Kalmunai, Sri Lanka
A 4-month-old baby boy found in the rubble after the tsunami must undergo a DNA test to determine which—if any—of 15 desperate couples are his parents, a Sri Lankan judge ruled last week. “Baby 81,” so called because he was the 81st hospital admission of the day, was the subject of a local newspaper article about tsunami orphans. After seeing the child’s photograph, 15 couples who had lost young babies in the disaster came to the hospital to claim him. One couple was arrested last week after storming the ward and trying to snatch the baby. “That is my baby. I know he’s mine,” screamed the woman, Jeyaraja Junitha. But hospital officials say many other couples are just as certain. “They all believe this is their baby,” said one hospital official. “They are not lying. They have just lost their baby and they really believe it’s theirs.”
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