Baby's an It (call of the obstetrician?)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/12/2008 04:59 AM, Margaret Lee wrote:
>A wire news story yesterday reported on a newborn baby found
>abandoned on a doorstep in  a canvas bag in Newton, Mass:  "The
>baby, its umbilical cord still attached, was in the bag, along with
>a blanket and pillow."  There is no mention of the gender of the baby.

Other stories locally, both TV and print, did identify the
gender.  (Perhaps with information a possibly-hurried wire service
story did not yet have, since the baby was presumably clothed until
brought to a hospital.)  The Boston Globe article starts 'An
81-year-old man stepped outside to pick up his mail yesterday and was
stunned to find a newborn baby girl ...'.

It continues: ' "It wasn't what he was expecting," Detective Nils
Anderson of the Newton Police Department said outside John
Tuckerman's three-story clapboard house on Moulton Street. "He saw
the baby was sleeping peacefully, he touched it on the cheek, and her
eyes opened. Cute little baby." '  (Sexism rampant, of
course.)  Apparently for Detective Anderson babies are neuter until
personal contact is established.

The only other person -- including the reporter -- to refer to this
baby as "it" is "Representative Barry R. Finegold, an Andover
Democrat who helped sponsor the [Masssachusetts Baby Safe Haven]
law", who said:  ' "Clearly, this woman did not want to harm this
child, and I think if she would have known of the Baby Safe Haven
law, she would have potentially brought it to" a legally sanctioned
location. '  Here, I would find "she would have potentially brought
her to" awkward both to read and to say.

Joel

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