Couple in UK dumps newborn girls

A British couple, who travelled to India for fertility treatment, abandoned their twin babies in the UK because they wanted a male child.

The mother aged 59 and father, 72, conceived in India with fertility treatment and dumped their twin babies in a British hospital after finding out they were girls. According to the British tabloid, Sun, the couple told horrified medics they did not want the babies immediately after the Caesarean section in Wolverhampton.

The report said the husband also wanted to know how soon it would be before his wife was fit enough to fly out again for further IVF in the hope of having a boy to continue the family name.

The couple are of Indian descent but British citizens living in Birmingham. According to tabloid, the twins, who are less than two weeks old, were then transferred to a central NHS hospital in Birmingham. "This is Britain in the 21st century," a shocked NHS insider told the tabloid.

It is understood that the babies were abandoned soon after birth and have not been visited once by their parents. Their mother — one of Britain's oldest — reportedly discharged herself against the advice of doctors who told her she should stay in hospital for a week after her operation.

A spokeswoman for New Cross Hospital said: "We can confirm a pair of twins were born at New Cross Hospital. They were healthy and well. They were born here because the maternity (facility) where the parents were living was busy, so a few days later they were transferred to a Birmingham hospital, where the parents were living.