Burden of care proves to be too much for some

AN 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, was found dead in a local river in June. When her body was recovered bricks were found in the bag she had on her back. On July 25, the local police said she had been deliberately drowned by her father and grandfather, because she suffered from cerebral palsy and they considered her a burden on the family. Thepaper.cn comments:

Reports show that the girl came from a poor, rural family, which had spent at least half a million yuan ($73,363) on her treatment after she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

It was her grandmother that took care of her. Yet the grandmother had to undergo a surgical operation to treat cancer in June, and it was then that the grandfather and father allegedly killed her.