Nebraska "Safe Haven" Law Reconsidered
Parents Abandon Children as Old as 17
The Safe Haven Law was established in Nebraska to allow parents to abandon their children at a hospital without fear of prosecution. Nebraska is not the first state to have this law, in fact it is one of the last states to allow this; yet the law had not determined a specific age limit.
After receiving publicity on children as old as 17 being abandoned at Nebraska hospitals by their parents, it was decided to rewrite the Safe Haven law so that a child must be within 3 days old in order to be legally abandoned without fear of prosecution. This is the same age cap upheld in most other states as well.
Before rewriting the Safe Haven law on the 20th of October, 2008; the law covered the legal abandonment of children, leaving the term general and covering children up to age 19. Problems arose when nearly 20 children were abandoned... and the youngest was 22 months.
One man made headlines for dropping off nine children, claiming the mother had passed on and he could not care for his children. One of the most highly publicized incidents was the abandonment of a 13 year old boy, whose adoptive mother had driven 12 hours with just to abandon him.
She lost custody of 4 of her other children based on this incident.
The Safe Haven Law exists in nearly every state as an alternative to fatal abandonment (dumpster babies) but the incorporation of the Safe Haven Law in Nebraska lacked the limit on age (3 days), so nearly all of the children abandoned within such a short time frame were old enough to realize what was going on, and this can be very traumatic for a person.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/17/safe.haven.ap/index.html
Published by Caryn Murray
Caryn is a creative consultant and copy writer with BAM! Copy Writing. She specializes in modern media Branding (that stands out), Advertising (that shouts) and Marketing (that counts.) For more information,... View profile
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I apologize for the error, and thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The law was not rewritten on Oct. 20th. Instead, the governor and legislators merely agreed to rewrite it at the beginning of the 2009 session, or possibly in a special session prior to the 2009 session. To date, the law has not been amended.