Spain's stolen babies and the families who lived a lie

[Blue_Tires]

Spanish society has been shaken by allegations of the theft and trafficking of thousands of babies by nuns, priests and doctors, which started under Franco and continued up to the 1990s.

I first met Manoli Pagador in Getafe, in a working-class suburb of Madrid. She was attending a meeting for people affected by the scandal Spaniards call "ninos robados" - stolen children.

She has three daughters and lots of grandchildren, but she has never got over the loss of her first-born - a son - nearly 40 years ago.

She had come to think she was crazy for believing he was alive, instead of dead and buried as hospital doctors had told her.

"Now," she said, gripping my hand tightly. "Look around the room at the other women here. All like me. The same background. The same experience. I'm not mad and my family finally believes me."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15335899

[midnight]

1. Poor woman... I'm not mad and my family finally believes me."

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[pnwmom]

5. Or somewhere between 900 and 300,000.

Nobody knows the real numbers yet. 900 cases are currently being investigated. Lawyers are estimated the higher figure.

Not that there is an excuse for a single case.

[Blue_Tires]

8. Supposedly over 40-50 years, 300,000 is very believable...

[get the red out]

3. Catholic Church

They get their hands in every atrocity they can, don't they?

[pnwmom]

6. Spain at the time was 95% Catholic.

Many of the people involved were doctors and nurses. Should we blame all doctors and nurses, too? All Spaniards? Or just all Catholics?

[get the red out]

11. I didn't say "all Catholics"

I said "Catholic Church".

[Arugula Latte]

9. How can anyone support that institution? What a vile, vile history.

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Reading the story has made me physically ill. It's like something out of a bad horror film.

[Angry Dragon]

7. If the pope was a Christian he would open up the hospital records

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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