| Selling off a child if it becomes too much of a burden is fairly frequent in some parts of the world and not that badly regarded. Some cultures, also in our past, acknowledge(d) a far more proprietary relationship between parents (but mainly fathers) and children, and parents could freely choose to have their children killed (if they showed some handicap at birth or similar).
If I'm not mistaken this could be the case for South-East Asia, the region where Mr. Vu originally comes from. So it might be in part cultural. Though the fact that he sold her for improving his home, rather than making it easier to raise remaining kids, shows some healthy American consumerist influence.
That said, there were no signs of abuse or neglect according to the article, so I think the reactions of "filth" and "atrocity" are a bit overreacting. Moreover the child seems to be of an age were adoption might be less of a traumatic event.
And the article leaves some questions open:
- Did he choose to raise the baby alone or was he left with it by the mother?
- What was the guy's economic situation?
- Darzog's comments raise an important point: was he desperate to get rid of his daughter (because he felt he couldn't care for her correctly) and the money came second and the home improvements only something he thought most useful to do with it or was he looking to find money to improve his house and thought "hey, why don't I sell my daughter?".
So too many unknowns for me to make a moral judgment. He ain't nice, for sure, but "filth" or "atrocious"? I don't know.  |