Comments on: No Questions Asked?

By: Mr. J.

Mr. J. — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:21:22 +0000

The problems with this law, and others like it, are many. The most flagrant is that it assumes the women who kill or abandon their children to die are capable of acting rationally or give a rip about their children in the first place. A pretty dubious propostion, IMO.

Our legisators simply hopped on a bus they thought was a no-lose proposition, politically, instead of even trying to identify and address the circumstances that give rise to infanticide. This was easy, cheap, and something to brag about come election time.

We'll never know whether Safe Haven laws save a single life. But every time we read of an infant killed or left to die, we will know the laws failed.

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:48:40 +0000

I tend to think that if the mother had a supportive family or network of real friends who would notice the absence of a baby, she probably wouldn’t have been in the position of needing to leave it at the hospital in the first place. I also know of a program where people can volunteer to take a baby into their home to take care of it until the social system can either find a long-term official foster placement or adoptive parents…that is where most hospitals place the children after recieving them.

I also find it interesting that – again with the moral standpoint – we’re pointing fingers at the mother “abandoning” her baby…when fathers do this all the time. Do the hospitals call the cops on the dads who never show up after their baby momma gives birth?

By: dragongirly

dragongirly — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 03:26:34 +0000

Wouldn't the mother's friends and family kinda wonder about the fact that she was pregnant and then at the end of 9 months didn't have a baby?

Though I guess in these kinds of circumstances, the mom shouldn't really care what the friends and family think and just do what is best for the baby.

Does anyone know what the hospital does with the baby once they receive it?

By: Foster

Foster — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:01:24 +0000

That has to be a painful decision. But is a way for a woman with few other options to do what’s best for the baby. Hopefully the publicity will get all area hospitals on board with the correct interpretation of the law.

By: kwatt

kwatt — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:22:49 +0000

And really not many people even know the law is there.

By: champs

champs — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:24:46 +0000

In some ways, the law seems counterintuitive, but just try holding anyone’s newborn, let alone your own, for about five seconds — then imagine giving it up. I had that experience just the other day… with a baby born at the same hosptial…

The fact that it happens so rarely says so much about the difficulty of making that decision.

By: kwatt

kwatt — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:51:43 +0000

Um, no. I believe it’s maybe 3 days now. There were efforts this year to make it 7.

By: g rote

g rote — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:42:36 +0000

I love this law….is there a statute of limitations on this? For instance, can I take my 4-year-old son back to North Memorial and leave him next time he has a temper tantrum? How about my 2 year-old daughter when she bites my shoulder?

By: mike s

mike s — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:19:19 +0000

Notwithstanding my snark, upthread, I agree this is probably a good program. It’s a logical solution to a tragically illogical problem; I hope it works.

By: Mpls Simpleton

Mpls Simpleton — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:52:37 +0000

I saw a program on one of the evening news magazine shows about this very topic earlier this year. They were interviewing the fire chief (police chief?) that started this program. They also talked to a woman who was in her early 20’s and in jail for killing her newborn in the college bathroom. No one knew she was pregnant. She is now serving 5-7 years and will have to live with the thought that she killed her newborn baby for the rest of her life. If a program like this can save mothers and babies its worth it.