For a completely different take on the reports out of Britain claiming that too many children are being removed by officials from families, here's one that says MORE children should be taken away from their parents.

Focusing on beatings and killings of innocent victims by uncontrolled youths, the story strongly ties the issues together.

There was an outcry at the recent news that 2,120 babies were removed from their parents for adoption in England last year, almost three times the number of a decade ago.

Surely we should be worrying that more infants have not been rescued in the past - and much sooner.

In fact, Britain has among the lowest number of children taken into care in the world. Yet a child is killed by its parents at home every single week.

Anyone interested in open adoption records might want to think about adding themselves to this petition designed to encourage the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of India to require and produce background information on biological parents for adoptees.

According to adoption rights site The Daily Bastardette, the issues at hand are:

a) Birthrecords: that Adoptees, do also get an original Birth Certificate, with the names of their biological parents

b) Right to access to our files and records, even in case of children born to unwed mothers

c) Support and Setting up of independent Post Adoption Services

Since I've been writing about a hero on the International Blog, I'll add a link to this story from CNN, the network with a hero fixation at present, on who young people collectively consider their heros.

According to an AP/MTV survey being reported, it's Mom and Dad getting the designation from most kids.

Asked to name their heroes, young Americans surveyed by The Associated Press and MTV make their parents the collective top pick. Twenty-nine percent choose their mothers, 21 percent name their fathers and 16 percent pick their parents without specifying which one. Allowed to choose as many heroes as they'd like, nearly half mention at least one of their folks.

Awwwwww.

Perhaps a bit less heroic, or maybe not, parents like those in this article who hire 'baby coaches'.

Giordano, her mother or another staff member comes five nights a week to the Cottons' home, arriving at 11 p.m. and staying until 6 a.m. On the weekends, the Cottons handle the babies' care on their own, splitting up the late-night and early-morning feedings.

"You start counting the hours till 11," Adrien Cotton said. "During the weekends we are at each other's throats, and that's just two days a week. People do it seven days a week."

Okay, okay ... these folks do have newborn twins, but I can't help but react a bit negatively when I read the new father justifying the huge expense ... $75 per hour for the overnight service ... by saying, "It's keeping us sane."

Who said parents of newborn twins are supposed to be sane?

Maybe I'm just old fashioned ...

In a neighborhood where no one will be hiring baby coaches, more help is certainly needed.

A study by Johns Hopkins Children's Center recently released has found that babies and small children living in the inner-city houses of Baltimore are at serious risk from the houses themselves.

Fires, falls and poisoning are all perils that kids in these homes face daily, from a lack of functioning smoke detectors to unblocked staircases, unguarded drugs, exposed wiring, broken railings and more.

The study participants were 32 low-income, mostly unemployed pregnant women and mothers of kids under one year. Since more than 90% of fatal injuries to children less than a year old happen in the home, this is no small matter.

Rectifying, however, will not be easy ... or cheap.

... laws should require landlords to provide medication lock boxes, and install and maintain smoke alarms with lifelong lithium batteries, which may improve safety. Also, requiring manufacturers to design gates that fit narrow staircases in urban homes may help reduce falls.

It must be admitted somewhere along the line, however, that even these measures will not prevent deaths of young children in inner-city homes. Sad, but true.