Parents want boys, abandon newborn girls

WOLVERHAMPTON, England, May 29 (UPI) -- A British couple allegedly abandoned newborn twin girls at a hospital because they wanted boys, a government worker said.

The new parents told doctors they didn't want the "wrong sex" babies after they were delivered by Caesarean section in Wolverhampton, England, The Sun reported Thursday. The husband asked how soon his wife could travel to undergo fertility treatment in hopes of conceiving a boy to carry on the family name.

The 59-year-old mother and 72-year-old father used fertility treatments in India and returned to England for the birth, the British newspaper reported.

"Everyone is utterly appalled. How could any parent do this?" a National Health Services worker told The Sun. "This is Britain in the 21st century. But they just weren't prepared to raise these two beautiful girls."

The parents were born in India but are British citizens living in Birmingham. Babies have been abandoned in India simply for being girls but the newspaper said this is the first known instance of such an abandonment in Britain.

A spokeswoman for New Cross Hospital, where the girls were delivered, told The Sun the hospital could confirm the twins were born at the facility and were "healthy and well."