters.
Both Su and Chen's expected delivery dates were stated as March 2012, in the letters.
Their defense said Su is a company owner with one 19-year-old daughter. Chen is a married real estate agent.
Both claimed to have been unfamiliar with the legal process of delivering a baby in Hong Kong.
Mainland women opt to give birth in Hong Kong as this entitles the children to Hong Kong citizenship and circumvents the mainland's family planning rules.
As a result Hong Kong has introduced restriction, including reducing next year's quota of mainlanders allowed to deliver children in Hong Kong as an influx in recent years have overwhelmed the local medical system, causing complaints by Hong Kong pregnant women and over-pressure to hospitals and health staff.
A quota of 34,400 non-local pregnant women, including whose husbands are from Hong Kong, will be able to give birth in Hong Kong's public and private hospitals next year, a 7 percent decrease on this year.
Babies born to mainland mothers in Hong Kong rose from 13,000 in 2004 to more than 40,000 last year - 45 percent of the region's newborns.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
