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Unmet Needs, Unwanted Persons: A Call for Expansion of Safe Haven Laws
Author(s) -
Bruce Lori
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.1002/hast.609
Subject(s) - abandonment (legal) , surrender , legislature , safe haven , haven , law , political science , economics , international economics , mathematics , combinatorics
Legislative strategies for reducing infant abandonment and neonaticide developed in response to a series of sensational cases that occurred in Texas in 1999. The media coverage of these cases implied that the incidence of the crime was increasing, and Texas legislators responded with a law permitting parents to anonymously surrender their newborn at designated locations such as hospitals. This was the first “safe haven” law. Interest peaked nationwide, and by 2008 all states had a similar version of the law. These laws can trigger rapid cessation of parental rights and a fast‐tracked adoption to a preapproved family, reflecting the legislators’ assumption that it is better to permit struggling mothers to leave their children with well‐intentioned strangers than to abandon the children or end their lives. These laws, however, suffer from several inadequacies .