No, You Should Not Sell Your Five-Month-Old To Raise Money For A New Apartment
19-year-old West Virginian Rebecca Sue Taylor is facing felony charges after trying to sell her five-month-old son for $10,000 to raise money for a new apartment. Taylor was in talks to act as a surrogate mother for Leigh Burr, but then realized she could skip a few steps and still turn a buck. When it looked like negotiations weren't going well, Taylor, who claimed she had been "unable to bond with the infant," dropped the price of her son to $5,000.
Charleston Police Sgt. E. L. Hodges said Burr reported the offer to police on Sunday. Taylor was arrested Wednesday.
Hodges said the child is in state custody. He said he did not know anything about the baby's father.
Hodges said the two women were acquaintances, but he did not know the extent of their relationship. He also said he did not know anything about Taylor's financial situation or whether she was employed.
Burr does not have a published phone number and could not be reached for comment Friday.
Hodges said he's heard of similar cases across the country, but said such crimes are rare in West Virginia.
"We've been lucky," he said.
Taylor now faces felony charges since it's illegal to sell children. Trying carries a $2,000 fine, and if Taylor's lucky, she'll end up in a state-funded apartment for five years, complete with a snazzy orange outfit and a new set of bracelets.
WVa mother charged with trying to sell infant son [AP]
Mom charged with trying to sell baby for new apartment [NBC Augusta]
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Comments:
people like this make me ashamed of my generation. at least she didn't try to pawn the baby on craigslist or something...
One word: Meth
Not to make light of the situation, but..."Leigh Burr" - pronounced "Labor" - caught me as a bit funny.
@Mooshie: Which might explain why she couldn't 'bond with the infant'. You'd think that someone who looked like that, with an infant in tow, could get a spot in a shelter if she was that hard up for cash.
Was she offering an extended warranty?
EPIC PARENTING FAIL
As abused as the "Drop any Child off For Safekeeping" law was, you have to admit that some people should not have kids. It's sad the state has to pick up the slack for them but I'd rather my tax payer dollars go to making the abandoned child into a productive member of society then end up with an abused and neglected child growing into a poorly adjusted adult.
@Barrister76: With an item like that, I doubt it. Cost of regular maintenance is high and any special repairs are astronomical. Replacement parts are difficult to acquire despite being plentiful and almost impossible to get a tech to install.
I lived this shit...my dad tried to sell me on the black market for drug money when I was 3 weeks old. Luckily, my mom wasn't as fucked up on drugs as my dad, and notified the cops. I was adopted by my maternal grandparents right afterwards. Now my dad is on death row for murder and my mom is fingerblasting chicks in Texas. If my life is any indication, that lady's baby is going to have an interesting life, to say the least...
As horrible as this is, whats the difference between this, giving a kid up for adoption, and being a surrogate mother?
NOTHING.
I got lucky, back when I was young the state of Indiana hadn't gone full retard yet with the stupid "kids should always be with their biological family!" crap. So I had the good fortune of growing up in a privately funded religious orphanage with excellent support staff and access to private high school.
Everytime someone extols to me the importance of a kid growing up with their biological family, I like to whip out one of these stories. sure, growing up in an institution is not precisely "normal" but Jesus it sure beats growing up with methheads, child abusers, alcoholics, and people who couldn't have a clue even if you bought them the game.
@silver-bolt: Um, because people who can't adopt kids for a very good reason end up buying them in the black market.
I will say that the end result is better overall though - the kid is in state custody, which for all its faults is much better than living with a meth head.
By the looks of her "mug shot," the slammer will also help her out with her meth problem. Or at least, technically it should. Not sure how easy it is to score meth in lock up.
Yes, take that baby away from her. AWAY.
I had know idea the market rate for a West Virginian was over $1,000.
@katieoh: I blame rampant shorthand, non-existent capitalization, LOLs and OMGs on our generation. But I think there have always been bad people like this around.
@humphrmi: I'll never forget the slideshows I saw in high school about meth abuse. It turns you into Skeletor.
@FuryOfFirestorm: That's an awful story, and I admire your candor in discussing it. But am I a bad person for chuckling when I read "fingerblasting"?
The fact that she looks like white trash does not surprise me in the least bit.
Well, this story certainly has a happy ending. The child will be taken away from her, and she won't have to worry about finding a place to live! Win-win.
@Trai_Dep: "In those days, West Virginians had pictures of bumble bees on 'em. Give me 5 bees for $5000 you'd say."
-Abe Simpson
This young woman looks like casualty of the meth addiction that is rampant in poverty stricken areas such as West Virginia. She is "unable to bond with the baby" because she's obsessed with getting her next hit. This is a very sad case but I'm glad she didn't kill the baby. The baby will taken away and placed in better care (I hope). As for the young woman I hope she too will get some major drug treatment while in jail. She has her whole life ahead of her I hope for her and her baby's sake that will get clean.
This is why we need some IQ test or something... Like a "make sure you are a decent human being" kind of test. Anyone know how to get that started?
By the way...I'll take the baby for $250! That should cover your drug habit for a day or so.
@silver-bolt: Oversight. Legal adoptions, surrogacy, and even embryo donations all have at least some level of regulatory oversight and required legal procedures to protect everyone involved.
Without such oversight, those who take the kids have no protection from birth parents changing their mind (some states explicitly allow take-back periods, others do not).
It also protects the children. Newsflash: both sexual and labour slavery exists in the US. If you know the right series of people to ask, you can have sex with, abuse, and yes, even kill a child and you don't even have to go to some third world hellhole to do it. Pretty much every major US city has at least some amount of child sex slavery going on, and let me make this clear: I do not mean 17.5 year olds, I mean CHILDREN. Little kids.
If unregulated selling of children was legal, it'd be that much easier for such horrible places to get their hands on more fodder. You can bet there would even be drugged out mothers renting out their wombs regularly to supply children to such fates. There almost certainly are such people, but right now, it's at least difficult to do because of legal restrictions on what you can do with your own infant.
@silver-bolt: surrogate mothers dont share genes with the babies they give birth to... its some other womens inseminated egg inside them...
if she is a surrogate....then does the baby have another mother and father? since it does not share genes with the woman who birthed the kid?
@drb023: I would really wish that the government would care as much about a baby human's environment as they seem to care about pet adoptions. People should need a license to breed.
@Trai_Dep: Woohoo for abstinence education! It totally works, because teenagers always do exactly what they're told, and are never, ever interested in figuring out their sexuality.
@kaceetheconsumer:
thanks... I'm going to go slit my wrists now... Holy shit this planet sucks sometimes.
She would have got a much better price from cashforkids.com.
She was trying to sell her five month old to raise money for an apartment? That's unconscionable!
I mean, you're going to go through all that for a place you're only going to be RENTING? At least get a down payment for a condo, fer crissakes...
@salvatorecondegni: Completely off topic, but why is this kind of racist comment apparently ok, but had she been black and you had said "why does it not surprise me shes black", every person here would be screaming to have you banned?
@FuryOfFirestorm: What the hell does your mother's sexual orientation have to do with things? OH NOES, SHE'S A LESBIAN. Sure is a great thing to judge by, instead of things like child neglect and stuff that actually, you know, effected you.
West Virginia. No offense, but I've heard discouraging things about that state.... :(
So it's ok to plan in advance to sell a kid, but if you do it spur of the moment, that's bad.
She looks like a zombie.