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Police at the Xi'an Xianyang airport of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, hold the rescued newborn who was allegedly stolen 10 hours after being born in hospital on Nov 20. [Xinhua]
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A young woman who admitted that she stole a baby from a hospital to hide an abortion from her boyfriend was arrested Wednesday, and the baby has been reunited with her family.
Ge Qianru, 20, from a suburb of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, said she had been living with her boyfriend in Guangdong province and was six months pregnant with his child.
But after she had a fight with her boyfriend, Ge had an abortion and returned to her hometown in Xi'an.
"We made up later via phone and he asked me about my child," Beijing Times quoted Ge as saying.
She then tried to buy a baby to cheat her boyfriend. Ge said she was not able to find a seller and decided to steal one from a Shaanxi hospital instead.
"Ge is being interrogated in our bureau now," an official surnamed Zheng from the public security bureau of Xi'an told China Daily.
Police are working to confirm the details of her story, including checking where she got her abortion and where the baby was stolen.
Posing as a nurse and wearing a nurse's uniform, Ge was able to take the baby out of the maternity ward. She told the baby's aunt that she was going to give the baby a medical checkup but instead carried the baby out of the hospital. She and the baby then boarded an airplane headed for Guangdong.
Police were able to figure out Ge's identity from hospital videotape and began to track her movements.
Ge was arrested by police when taking the baby, who had developed a fever, to see a doctor in Guangdong last Wednesday.
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A video grab shows the suspect walking through the No 1 Hospital of the Xi'an Jiaotong University before allegedly stealing the baby. (Right) Police lead the suspect out of the airport in Xi'an on Tuesday, a day after she is caught in Dongguan, Guangdong province. [Xinhua]
| "I did not mean to hurt the baby, but offered a lot of care. I am very regretful," Beijing Times quoted Ge as saying.
Hospital officials denied any responsibility for the case.
Li Xu, head of the hospital, said the hospital has "strict management" and has no reason or necessity to find out and punish the people who may have been liable, the Hangzhou-based Dushi Kuaibao reported on Tuesday.
Lawyer Tang Hongxin from Beijing Yingke Law Firm said the hospital should shoulder civil responsibility.
"The hospital had made a contract with the victim (the baby's mother) to offer care while she and the baby were being hospitalized. It broke its promise and violated the patient's interests and mental situation," Tang said.
Under Chinese law, there is no clear definition of hospitals' liability in its guardianship over the patients, which put patients in a disadvantaged position, Tang said.
"We could only apply to the general spirit of the civil law to handle similar cases," he said.
The case has also renewed worries over child trafficking and netizens are calling for ways to prevent the hospitals from becoming a new channel for the problem.
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