Safe-Haven Laws: Good or Bad for the Infant

According to B.A. Robinson's Ontario Consultants on religious Tolerance, in the year 1999, Texas was the very first state to enact what is largely known as a "Safe Haven" law. Also referred to as the Bay Moses law, Safe Place, Safe Arms for Newborns, etc, these laws were enacted for the purpose of saving the lives of the several hundred or even the several thousand infants whom are abandoned every year and left to die alone. Whether it be in a cold, dark alley, a dumpster, a germ infested trashcan, or even at a complete strangers front door, it's all because the parent is, for a variety of reasons, afraid or even inhuman. Depending upon the state, the safe -haven law enables a parent to leave their infant in the capable hands of a doctor, police officer, or in some cases a firefighter, sometimes even with no question asked. There are various states that do require the individual's medical history so that the child can receive proper medical treatment if needed.

You may be wondering if there's an age limit on this safe-Haven law. In July of 2008, the state of Nebraska reportedly enacted a safe -haven law where it defined a child as anyone under the age of eighteen. Now, almost any semi-intelligent person could see the potential problems with this. Due to the desertion of teenage children, the law was changed in November of the same year. It specified that infants up to thirty-days old were allowed to be abandoned under specific approved conditions without criminal charges being brought upon the parent.

Even though this law was enacted in an attempt to help more than hurt, problems still arise thus causing the public to question the law itself. For example, if a woman decides that it would be marginally easier for her to not keep her child, she could easily drop the baby off without the knowledge of the infants father therefore stripping him of all parental rights if he can't track down the infant before he/she is adopted. How is that fair, you might ask. The fact is that it isn't fair, it's more a question of picking which situation you'd rather have the child in if you had to pick; in the care of the state without her/his paternal parent, or wrapped in a blanket and left to die alone in a dumpster. No, it isn't a easy decision to make but the state is tired of finding infant corpses in the city dumpsters just because a teenage girl didn't want her family to find out that she'd secretly had a baby or because a drug addict got scared and didn't know what else to do. It may not be the best thing, but it beats murder by a long shot.

Robinson, B.A. Ontario Consultants on religious Tolerance. 11 Mar. 2003.http://www.religioustolerance.org/saf_have.htm